Page 17 - Archive in reverse date order

www.northcrayresidents.org.uk

August 2016
TO: Germaine Asabere, Development Control, Bexley (DRAFT)

Dear Ms. Asabere

Ref 16/01466/FUL 48 Parsonage Lane: conversion of existing dwelling and outbuilding,
reconstruction of existing barn to provide special day school

This application is the most inappropriate and damaging proposal we have seen in relation to
Bexley's Green Belt. It breaches the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and is simply an
attempt to convert a residential dwelling set in several acres of Green Belt land into a commercial
business - a private school. We cannot think of a worse location for a school, a site accessible only
by narrow country lanes virtually without passing places, no pavements and no off-site parking.
The applicant's starting position that this is to be a small, low-impact development should be taken
with a 'pinch of salt'. In addition, the documents submitted are simplistic and inaccurate and appear
to deliberately hide the true impact, size and scale of this potential development.

The reasons for our objection to this application, and there are many, are fully detailed in the main
body of this letter and the accompanying supporting notes. However, for immediate clarity, we
have prefaced this with a summary of the key issues which just in themselves should cause this
application to be summarily refused.

• The property, 48 Parsonage Lane, is a residential dwelling in a high position centrally within the
Green Belt/Heritage Land and has been so for over 50 years. It is not a ‘brownfield’ site.

• Change of use of this site to a high-impact commercial venture breaches NPPF Green Belt
Guidance and would create a dangerous precedent for other sites along Parsonage Lane and the
surrounding area – including other residential plots.

• The school will have a devastating effect on local residents, particularly those in Parsonage
Lane but also those in Cocksure Lane, Bunkers Hill and Gattons Way who will suffer
significant increases in traffic flows, noise pollution and, potentially, their property values
decreasing as this quiet semi-rural idyll is destroyed.

• There are no existing out-buildings that can realistically be used for school premises so
everything will be ‘new builds’ – again breaching NPPF Green Belt Guidelines. Moreover the
amount of premises required is ridiculously understated.

• There is no local need for such a business – indeed the supporting documentation suggests that
most of the children will be from outside Bexley Borough. It is purely an opportunistic ‘for-
profit’ business venture by people outside the local area with no interest in the local community
or any concern for the devastation it would cause to local people and other users of these lanes.
There are, therefore, no Special Circumstances that support this application

• The locality of the site is totally inappropriate for a school as it does not have the necessary road
and transport infrastructure and child security is virtually impossible.

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