Cherishing the borough

In this story: Holland Park School Chelsea Academy Vicarage Gate

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is the second smallest London borough in terms of area and has some of the UK's highest residential densities. It is a desirable area to live in so the demand to develop or redevelop land is high. So too is the Council's determination to protect the environmental quality of the borough while at the same time ensuring new developments provide essential community benefits. Read on to find out how some of the borough's largest developments are progressing.

Holland Park School

The Council is finalising detailed plans for redeveloping the whole school site in readiness for the submission of a planning application. This follows a programme of consultation with the community in November 2005. The application includes plans for a redeveloped school and key worker housing on the north site and private residential housing on the south site. It is hoped that the sale of the southern site for development will fund the costs of rebuilding the school.

A decision on whether to proceed with the redevelopment will be made only when the Council has achieved planning approval and has detailed costs for both the redevelopment option and an alternative refurbishment option.

Chelsea Academy

It will have escaped few people's attention that the Council has ambitions to build a new secondary school in west Chelsea.

The latest news is that the Royal Borough's Major Planning Development Committee agreed on 19 December 2005 that a secondary could be built in Lots Road. Work now begins on developing detailed designs in preparation for an application for full planning permission.

A project management team has been appointed and design team Feilden Clegg Bradley has been selected to develop these detailed designs. It is anticipated that this will take 12 months to complete.

Below are some brief updates on what is happening with the three organisations currently based on the proposed site in Lots Road.

West Chelsea Playspace

West Chelsea Playspace will leave the site at the end of March 2006. Funds have been allocated to ensure that new and improved play facilities will be made available in the area.

Ashburnham Community Centre

The Ashburnham Community Association ceased operating from these premises on 19 December. The Council's Property Services Team is now managing the site. Some services are still being delivered from the building, which will remain in use until Heatherley's School of Fine Art relocates to its new building. A number of service providers have been relocated to Chelsea Theatre.

Heatherley's School of Fine Art

Heatherley's School of Fine Art has agreed to relocate to a new building which would be built by the Council, on nearby Council-owned Christiania Wharf site. Planning permission has been granted for this new building.

Vicarage Gate

The Council has taken a large step towards securing valuable space for elderly care in the borough after the Planning Inspectorate threw out plans to turn a former nursing home into luxury flats. The Vicarage Gate nursing home in Kensington was previously owned by the Elizabeth Finn Trust and provided nursing care bedspaces for 55 people. It was sold to developers in the summer of 2003, with the intention that it would be turned into 12 large luxury flats.

Outraged residents from the Royal Borough protested strongly about the way the Elizabeth Finn Trust had handled the closure and the subsequent sale of the home. The Council refused to grant permission for the flats but the developers appealed to the Planning Inspectorate to try and change the decision. But the Planning Inspectorate threw out the appeal and said the land should be secured for social and community use.

Vicarage Gate currently stands vacant but the Council is hoping that the developers will now market the site for a new nursing home.

Lots Road

Plans for this development on either side of Chelsea Creek were submitted to the Royal Borough and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in June 2002. The scheme sought to make use of the decommissioned Lots Road power station to provide a mix of residential, retail, office, business and restaurant uses, including the erection of a 25-storey tower.

In Oct 2003 after extensive consultation the Council's Major Planning Development Committee refused it permission largely because the tower would significantly exceed the height of existing buildings and would therefore be harmful to the skyline, important views and surrounding conservation areas. The scheme's impact on local amenities was also a factor.

The Royal Borough, alone in rejecting the plans, hosted a Public Inquiry before the Planning Inspectorate in February 2005, where the developers sought to appeal against the Council's decision. The Inspectorate agreed with the Council and upheld the decision to reject the proposal.

However, at the end of January the Deputy Prime Minister overturned his own Inspector's decision. The Council is extremely concerned about this decision and is exploring the possibility of challenging it in court.