Tyson Road Forest Hill

Not far from the South Circular in Forest Hill, London and tucked away behind unremarkable residential streets is a green oasis. Hidden from public view and without public access the land behind 15 to 17A Tyson Road and 39 to 53 Honor Oak Road is like a secret garden, neglected now and slowly returning to nature.

We have a website with photographs of the site and some of the wildlife that uses the site here:

http://www.flickr.com/people/tysonroad/

However, land in the capital city is a precious commodity and this plot is owned by a property developer who believes that the site is ripe for housing development.

Around 80% of the site is made up of former gardens and woodland the balance being made up of two large Victorian houses in Tyson Road and some old lock up garages behind 53 Honor Oak Road. The houses and garages are now empty and semi-derelict.

An application to build 85 flats in seven blocks on the site was refused permission in January 2007 by Lewisham Council and a subsequent appeal was dropped.

The Developer submitted a second planning application, this time to build 76 flats in nine blocks on the site, in Ocotber last year. Despite Lewisham Council recommending the granting of planning permission when it went to the Planning Committee in March of this year the members of the Planning Committee voted unanimously to refuse planning permission.

Undaunted the Developer has recently submitted yet another planning application this time to build between 67 and 71 flats on the site. The proposed design and layout is pretty much identical the the application that was refused in March. See here:

http://acolnet.lewisham.gov.uk/LEWIS-XSLPagesDC/acolnetcgi.exe?ACTION=UNWRAP&RIPNAME=Root.PgeResultDetail&TheSystemkey=57224

Whilst we would be happy to see the derelict houses and garages redeveloped in a sensitive manner we don't believe that the rest of the site, which is effectively a greenfield site, should be developed.

We have had great local support and for the last planning application over 300 objections were lodged. We also had an online petition that received over 270 signatures.

But all of that counts for nothing when it comes to the latest applcation. Please help us by objecting to this latest application and help to preserve this site for all of the local community to enjoy.

To object all you have to do is send an email to:

planning@lewisham.gov.uk

quoting as the subject:

Planning Application DC/09/71953/X

and in the message stating the reasons why you object. The most effective ground on which to object is to say that you believe the proposed application represents an overdevelopment of the site and that the bulk of it should be preserved as open space.

We also have a new online petition against this latest application which can be found here:

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-the-forest-in-forest-hill/signatures.html