Letter to LBH&F and RBK&C Planning Departments
Dear Mr Pallace,
Proposed Seagrave Road Development
I visited Brompton Cemetery on Friday with the Chairman of the Friends of Brompton Cemetery to see for myself what impact the proposed Seagrave Road development might have on the listed Cemetery.
I am supportive of this development as a whole. A car park seems a reasonable place to build much-needed homes on.
However, the impact on the Cemetery could be considerable, in terms of the loss of light and amenity. This is a very significant historical site, as well as being a much-loved local park and working burial ground.
My main concern is the height of the buildings on eastern side of the Seagrave Road site which would come quite close to the burial ground. Currently surrounding the Cemetery are buildings of e.g. 4 storeys (such as Brompton Park Crescent, LBHF, and The Billings, and Ifield Road, RBKC). An exception is Chelsea FC, but this is in one corner of the site, and its impact is therefore more tangential.
The railway line in between the development and the Cemetery reduces the impact somewhat, but I believe that the proposed 6 - 9 storey buildings on the eastern edge of the proposed development are too high. I understand that the western edge frontage (on Seagrave Road) is only to be a proposed 4 storeys, which would seem to me to be a more acceptable height for the eastern edge also.
This is even before considering the impact of the 15 storey tower on the Lillie Road frontage.
The wall on the western edge of the Cemetery appears to be around 9 feet high, and the six to nine storey buildings behind it would tower over it. The effect could be, for example, to cast shade in the afternoon over the recently-restored Brigade of Guards Memorial.
I am also copying this to the Royal Borough planning officers.
I should declare an interest that I am a member of the Friends of Brompton Cemetery and I am the leaseholder of a plot where my late brother is buried.
I would be grateful for your consideration of the points raised above.
Yours sincerely,
Greg Hands M.P.
Member of Parliament for Chelsea and Fulham