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The depressing site of a long line of boarded-up small businesses continues to dominate the centre of Brixton, as Network Rail’s unpopular redevelopment scheme continues to drag its heels.
Here’s the latest update on the project from a Buzz contributor:
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“It is vaguely embarrassing to witness the ongoing fumblings of Network Rail as they attempt to discharge the planning conditions required to commence the long delayed refurbishment works planned for Brixton arches.
Meanwhile, the centre of Brixton resembles a dead zone with dozens of well loved traders evicted early in 2016 and many usable arches remaining boarded up. Business has dropped through the floor and the livelihoods of many has already been lost and others placed in jeopardy.
It has been well over a year since planning permission was awarded to Network Rail but none of the main refurbishment works have started.
Why? Well Network Rail would have us believe this is entirely the fault of the tenants who remain within the arches, but this doesn’t explain why it has taken over 13 months for Network Rail to even submit planning applications to discharge relatively simple and straightforward planning conditions, like the replacement of bicycle stands and the submission of detailed drawings and material samples, all of which still remain outstanding.
However there is one planning condition that seems to be a problem for Network Rail and this is Condition 4, Construction Environment Management Plan, (CEMP), which is basically a plan required to control the impact of every element of the construction works on the local environment and transport network as well as keeping everybody safe.
This is a very reasonable condition to have to comply with, given the sensitive location of the project, the proximity of the community and the stress this development will place on the local road network. It is also something that any well prepared applicant and contractor should be well equipped to undertake.
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After Network Rail´s first attempt to discharge Condition 4, CEMP, was correctly rejected by Lambeth Planning, it resulted in a lorry load of revised documents being submitted in late September.
This time Network Rail were confident of getting their CEMP approved within about three weeks and they had advised the local community that work was expected to start in October. That was seven weeks ago and nothing has yet been approved, rejected or resolved.
The longer this goes on the more likely it is that the key issue may be nothing to do with the viaduct itself, but the presence of the historic external street market that operates daily on Brixton Station Road, literally within spitting distance of the proposed building site.
Once again, Network Rail have been aware of this potential trip hazard since the Planning Officer gave the following specific instructions within the original planning approval back in 2016, “with regards to Condition 4, you are required to include provisions to ensure market stall traders on Brixton Station Road are not impacted upon during construction and are able to operate normally.”
Anyone who knows the external street market on Brixton Station Road will realise that the majority of the stallholders are sole traders operating in the open air or from mobile units, who prepare, cook and sell a variety of delicious fresh food from around the world to hundreds of customers every day.
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How will these businesses, (who work beyond the reach of Network Rail), possibly survive when the proposed building operations will daily be generating huge quantities of filthy and contaminated dust during the breaking out, cutting, storage and collection operations required to remove the thousands of tonnes of reinforced concrete from across the whole site, let alone the daily access of construction vehicles, contractors and their equipment.
Well, Network Rail would have us all believe, as outlined in their CEMP submissions, that a 70+ hour, 7 day working week and 25mm of plywood along with some nylon netting will be the perfect combination to contain this and allow the street market to carry on unaffected.
This effectively places the fate of these food vendors squarely in the rather clumsy hands of Lambeth Planning. Do they enforce their own planning conditions and directions given to Network Rail or do they give a green light to these applicants to do exactly what they want with their arches, but also with our heritage, our people.
What is bizarre in all of this is the fact that the failure of Network Rail get this project started has already resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of pounds in rents which could eventually run into millions as the ongoing delays and issues will not simply go away.
Not only because the outstanding legal case with the remaining tenants will not be resolved until mid-2018, but also due to the continuing presence and the refusal of H&T Pawnbrokers and William Hill to vacate their viaduct premises until their leases expire in 2020.
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Furthermore, as recently as October, Network Rail were given a realistic proposal that would have resolved all of the outstanding issues, including the outstanding legal case with the remaining tenants. It would also have allowed the main refurbishment works to commence almost immediately and provided Network Rail with more new tenants paying full market rents far sooner than currently planned.
Most importantly the proposal would have protected the external market on Brixton Station Road from the impact of these works and allow it to continue as normal and in line with the Planning Officer’s instructions.
However the only realistic reason provided by Network Rail for the rejection of this proposal was the outstanding legal case with the remaining tenants and even that is a red herring given that any legal argument can be solved at any time if the opposing parties really want to do so.
Perhaps the reality is, (and this is merely speculation), that Network Rail would also very much like a sanitised and gentrified external street market to complement their newly refurbished arches and they are prepared to take a short term financial hit in order to achieve this.
If they are permitted to start their works as currently planned and the market is effectively closed during the building works, this would provide a clean break with the past and perhaps a new set of local street regulations would follow, designed to keep the (new) Brixton Station Road market street scene orderly, music free and quiet and all of Network Rail’s new arch tenants happy and prosperous.
Just a thought.”
[This article by a local resident who has elected to remain anonymous]
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Brixton Arches background & resources:
Read the latest news and join the big discussion on the urban75 forums (over 1,500 posts)
More info:
The vote to redevelop Brixton Arches: smear campaigns, doublethink and foregone decisions
Brixton’s A&C Deli: the inside story of a small business destroyed by gentrification, Network Rail & Lambeth Council.
About the Save Brixton Arches campaign:
Save Brixton Arches official website
Twitter: #savebrixtonarches