CTRAA RSS Feed

High Court date set for the nursing home hearing

cherrytreelondon@mac.com — 2006-12-13T13:51:06+00:00

On 12 December, it was annouced that the High Court hearing regarding Vicarage Gate House nursing home has been scheduled for 14 March 2007. After developer Northacre’s appeal in February against the Planning Inspector’s rejection of their plans to replace the nursing home with luxury flats, it was expected that the High Court would hear the case before the end of the year. The date set means that no decision is to be expected until later in the spring.

The second 2006 issue of the Cherry Tree ready

cherrytreelondon@mac.com — 2006-12-13T13:42:19+00:00

Much delayed, the second issue for 2006 of the Cherry Tree went to the printer today. Distribution is planned for next week, so it should reach everybody before Christmas.
As before, a full colour version of it can already now be found in our newsletter archive, for those eager to read it before it's been distributed. The printed version will continue to be in black and white, due to cost.

New issue of the Cherry Tree

cherrytreelondon@mac.com — 2006-04-05T01:03:30+01:00

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the second issue for 2005 of The Cherry Tree unfortunately had to be cancelled at the last minute. Now, however, the first issue for 2006 (2006-1) is ready, and will be distributed in a few days' time. A pdf copy can be found in the newsletter archive, for those who don't want to wait for the printed copy, or who live far away. Happy reading!

Northacre appeals a double no from the Planning Inspectorate

cherrytreelondon@mac.com — 2006-02-27T00:54:31+00:00

Following almost two weeks of appeal hearings in the Town Hall last July and September, regarding Northacre’s plans to build luxury flats on the site of the Vicarage Gate House nursing home, the Planning Inspectorate finally delivered its verdict in early November. It was a double rejection of the appeal, but despite this Northacre has decided to appeal the decision to the High Court.
In his verdict, Planning Inspector David Wildsmith concluded that there is a well documented need for more nursing and care homes for the elderly in the borough, and that Vicarage Gate Ltd (the company set up by Northacre for the development) has failed to show convincingly that such a home would not be financially viable on the site. Consequently, he refused to grant a change of use and permission to demolish the existing building and erect a six storey residential block.
David Wildsmith also stated that even if Northacre had been able to prove clearly that a new nursing or care home wouldn’t be financially viable, he would still have refused their application as the proposed building doesn’t contain any affordable housing and lacks a mix of small and large apartments (the 12 proposed apartments are each the size of a whole house).
Despite this double rejection, Northacre announced at the beginning of February that they and their financial backer, Arcapita Bank (previously known as First Islamic Investment Bank), had decided to submit an application to the High Court “in the hope of quashing the Inspector’s decision”, and that they expected a High Court hearing and decision towards the end of the year.
Although Northacre’s appeal is against the Planning Inspectorate, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has taken the unusual decision to assist the Planning Inspectorate by commissioning their legal representative from the Inspectorate hearings, Russell Harris QC, to present the council’s case against Northacre’s plans at the High Court hearing. Considering that the Planning Inspectorate has a success rate of 80% in High Court appeals, even without additional help, it is obvious that Northacre faces a tough battle.

Well visited AGM

cherrytreelondon@mac.com — 2005-11-23T11:03:27+00:00

Some 70 members attended the Cherry Trees Residents’ Amenities Association's Annual General Meeting on Monday 21 November, this time held in St Mary Abbots Hall instead of Essex Church.

After having approved the accounts and accepted the proposed configuration of the CTRAA committee for 2006, the meeting agreed that we shall apply for making our area an estate agent board free zone, something that is increasingly common throughout the Borough.
It was also agreed that we once again in 2006 will have three garden parties instead of only two, following the success of this year's three parties.
The main changes to the committee is that Mariju Lee has resigned, as she has moved out of our area, so Edward Buxton will take over the Neighbourhood Watch position, and Ashley McNealy assumes the role of Treasurer.

Councillor Christopher Buckmaster, who chairs the Vicarage Gate Action Group, gave a brief background to the Planning Inspectorate's recent rejection of Northacre's application for a luxury flat development on the site of the old nursing home, and outlined the now much improved possibilities of making it a site for the care of the elderly again.

