Greenwich Council’s cabinet has rubber-stamped plans to look at building 268 new council homes on 32 sites around the borough – the largest council home building programme in many years.
Council officers are to begin surveying the sites in the coming months to see which are suitable – cabinet member Chris Kirby warned that not all sites would be, and residents near Warren Court in Charlton have raised concerns about contamination in the woodland where planners think 24 flats could be built.
The largest scheme would involve demolishing the estate office and community centre on the Barnfield Estate in Plumstead, replacing it with 42 flats and a new centre. Planners also think they could build 38 flats at Orangery Lane in Eltham.
But many proposals are for smaller schemes, down to a three-bedroom bungalow close to the borough boundary at Southspring, Sidcup.
The proposals are part of a wider scheme to start building 750 new homes by 2022. Council leader Danny Thorpe called it “the most ambitious council house building programe we’ve ever seen in this borough” – although in the late 1970s, Greenwich built 900 homes on the Woolwich Common Estate alone, alongside a further 400 on the Woolwich Dockyard Estate, and the old Greater London Council also built huge amounts of housing. But the programme is certainly the largest Greenwich-led scheme since those days.
“We’re looking to be as open and transparent as we can about the work we’re looking to undertake,” Kirby told residents who live near the sites who had come to the cabinet meeting.
“All the sites are at a pre-feasbility phase – this isn’t a fait accompli, they aren’t going to be rushed through planning in the next few weeks.
“We’re considering the potential of those sites, and we’ve done desktop studies – we haven’t done topographical studies or anything like that.”
Kirby, who took questions from two residents who live near the site in Charlton, said there would be “meaningful consultation into what – if anything – is built on those sites”.
Council officers will now study the sites in more detail and will report back to the council’s cabinet.
Last year, the former Thomas Tallis School site was earmarked as a place where 400 homes could go.
The sites are (see full details):
Barnfield Estate Office, Plumstead (21 one-bed flats, 11 two-bed flats and 10 three-bed flats and new community centre)
Orangery Lane, Eltham (12 one-bed flats, three 2-bed flats, 23 three-bed flats)
Warren Court (off Charlton Church Lane), Charlton (24 3-bed flats)
Ridgebrook Road/Rochester Way, Kidbrooke (17 three-bed houses)
Kingsdale Road, Plumstead (15 three-bed flats)
Speranza Street (ex-leisure centre), Plumstead (13 three-bed and two 4-bed houses)
Bliss Crescent, Lewisham (two sites: four 2-bed houses, two 3-bed houses; eight 3-bed flats)
Antelope Road, Woolwich (Dockyard Centre) (11 two-bed houses)
Halsbrook Road, Kidbrooke (five 2-bed, five 3-bed houses)
Villas Road, Plumstead (one 1-bed flat, eight 2-bed flats, one 3-bed flat)
Hastings House, Mulgrave Road, Woolwich (eight 3-bed flats)
Alderwood Road, Eltham (six 2-bed houses)
Anstridge Road, Eltham (six 2-bed houses)
Condover Crescent, Plumstead (two 1-bed flats, four 2-bed maisonettes)
Congleton Grove, Plumstead (four 4-bed houses, two 2-bed houses)
Highbrook Road/Bournebrook Road, Kidbrooke (five 3-bed houses)
Strongbow Road, Eltham (two 4-bed houses)
Robert Street, Plumstead (four 3-bed houses)
Blithdale Road, Abbey Wood (four 2-bed houses)
Samuel Street/Frances Street, Woolwich (3 three-bed houses)
Rectory Place/ Charles Grinling Walk, Woolwich (one 2-bed and two 3-bed houses)
The Triangle (Armitage Road), Greenwich (three 3-bed flats and community centre)
Pendrell Street, Plumstead (two 3-bed houses, one 2-bed bungalow)
Rydons Close, Eltham (two 3-bed houses)
Riefield Road, Eltham (two 3-bed houses)
Flintmill Crescent, Kidbrooke (two 3-bed houses)
Palmerston Crescent, Plumstead (two 2-bed houses)
Green Way, Eltham (one 3-bed flat, one 2-bed maisonette)
Strongbow Crescent, Eltham (one 3-bed house)
Thanington Court, Eltham (one 3-bed house)
Southsprings, Sidcup (one 3-bed bungalow)
853 produces public interest journalism for Greenwich and SE London and is part-funded by its readers. If you would like to contribute to keeping the site running, please…
– join well over 100 monthly patrons at www.patreon.com/853.
– switch power supplier! Low-cost renewable Bulb energy will pay you and this site £50 each if you switch
– buy the author a coffee at ko-fi.com.
– make a one-off contribution at paypal.me/853london
You must be logged in to post a comment.