Planning Application In for Horsell Moor retirement apartments

Update 3 October

The application for retirement flats on Horsell Moor is now on the council's planning website reference PLAN/2015/0989. I am rather puzzled by the dates on the application.  The planning website says the application was received on 7 September and validated on 9 September. However when I searched for the application, having received communication from Pegasus Life on 18 September, the application did not appear. It did not appear a week later when I posted about the application to demolish the laundry buildings. I first learnt it was up on 2 October from a local resident on Twitter. 

The building plans
As set out in my earlier post (below) the building will now be 4 rather than 5 storeys high. I am pleased to see it is two storeys next to homes on the dog leg of Horsell Moor running to Step Bridge Path.  Four storeys still seems very tall in this location and it will overlook the Cricket club and children's playground on Horsell Moor.

Elevation of proposed apartments

Traffic and Parking Impact
Pegasus Life commissioned a travel survey which concluded that only 66% of parking capacity is taken up so there are plenty of parking spaces for the new development.  The survey was taken from 7am to 7pm on a Wednesday in March so takes no account of a busy Sunday afternoon when Woking and Horsell Cricket Club is used for cricket matches or a busy Saturday afternoon when there is a football match or a Thursday evening in the summer when the club house is booked out for parties. Although of course there is no right of any resident to the parking space outside their home this survey also fails to account for where these spaces might be in relation to existing residents who need parking spaces on the road.

One parking area mentioned is outside the Cricket club which is used for a pre-school on term-time week days. Increased parking in this area would not be welcome for parents and children.

The application proposes providing 0.9 parking spaces per flat, that is 31 spaces for 34 flats. Flats will be a mix of one and two bedrooms.

Affordable provision
Developments on brown field sites are supposed to provide 40% affordable homes, but guess what, that's not going to happen. The developers say:

"The requirement for 40% affordable housing provision on the site would not reflect the circumstances and realities of the site in this context"

They will be talking to the council about payment in lieu but this is subject to a 'viability assessment'.

Consultation is now open on the application. If you want to have your say you can feedback on the council's planning website or email or write to the council. Make sure to quote the application number PLAN/2015/0989


Update 25 September

No planning application for the retirement apartments on the Council list as yet. However Pegasus Life has put in a planning application PLAN/2015/1032 to demolish the laundry on Horsell Moor (thought they werent' doing this until November (see bottom of page).  A letter that accompanies this application does say that the application for the new apartment block was submitted to the Council on 4 September.  I will keep an eye on the planning applications and let you know when the Council has verified that application. Looks like the demolition will be a long job.  The application refers to work starting in November and finishing next April.


I heard tonight from Pegasus Life that they have submitted a planning application to Woking Council for retirement apartments on Horsell Moor. 

You may have seen my previous blog post from late May when I reported back on the exhibition about these plans to put retirement apartments on the site of the old White Knight laundry.  At that stage Pegasus Life were seeking to erect a building which reached 5 storeys at its highest point, tapering down to 2 storeys.  The facade was to be brick on the upper levels with light stone cladding on the ground floor. 

I am pleased to see that the plans have been revised as a result of feedback from residents.  the tallest point of the building is now proposed to be 4 storeys and the building will all be brick fronted.  Pegasus life go into some detail in their communication about the style of brick that will be used to fit in with neighbouring properties 

"The bricks we will use will be hand fired. Hand-fired bricks are different to standard machine-fired bricks that are used in most new developments. They are all individual and have slightly different colours and textures."

I do wonder about parking provision at the site and if this will impact the local area. There is essentially one space per apartment so any visitors would immediately add to the number of cars in the area.

Woking Council will need to process the application and it is not yet appearing on their list of registered applications. I will update with the application number when that information is available.

Pegasus Life also point out that they are likely to apply to demolish the old laundry buildings at the end of November.

Where to vote in 2016

Woking Council has just provided details of proposed new polling districts to fit the new ward boundaries.  Each polling district has a polling place - where you cast your vote on election days. A consultation on this can be found here and is open until Friday 25 September.

As outlined here and here there are new boundaries for Woking Borough Council wards next year.  Elections on the 5 May 2016 will be contested on the new boundaries.  All 30 of the new seats across 10 borough wards will be up for election.

Horsell will be just one ward in future, rather than two wards.  It will cover an area of most of Horsell West ward (losing Merrivale Gardens and Hedgerley Court to the west and the top end of Brewery Road including the car park, Kingswood Court and Alwyne Court and the Broomhalls to the east) and the Horsell East part of the former Horsell East and Woodham ward (except for the first section of Chobham Road between Victoria Way and Horsell Rise, The Grove and Ferndale Road).

Polling districts in Horsell ward change very little, the map shows the split - indicated by a purple line. The central area of Horsell vote at the Evangelical Church in the High Street as now, everyone living from the Arthurs Bridge / Church Hill / Brewery Road roundabout going east vote at Trinity and those in the old Horsell East vote also continue to vote at Trinity. 

Polling Districts of new Horsell ward

Currently Trinity has two polling places in one, with separate voting areas for those in the Horsell Park area of Horsell West and Horsell East residents.  Whilst it is important for the Horsell Park area to have a polling place at this end of the village there is no good reason for these polling stations not to be combined under the new boundaries. Having been at the Trinity polling place I know that both of the old polling districts are not busy for much of the day and combining them would reduce the staff needed whilst not having a negative impact on voters. This was not possible in the past when Horsell had two separate wards but could easily be achieved now and I am pleased that my suggestion via the Lib Dem representatives on the Council has been taken on board in the proposals.

Crazy Canalside ward

The crazy thing about the changes that the Boundary Commission made to the boundary plans submitted by Woking Council is that people living within literally a few minutes walk of Trinity Church in places such as Broomhall Road, The Grove and the flats in Brewery Road will no longer vote there.

The Canalside ward that these roads are being put into is a very long and narrow ward and that requires a large number of polling districts and polling places. The proposal is for these electors to cast their vote at The Lightbox.

Polling Districts of new Canalside ward

Concern as LA Fitness to become a Pure Gym

The pool at LA Fitness in Horsell

LA Fitness has run a leisure club at the junction of Arthur's Bridge Road and Horsell Moor since 2001.  Having got through a planning application with low membership numbers they managed to increase the number of members allowed, first to 3500 then to 5000 back in 2006.

Residents of Arthur's Bridge Road and Abbey Road in particular have suffered from overflow parking from LA Fitness and disturbances in the evening as members arrive and leave the club.

Pure Gym takeover

In May of this year Pure Gym took over LA Fitness.  This business deal was referred to the Competition Commission who gave it the go ahead a few weeks ago. The Horsell branch is now to be converted to the Pure Gym format. The pool  is closing and I understand there will be changes to the classes offered. LA Fitness will close between 5 and 21 October for refurbishment then open as a Pure Gym. There is a notice about this on the LA Fitness website.

Pure Gym has a different operating model to LA Fitness. Rather than a contract customers pay on a monthly basis and the facilities are very much gyms rather than leisure clubs, with a lot of machines available.

Concerns

The key concerns for local residents are on any increase in the disturbance they suffer already, particularly as there is older people's sheltered housing just across the road from the facility.

• A Financial Times article suggests Pure Gym aim to increase membership by 60% so could we be looking at an application to increase membership from 5000 to 8000? What impact would that have on local roads?

• Will Pure Gym apply for 24 hour opening? This raises concerns about disturbances through the night and in the early morning and possible security worries if the extended hours leads to groups hanging around outside.