The meeting was, as usual, followed by a few glasses of wine, subsidised by Huntsworth Wine.

Planning Inspectorate says no to Northacre

cherrytreelondon@mac.com — 2005-11-08T00:37:20+00:00

Following the almost two weeks of appeal hearings in the Town Hall in July and September, regarding Northacre’s plans to build luxury flats on the site of the Vicarage Gate House nursing home, the Planning Inspectorate finally delivered its verdict on Friday 4 November.

The Planning Inspector, David Wildsmith, concludes that there is a well documented need for more nursing and care homes for the elderly in the Borough, and that Vicarage Gate Ltd (the company set up by Northacre for the development) has not been able to convincingly show that such a home would not be financially viable on the site. Consequently, he refuses to grant a change of use and permission to demolish the existing building and erect a six storey residential block.

In his 20 pages long decision David Wildsmith states that even if Northacre had been able to clearly prove that a new nursing or care home wouldn’t be financially viable, he would still have refused their application on the grounds that the proposed building doesn’t contain any affordable housing and lacks a mix of small and large apartments (the 12 proposed apartments are each the size of a whole house).
He concludes that the regulations call for more mixed size housing and maximum usage of a building site. He finds that the Vicarage Gate site could fit at least 30 apartments of mixed size. The regulations also clearly state that at least one third of the flats should be affordable, and that the affordable housing should be built on site unless that’s practically impossible, so consequently a residential block on the Vicarage Gate House site must contain at least ten affordable flats.

However, the main issue for Inspector Wildsmith has been the viability. He concludes that the Bourough’s positive viability calculations may be somewhat uncertain, but supports the Borough’s criticism of Northacre’s negative calculations, agreeing that these have been made to support Northacre’s view and thus must be regarded with scepticism. Most of all, he criticises Northacre and the seller, Elizabeth Finn Trust, for not having offered the site to care home developers first, which would have been the best way to test the viability.

So, what happens now? Well, Northacre may, within 28 days, appeal the decision to the High Court. But, in order to do so they must show that the Inspector has misinterpreted the law or that they were unfairly treated during the hearing. Should they decide to appeal, and the Court agrees with them, the case goes back to the Planning Inspectorate for re-consideration. Having already spent enormous sums on legal and expert advisors during the hearing, it seems unlikely that the extremely cash strapped Northacre will be willing to spend even more on a case they probably have very little chance of winning. Consequently, it’s more likely that Northacre and/or the site’s main owner, Arcapita Bank (previously known as First Islamic Investment Bank), will try to sell the site to someone willing to develop it as a care or nursing home, or try to develop it for such use together with a care home partner. Of course, if they after a year of honest attempts haven’t been able to find anyone willing to run a nursing or care home on the site, they may be able to apply again, with better grounds for claiming that a nursing home isn’t viable. However, they will then have to present a plan containing lots of smaller flats, whereof one third affordable - and it's questionable if luxury developer Northacre would be interested in such a project.

Whatever happens, the old nursing home will probably remain empty and boarded up for a long time...

Nursing home decision at the end of October

cherrytreelondon@mac.com — 2005-10-02T18:57:00+01:00

The second and final round of the Vicarage Gate House hearings, which started 12 September, gave the Borough’s planning department, as well as the Vicarage Gate House Action Group, represented by Councillor Christopher Buckmaster, the opportunity to present the reasons why Northacre’s plans to build luxury flats on the site of the old nursing home should be rejected.
Unfortunately your editor couldn’t attend this second phase of the hearings, so we can’t give you a day-to-day account of the proceedings. Instead follows a condensed summary of the closing statements from the two representatives: Russell Harris QC for the Borough, and David Holgate QC for Northacre.

