Forum Topic

Object today to bigger development at Hogarth roundabout ruining riverside views

Urgent: object today Friday if you don’t want Hounslow Council to allow our beloved views of St Nicholas Church and Chiswick’s riverside to be ruined by giving planning permission to a 10 floor building on Hogarth Roundabout. As Hounslow Council points out themselves: “Historic England strongly objected to these proposals and recommended that a more modest form of development be pursued for this site, which would avoid harmful effects to heritage assets. Historic England contend that it would have a harmful impact on multiple designated buildings, noting that the greatest level of harm would be to the Old Chiswick Conservation Area and its component listed buildings.”Hammersmith and Fulham Council has also objected because: “The proposed development is considered to be unacceptable in the interests of visual amenity. More particularly, the TVIA is insufficient to properly assess the visual impact of the proposed development on views from within Hammersmith and Fulham; to designated heritage assets (listed buildings and Conservation Areas) within Hammersmith and Fulham; and to the townscape character area of Hammersmith and Fulham. On this basis the proposed development would be harmful to visual amenity and to the setting of designated heritage assets in Hammersmith and Fulham.Further, given the insufficient information submitted in relation to highways impact, more specifically in relation to the absence of information relating to Hammersmith and Fulham within the submitted Construction Logistics Plan and Active Travel Zones assessment, officers consider that the proposal may result in an unacceptable impact to the highway network of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.
Given the above concerns, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham raises an objection to the proposed development.” If you love Chiswick and are concerned about the impact of this proposal to increase the size of the proposed new building at 1 Burlington Lane on Hogarth Roundabout to 10 storeys:👉Comment on Hounslow’s planning portal here https://planningandbuilding.hounslow.gov.uk/NECSWS/ES/Presentation/Planning/OnlinePlanning/AddApplicationComment?applicationNumber=P%2F2024%2F2610 (BTW don’t use paragraph returns in your comments - their system won’t allow it) 👉 Or easier still, email your views to Planning.objections@hounslow.gov.uk. The deadline is today Friday 25 April 2025. I’ve included some comments by other organisations such as the Old Chiswick Protection Society, Historic England, Hammersmith and Fulham Council below and in photos for background. Many thanks!!The background: The old IMG building at 1 Burlington Lane on Hogarth Roundabout has been empty, sad and dilapidated for a long time and we need new housing but the proposed 6 and 10 storey building which Hounslow Council’s planning officer is recommending for approval is totally out of scale to this residential area. The developer Jaysam Contractor Ltd already has planning permission to build 106 flats on 6 floors but is now asking to add 4 new floors. Only 6 of the units of the 132 will be affordable!As you can see in the picture above, the block will loom over the historic views and quaint streetscapes of St Nicholas Church, the many Listed buildings on Chiswick Mall, Church Street, Hogarth’s House museum, Chiswick House, the Lamb and Breweries, the streets of the Glebe Estate, the gentle recent development at Chiswick Gate behind the IMG (an example of a new development which respects the scale of our area). Many of you who love walking along the Thames Path will know the famous views of Old Chiswick from across the river from Barnes towpath shown in below in print and more recently. PS more detailed info in comments below

Sophie Sainty ● 2d4 Comments

http://https://democraticservices.hounslow.gov.uk/documents/s200293/1%20Burlington%20formatted%2023%20April%20HH%20Final.pdf. Hounslow planning officers recommendation to approve despite the many objections. 
The Old Chiswick Protection Society has strongly objected to that planning report with the following concerns: “The report refers in an overall summary to the council’s own conservation officers’ objection to the proposal but does not set out the nature, scale and detail of that objection. The applicant has had sight of that/those documents. It is clearly important for elected members and for the public to understand what areas of significance council officers believe will be harmed by the proposal and why in forming a view as to what weight should be given to the important opinions of the expert council officers who know this area best.The absence of the council Officer’s own analysis leading to the objection is an important and unexplained omission in the report. It must be remedied.Please in any event send the council’s own conservation officers’ consultation response(s) to this application to the OCPS so that we may properly address elected members as to their views and the weight to be afforded to that analysis in the overall balance. As a public document referred to in the report on a decision which is public and is meant to be transparent there should be no difficulty with such disclosure.We have registered to speak on 1st May and would like to see the relevant documentation in good time.Further, the report contains a significant number of photographs to aid members’ decision. The commentary refers on occasion to the limited nature of the intervention in the relevant view.The report accepts the importance and significance of St Nicholas Church and its setting as a listed building in a riverside Conservation Area. Historic England (HE) the government’s main advisors on heritage identify the highest harm from the proposal as being to the Old Chiswick Conservation Area as a result of the scale bulk mass and materiality of the proposal especially associated with setting harm to the listed St Nicholas church which is embedded in the CA.And yet the single image ( set out below) which displays this most important and most harmful impact of the proposals on this significance has inexplicably NOT been included in the report. HE’s strong objection letter refers directly to the photograph as part of its careful analysis and the viewpoint was also carefully chosen at pre-app stage to be representative of one of the most relevant views to the determination. Clearly in this view (see below) the intervention of the proposal is not limited but is on any view profound. And it is on the most important part of the setting of the listed church whose significance resides heavily in its setting. This is the parish church which dominates spiritually and physically the special riverside area. The Report asserts that the “ Church ..sits prominently on the river …. to make a superb historic riverside prospect. That is a correct analysis reflected in the Conservation Area Appraisal. But the report does not include the key image which allows a judgment to be made on the impact of the proposal on that specific and most important element of significance and which we and HE say ( among other impacts ) establishes the unacceptable harm to that dominance. As a result the report is seriously misleading on this critical point: an error of law.Please could you also remedy this omission.“

Sophie Sainty ● 2d