Have Your Say

Breaking up concrete during site clearance - 5th May 2007

SLSAG Submission - November 07

Here are the comments of the Sandy Lane Site Action Group (SLSAG) on Linden Home's November Amendments to 07/2142/FUL for the Sandy Lane site.

SLSAG letter (220Kb updated) to Richmond upon Thames Planning Department

SLSAG Submission - July 07

SLSAG letter (314Kb) to Bryan Staff of Richmond upon Thames Planning Department - 10th July 2007

SLSAG letter - Appendix A (197Kb)

SLSAG letter - Appendix B (145Kb)

SLSAG letter - Appendix C (736Kb)

Please note, you may find the download/display time Appendix C excessive if you do not have a broadband internet connection.

Letters of Concern

Friends of School House Lane Orchard (FSHLO) letter to Bryan Staff of Richmond upon Thames Planning Department - 9th July

Hampton Wick Association 2nd letter to Development Control, Environmental Protection and Customer Services, for Richmond - 6th July

Friends of Bush and Home Parks 2nd letter to Derek Tanner (Principal Planning Officer for Richmond upon Thames - 29th June

Hampton Wick Association letter to Vincent Cable MP - 25th May

Friends of Bush and Home Parks letter to Derek Tanner (Principal Planning Officer for Richmond upon Thames - 22nd May

The Teddington Society letter to Christopher Maunders,
Linden Homes Land Mgr - Part 1 (575kb) & Part 2 (479kb) - 12th May

 

What can you do?

Get involved by joining our action group: attending our meetings when they are called and receive regular Emails - see the Feedback panel on this page. The group meet in The Lion pub, 27 Wick Road, Teddington. TW11 9DN. The date of the next meeting will be posted on this web site.

Send your views to

LINDEN HOMES
Regional Managing Director, Linden Homes South-East Ltd, Linden House, Guards Avenue, Caterham, Surrey. CR3 5XL.
Email: sales.southeast@lindenhomes.co.uk

YOUR LOCALMEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
Vincent Cable MP - Email: cablev@parliament.uk

WARD COUNCILLORS FOR HAMPTON WICK
Tony Arbour - cllr.tarbour@richmond.gov.uk
Gareth Evans - cllr.gevans@richmond.gov.uk
Pat Parsons - cllr.pparsons@richmond.gov.uk

WARD COUNCILLERS FOR TEDDINGTON
James Mumford - cllr.jmumford@richmond.gov.uk
Martin Elengorn - cllr.melengorn@richmond.gov.uk
Stephen Knight - cllr.sknight@richmond.gov.uk

Act now! Stop the Sandy Lane Expansion.

Poster Downloads

If you wish to display your concern about the Linden Homes expansion intentions we have created four versions of a poster for you to download onto your computer and print out.

A4 Black on White

slsag-linden-bw.pdf - 458kb

slsag-sandy-lane-bw.pdf - 458kb

A4 Black on Yellow

slsag-linden-yellow.pdf - 594kb

slsag-sandy-lane-yellow.pdf - 583kb

A5 Black on White

slsag-linden-bw.pdf - 200kb

slsag-sandy-lane-bw.pdf - 200kb

A5 Black on Yellow

slsag-linden-yellow-a5.pdf - 305kb

slsag-sandy-lane-yellow-a5.pdf - 296kb

NB. you can always print B/W on yellow paper.

Green or Greedy? - by David Harnden

Galliford Try/Linden Homes claim that they intend to submit a new application because they want to make the Sandy Lane Site an eco-friendly flagship for the company. And due to this extra cost, they need another 40 apartments.

We’re sure everyone in the neighbourhood would support a green development. But we don’t believe that this is Galliford Try/Linden Homes’ real motivation; we are totally unimpressed by what they say they plan to do; and we think that creating a more prestigious development should be at their expense (especially since it will add value to the apartments) rather than at the expense of Teddington and Hampton Wick.

In our meetings with the company in April, the only eco-friendly improvements they told us about were the installation of a wood-chip burning boiler (to be sited in the basement, alongside the car park) to provide communal heating for three of the buildings, plus a pro rata increase in the number of solar panels to compensate for the extra apartments. Is this boiler so costly that it needs the profits from 40 extra apartments to pay for it? And what about ecological impact of obtaining the wood, delivering it to the site and then discharging fumes to the environment? We are still waiting for the answers to these questions.

In a recent article in the Richmond & Twickenham Times, a Linden Homes spokesman said they would have wind turbines on the site. This was news to us, as they hadn't mentioned it in April. Are they making it up as they go along? Have they considered the visual impact on Bushy Park and surrounding streets? And just how much electricity do they think they will generate from the site?

We think that the prospectus issued earlier this year for the proposed takeover of Linden Homes offers a more honest explanation of Galliford Try's motivation. On page 4 of the prospectus (from KBC Peel Hunt Ltd) it says that Galliford Try "believes that the operating margins that can be generated from the Linden business will exceed those historically earned by Linden, which have averaged 10.9% in the three years ended 31 December 2005". This seems to us a far more likely reason for a new application—more profit.

We are not against profit. And we are not against improved sustainability. But we are firmly against an application that would mean more profit for Galliford, with a few eco-features that it could boast about in its sales literature, which would be at the expense of Bushy Park, Teddington and Hampton Wick and would go against the understanding that we and other local groups reached with Linden Homes after long months of negotiation.

If Galliford Try wants to boost its image with a more sustainable development, then fine—but Galliford should pay for it, not us. If Galliford prefers profits, then stick with the approved application—which Linden and its PR company, Green Issues, were at pains to tell everyone was very eco-friendly. But don’t pretend that another 40 apartments, plus an extra one or two storeys, are needed for the sake of the environment. — 20th May 2007

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