The Borough’s statement

The Borough’s view, as expressed in Russell Harris’ closing statement, is that the evidence presented during the hearings showed that there is a clear need for more nursing homes in Kensington, even in the higher, self-funding segment of the market; that such a nursing home would be financially viable on the site of the former nursing home; and that several parties have expressed an interest in building and running a nursing home on the site, although the site hasn’t even been offered to the nursing home industry.
However, should the Planning Inspectorate rule in Northacre’s favour, and thus allow a change of use for the site and the development of an apartment block, such a building must conform with the current rules and policies for Kensington and London, which state that a housing development should make maximum use of the space (due to the shortage of available land in central London), and that one should aim to make 50% of the dwellings on the site affordable. The Borough’s view is that the site has a capacity well above 30 flats, instead of the 12 enormous “grand” apartments proposed by Northacre (which conveniently put the project just below the 15 unit threshold for required affordable housing).
In his statement, Russell Harris pointed out that there were never any attempts made to sell the site for use as a residential care or nursing home. On the contrary, the vendor ignored parties interested in retaining the site for such use. Consequently, the viability has never been allowed to be tested by the market. Instead, Northacre has presented a calculation with seriously inflated building costs, overstated running costs and outdated and too low care charges, as proof that it wouldn’t be financially viable.
Harris also stated that Northacre’s “Johnny-come-lately” offer during the hearings to build - first 16 and then increased to 20 - affordable units off-site (at an unspecified location in northern Kensington), is contrary to the established policies, which call for mixed and balanced communities, and a typical example of the very poor planning of Northacre’s application.

Northacre’s statement

Northacre’s views, as presented in David Holgate’s closing statement, is that there is no real need for the kind of nursing home the site could facilitate; that it wouldn’t be financially viable; and that the few parties who have expressed an interest don’t have the know-how or financial strength to run such a nursing home.
Northacre claims that the evidence presented by them during the hearings shows that the only possible nursing home option would be a luxury facility affordable by only a small proportion of the Borough’s population, so many of the bed spaces would probably be sold to people who are not residents of the Borough. Thus there is no real need for such an establishment and it wouldn’t meet the general needs of the Borough.
As for the parties who have expressed interest in running a nursing home on the site, they have either not the financial strength or not the experience required, according to Northacre.
Regarding the need to maximise the use of the Vicarage Gate site, if it’s approved for residential use, Northacre argues that the dwelling density should be in line with the large houses in Palace Gardens Terrace and Berkeley Gardens, instead of the overall density figure for the Borough.
As for the affordable housing requirement, Northacre argues that, with reference to the density of those streets, 12 large flats is not below the capacity of the site, so consequently there is no need to provide affordable housing. However, should the Planning Inspectorate find that the site’s capacity is higher, the established one third affordable housing requirement should be applied, rather than the 50% target mentioned in the London Plan, as that plan hasn’t yet been adopted by the Council, so if the site’s capacity is found to be 30 flats the number of affordable flats should only be 10. With reference to earlier cases, Northacre argues that there are established precedents in the Borough that a doubling of the affordable housing on another site can be exchanged for providing the affordable housing on site, so Northacre feels that their offer of 20 off-site dwellings should be accepted (editor’s note: the Borough states that off-site solutions have only been allowed when it’s been physically impossible to accommodate the affordable housing on site; consequently there exists no established right to “buy” off-site accommodation by doubling the figure).

Decision later this month

At the closing of the hearings, the Planning Inspector, David Wildsmith, stated that he hoped to reach a decision before the end of October.

Watch this space…

Next hearing round starts on Monday 12 September

cherrytreelondon@mac.com — 2005-09-07T22:06:00+01:00

On Monday 12 September at 1 pm the Planning Inspectorate’s appeal hearing about the refused Vicarage Gate House planning application resumes again in the Town Hall's Council Chamber. Both parties have promised to set aside the rest of the week plus the following Tuesday and Wednesday in their calendars, in a hope to conclude the hearing this time.
As before, we urge as many as possible of the residents to attend.

You can read about the first hearing round in the archived blogs for July (in the left column).

