Page 19 - Archive in reverse date order

Timing This will be much more than the “very short time span, morning and evening” stated in the
Planning Statement. On the contrary, the applicant's Planning Permission Statement reveals that
there will be a Breakfast Club and some after-school clubs and activities. This indicates that pupils
will be arriving before 8.30am and leaving later than 3.30pm. For staff the working day will end at
5pm – except for those staying longer and then (like the pupils) departing later when the after-
school clubs and activities have finished.

Damage to Parsonage Lane Any increase in vehicular traffic (particularly heavy vehicles such as
mini-buses and delivery/service vehicles) will have a damaging effect as the water mains are
shallowly-laid and fragile with only the clay beneath the surface holding them together – and not
very well. These mains are repeatedly broken - especially near the application site - resulting in
frequent road closures. An ongoing problem for residents is water running off the site (a hill),
flooding the road and people's frontages. We fear that the proposed Soakaway would aggravate the
problem.

NOISE POLLUTION

The noise of additional traffic, and that coming from the school itself, would seriously impact on
the amenities of local residents. For those living closest to the school the impact during the day
(and probably in the evenings) would be severe as noise carries and would include that from the
planned outdoor sports – football, cricket, tennis and athletics (let alone the BBQs for parents etc.
as described in the Browns School prospectus).

CHANGE OF USE

The impact on the character of the neighbourhood arising from a change of use from residential to a
school would also be severe. For Bexley's Green Belt this application is the most inappropriate and
potentially damaging one we have yet seen.

At present the site is residential, not commercial. It comprises a dwelling with ancillary garden
outbuildings. Two of these, the stables and the barn, are “redundant” only because the owner does
not wish to use them for the purpose for which they were built.

The site is on high ground, visible from two viewpoints, and lies in Green Belt/Heritage Land that is
open and semi-rural. It is not land within an urban area and - unless all dwellings with a garden and
ancillary outbuildings are regarded as previously developed (brownfield) land - we dispute that this
is the case here. Old maps indicate that the land was once used as a nursery, but not for very many
years and certainly not since a dwelling was built over 50 years ago when the land use became
residential instead of agricultural. (See Notes 1 and 4)

We are also concerned to see that the stables are to be partly converted to offices. In the event of
the business failing and ceasing to be a school, but with office status having been achieved, this
would open the door to their conversion to housing under recent Permitted Development legislation.
And what might happen to the site as a whole if the business failed, and it ceased to be a school?

BUILDING WORKS

The amount and extent of likely building works is also greatly understated. Surely there is a need to
provide a kitchen, a refectory, a First Aid station and a shower block with an adequate number of
WCs to fully meet the needs of 55 pupils and 32 staff. To be applied for later as an additional

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