Dear Cllr Price

Re:- Telephone House Development

Thank you for your two fold support; both of the residents in this area, and also for those people outside the immediate locality, who still live within Tunbridge Wells and who are continuing to express their anxieties and concerns for the future of one of the most important sites in the centre of the town.

It is our belief that Crest Nicholson having won the appeal on very contradictory grounds does not feel like a comfortable winner. Architect Sutters convinced us during the Public Inquiry that the plans he had produced were the result of working around a design brief by officers. When ever appropriate, we would like to try to re-open a dialogue with representatives of Crest Nicholson and their architects. However, the integration of Policy H6(a) in the Local Plan Review, as is, makes this undertaking pointless.
Ultimately, Crest Nicholson will be responsible for the development. This development has by now received much negative publicity, which people will find difficult to erase from their minds. The negative reaction as you know has been created by the suppression of residents’ well founded arguments and opinions, caused by the unhappy liaison of two powerful companies and the unprofessional conduct of TWBC officers.

This letter is not aiming to point out the many faults in the application of Crest Nicholson, nor is its intention to discuss Policy H6(a). The grounds for taking Policy H6(a) out all together are already embedded in other Policies and recommendations contained within the Local Plan Review itself.

But this letter should be a guide to what we would find acceptable.

• Density around 25 units (= 90 units per hectare)
  (compare e.g. Garden Road - Planning application TW/00/01673)
• Development on York Road site should be set back from houses opposite to a minimum of 16 m (at same distance of mews houses proposed by Crest on the west side of the development)
• Respect building heights of neighbouring and houses opposite, especially on York Road
• Integrate existing trees into the design
• Allow Church Road to have its own traffic arrangements (sole access/exit via York Road is not acceptable
• Relax affordable housing to minimum guideline to allow for better amenities

We trust that these amendments to Policy H6(a) would be welcomed by future developers. They certainly would be by local residents.
We urge you to convey our thoughts to the deciding parties and would be pleased if you would revert to us with some feedback so that we can judge when and if it would be appropriate to contact Crest Nicholson.

Yours sincerely
Peter Morse

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The re-development of the Telephone House, York Road / Church Road, Tunbridge Wells

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