The hearing, day 4: Nursing home need discussed

cherrytreelondon@mac.com — 2005-07-15T18:53:00+01:00

The fourth and last day of this round of hearing days dealt mainly with the current and future need of nursing homes in the Borough.
The day started with further questioning by Northacre’s representative, David Holgate QC, of the Council's Planning Director, Michael French, regarding the Council’s claim that affordable housing has to be provided on site unless the site makes it impossible.
Quoting various previous cases, Mr Holgate attempted to show that the Borough was willing to accept other sites for the affordable housing “if the price was right”, i.e. if the developer offered affordable housing above the required minimum. However, none of his examples were developments “from scratch” (which the proposed Vicarage Gate House project would be), but projects where the façade of the building had to be kept intact, including the windows, which obviously made it very difficult to maximise the use and fit in smaller, affordable flats.
The Councils representative, Russell Harris QC, concluded the 1.5 day hearing of Mr French by having him coonfirm that, contrary to what Mr Holgate had claimed yesterday, the Council is obliged to follow the instructions in the Mayor’s new London Plan (published in 2004), which are much more stringent than the rules in the Borough’s existing Unitary development Plan regarding building density, affordable housing requirements, social inclusion and mix of flat sizes.
The rest of the day was spent with Mr Holgate grilling Alan Tyrer from the Borough’s Housing and Social Services, who is responsible for providing nursing home care to the Borough’s elderly.
Coached by Mr Harris, Mr Tyrer started by explaining that the Council has a responsibility to ensure that local nursing care is available for all residents of the Borough, not just those who can’t afford it themselves. Thus it is in the Council’s interest that there are private nursing homes available in the Borough for those who can afford them.
As demonstrated in the Council’s study of the care of elderly, there is a dire and increasing need for more nursing homes in the Borough, he said, with an unacceptable proportion of both those cared for by the Council and the “self funders” currently having to stay in nursing homes outside the Borough against their own wishes.
He also explained that the Council frequently supports residents in private nursing homes, by contributing to the cost of their care if they can’t afford the full fee themselves. He said that the average cost in the Borough’s nursing homes, private as well as those run by the Borough, is £1,030/week (which may be of interest to Cherry Tree residents, as a totally unsubstantiated rumour is currently circulating in the area that a new nursing home on the Vicarage Gate House site would cost £1,100/week, which those behind the rumour claim is an outrageously high cost). He also explained that those eligible for support would get half of that cost covered by the Council.
Mr Tyrer revealed that beside the Conway/BUPA consortium and Draycott Nursing, several other national nursing home providers have expressed an interest in running a nursing home on the old Vicarage Gate Home site.
In his questioning of Mr Tyrer, Northacre’s Mr Holgate tried to show that the Council’s estimates for future nursing home care were inflated and that a study commissioned by Northacre indicated that nursing homes were increasingly being replaced by care in people’s homes. Mr Tyrer didn’t agree, however, and stated that although care in the home is increasing, so is also the need for nursing homes, as an increasing proportion of the population are elderly.
When Mr Holgate, with reference to Northacre’s study, tried to claim that live-in nurses were both cheaper and a more appealing proposition for those who can afford a £1,000/week nursing home, Mr Tyrer strongly disputed this. He said that Northacre’s figures were out of date, and that 24-hour nursing in one's home will cost almost twice as much, plus require a bedroom for the nurse. And as the nurse will need time off and may become sick, the patient can’t be assured of constant help being available. Also, patients who need to be lifted require the help of two staff.
When asked by Mr Holgate who the other providers were, who had expressed an interest in Vicarage Gate House site, Mr Tyrer said that they had asked not to have their names revealed for competition reasons.
By cutting the lunch break short and skipping the afternoon break, the Planning Inspector, David Wildsmith, was able to adjourn the proceedings shortly after 4 pm.
It was agreed that the proceedings will start again on Monday 12 September at 1 pm in the Council Chamber. Both parties have promised to set aside all of that week plus the following Tuesday and Wednesday in their calendars, in a hope to conclude the hearings within those days.

Severel hundred observed the silence outside the church

cherrytreelondon@mac.com — 2005-07-14T20:23:00+01:00

Several hundred people gathered outside St Mary Abbots Church at noon today, to observe the two minutes silence in honor of the dead and wounded in the bomb blasts a week ago.
The silence was preceded by a short speech by the current Mayor, Cllr Warwick Lightfoot, and followed by a short prayer, led by the vicar, Father Gillean Graig.

The nursing home hearing, day 3: At last a full day's work

cherrytreelondon@mac.com — 2005-07-14T23:26:00+01:00

After two days of adjournments, the Planning Inspectorate's hearing finally got under way today, Thursday.
The day was mainly devoted to questioning by Northacre’s representative, David Holgate QC, of the Council's Planning Director, Michael French, regarding the reasons for the Council’s rejection of Northacre’s planning application.
Introduced by the Council’s representative, Russell Harris QC, Mr French started by explaining that the Council’s rejection was based on three reasons:
1) the Borough’s need for more nursing facilities, and the advice by experts that it is financially viable to continue to use the site for nursing care,
2) that Northacre’s plan didn’t meet the requirements to make maximum use of the site, and thus also didn’t include any affordable housing,
3) the plan didn’t meet the required mix of different sized flats.
As the question of viability will be discussed in depth at a later stage of the proceedings, today’s discussions dealt mainly with the requirements for maximum use and affordable housing.
Mr French explained that the London Plan states that new developments of apartment blocks should attempt to make maximum use of the site available, whilst respecting the general building size of the area. Because of this, the Council asked an architect to assess Northacre’s plan for 12 very big apartments (the average size of each flat is over 300 sq. m., i.e. 3,300 sq. feet). He found that those apartments could easily be split into 26 still very large apartments, without moving any windows or doing any other changes to the building’s façade. He also found that you theoretically could fit 53 three-bedroom flats of 72 sq. m. each inside the building, and if the density requirements in the London Plan were to be applied, Mr French explained, the building should accommodate 66 flats. Based on all these figures, the Borough’s Planning Department has concluded that 40 flats should be very reasonable to expect in that buidling.
Regarding the requirement for affordable housing, Mr French stressed that the Council now is obliged to meet the requirement in the London Plan, which calls for a minimum of 50% of the flats of any new project being affordable, and that those affordable flats must be on the same site unless it’s technically impossible, as the authorities strive for “social inclusion”. Consequently, Northacre’s last minute offer of 16 affordable flats somewhere around Westway doesn’t satisfy these requirements in any way.
David Holgate questioned all these reasons. He stated that the density of Northacre’s project was in line with the properties in the surrounding area, comparing it to the many large one family houses in Palace Gardens Terrace and Brunswick Gardens, and claiming that a higher density wouldn’t be in line with the character of the area. He also pointed out that the Council hasn’t yet officially adopted the London Plan, so for the moment the Borough should follow its established rule for affordable housing, which is 33%.
The proceedings were paused for half an hour, to enable all the participants to join the public outside St Mary Abbot's Church for the observance of the two minutes silence at noon, to mark last week's London bombings.
Friday’s proceedings will start at 9.30 and are expected to run until 5 pm. The hearings will then adjourn until 12 September, so anyone who is interested and able to set aside a couple of hours during tomorrow is encouraged to do so. The public is allowed to slip in and out of the Council Chamber at any time during the proceedings.

Two minutes of silence tomorrow

cherrytreelondon@mac.com — 2005-07-13T15:20:00+01:00

The national two minute silence at noon on Thursday 14 July, to mark last week's London bombings, will be observed locally in a short ceremony outside St Mary Abbot's Church on Kensington High Street. The ceremony, led by the Royal Borough's Mayor, Cllr Warwick Lightfoot, will start at 11:55am.
All are welcome to take part.
A book of condolence for those wanting to pay their respects to the victims of the bombings opened on Monday 11 July in the Civic entrance of Kensington Town Hall on Hornton Street. It is available for members of the public to express their condolences.

The nursing home hearing, day 2: An even shorter day

cherrytreelondon@mac.com — 2005-07-13T15:16:00+01:00

Today's hearing was over in 15 minutes. This time it was Northacre's representative who wanted an adjournment until tomorrow, as he said he wasn't properly prepared for the Council's first witness, Michael French, the Council's planning director.
It was agreed that tomorrow's proceedings will start at 09.30, to somewhat compensate for the two first lost days.
Public attendance was very low today, so perhaps we need to add that free coffee, tea and small cookies is available, and that the Council Chamber is air-conditioned. That should be attractive in this sweltering heat...

The nursing home hearing, day 1: A short first day

cherrytreelondon@mac.com — 2005-07-12T18:10:00+01:00

The first day of the Planning Inspectorate’s appeal hearing in the Town Hall, about the refused Vicarage Gate House planning application, ended already at 1 pm, as the Council’s representative, Russell Harris QC, asked for an adjournment until tomorrow, in order for the Council’s experts to have a chance to digest a number of new documents submitted by Northacre only yesterday evening.
However, before the adjournment, the Planning Inspector, David Wildsmith, asked the two parties to give their opening statements.
The representative for Northacre, David Holgate QC, argued that the Vicarage Gate House site isn’t viable for a nursing home; that Northacre has offered the Borough £2.25 million as compensation for the loss of the nursing beds at Vicarage Gate House; and that Northacre questions several of the Council’s reasons for refusing their application, especially the demand for some affordable housing within the scheme, which shouldn’t apply for a project consisting of only 12 flats. Nevertheless, he said, Northacre is offering to build 16 affordable flats near Westway as part of the deal.
In his opening statement for the Council, Russell Harris pointed out that Northacre hasn’t been able to substantiate the claim that the site isn’t viable for a nursing home, especially as several nursing home companies have expressed an interest in the site all along. Regarding the £2.25 million, he said that this was based only on the Council’s cost for housing eight elderly at Vicarage Gate House, whilst the closure of Vicarage Gate House lead to a loss of 55 beds, most of them occupied by Kensington residents. There is a dire need for more nursing places in the Borough, he said; not only places subsidised by the Council but also places for residents who don’t need financial help from the Council.
As for the affordable housing, Russell Harris stressed that Northacre themselves have stated that the site could fit 30 flats, and that the Council estimates that there is room for 40 flats. Northacre has, however, chosen to go for 12 “grand” apartments, which gets them under the 15 flat threshold for an affordable housing provision. But the planning regulations clearly states that sites in London should be utilised to their maximum and that the city’s neighbourhoods should have a more mixed population. Also, the Mayor of London has expressed a need for a 50% affordable housing provision, in order to increase the amount of affordable flats in central London for nurses, policemen, firemen and other key service personnel. Consequently, any housing project on the Vicarage Gate House site should consist of some 40 flats, whereof half affordable. The offer of 16 affordable flats near Westway was thrown in as late as yesterday, he said, and is written in such a non-binding convoluted way that it can’t even be taken seriously.
Some 20 interested residents attended the first day’s hearing.
In the afternoon, David Wildsmith inspected the Vicarage Gate House site.
The hearing resumes tomorrow at 2 pm, and will continue at least until Friday. It will then probably be adjourned until 13 September and run to the end of that week.

Next issue of The Cherry Tree added

cherrytreelondon@mac.com — 2005-06-20T17:42:00+01:00

The next issue of The Cherry Tree (2005-1) has just been added to the newsletter archive. The printed version will hopefully be distributed before the end of June.

RSS feed enabled

cherrytreelondon@mac.com — 2005-06-18T01:05:00+01:00

We have just made this news blog RSS 2.0 compatible, which means that you can tell your computer to alert you whenever something new has been added to this page. How to do that, depends on which browser or other software you have. Some modern web browsers have RSS newsfeed subscription built in, like Safari, Firefox and Opera, or you can install a dedicated RSS reader.
A very good description about RSS and how to use it, can be found on the BBC News website.

Nursing home public hearing starts 12 July

cherrytreelondon@mac.com — 2005-06-24T13:23:00+01:00

At 10 am on 12 July the Planning Inspectorate (the Government’s “appeal court” in planning matters), starts its public hearing regarding the appeal against the Council's rejection of Northacre's planning application for turning the site of the Vicarage Gate House nursing home into an apartment block.
The hearing is scheduled to last for five days, and is held in the Town Hall's main Council Chamber. Should it take longer, it may be adjourned and restarted later in the autumn.
We urge as many as possible to attend, whenever they can, even if only for an hour or two. Apparently, the public will be seated in the back rows of the chamber, instead of in the formal upstairs public gallery, and you can enter or leave quietly at any time.
We will try to give you updates during the hearing on this page.