20 September 2023

Forest Hill Society AGM

All members and non-members are welcome to attend our Annual General Meeting in person or via Zoom on Tuesday, 17th October from 7:30pm at Forest Hill Library (Dartmouth Road).

The AGM is an opportunity to find out more about what is happening in Forest Hill, to share your concerns and to help shape the future of the Society.


For details of the zoom meeting or if you are interesting in discussing any of the roles in the Society or how you can get more involved, please email: email@foresthillsociety.com

30 August 2023

Children's Book Sale

The Forest Hill Society will be running a book sale for second-hand children's books on 23rd September outside Forest Hill Library from 10am-2pm.

We already have lots of donated books, but if you have additional children's books in a good condition that you would like to donate, please bring them to the library before 17th September.
 

All funds raised will go towards supporting the library, but even more importantly, we will get books to local children to increase reading.



28 June 2023

Planning Objection: 2A Gaynesford Road

The Forest Hill Society has objected to this application to build a new house on the site of a garage on the corner of Church Rise and Gaynesford Road. Details of the application can be found here: DC/23/131488 | 2A GAYNESFORD ROAD, LONDON, SE23 2UQ


We wish to object to this application on the following grounds:


1.  Intensification of built form harms the heritage significance of the Conservation Area



The Heritage Impact Statement, and proposals generally, fail to address the characteristic of generous rear gardens to the dwellings of the Conservation Area.  Whilst a poor quality garage was erected on the site and removed some of its verdancy, the garage is still read as ancillary to its former host building and the gap between No. 2 Gaynesford Road and No. 49 Church Rise is appreciable.  The incorporation of a new dwelling on the site would encroach onto the former garden/ancillary space and diminish the regularity in scale, height, and form of both the plot layouts and built form of the Conservation Area.  The Heritage Impact Assessment does not adequately assess the contribution the site makes to the significance of the Conservation Area, with reference to the gap and resulting views and the ancillary appearance of the site, nor does it acknowledge the impacts of the intensification of built form in the street through the proposals.  The Heritage Impact Statement concludes that the proposals will "enhance" the Conservation Area, but to the contrary, the proposals will result in harm to the heritage significance of the Conservation Area, and the statutory requirement of Section 72(1) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act is not met.


2.  Proposed height and frontage detail is too dissimilar to neighbouring houses


The Heritage Impact Assessment states:

s. 4.3  "There is an opportunity to create a simplified and slightly down-scaled Type 2 “Christmas house” "

s. 4.6  "As far as the Type 1 and Type 2 “Christmas houses” are concerned, the application proposal will be an informed continuation of the Type 2 houses in Gaynesford Road."

The proposed dwelling appears to be smaller in height than the neighbouring houses in Gaynesford Road and the Application Form refers to red face brick (despite the Design and Access Statement referring to brick and stucco), which does not match the design of the neighbouring houses.  The site is located within a Conservation Area, the whole point of which is the character of the Christmas Houses.  A “simplified and slightly down-scaled” Christmas House would be unacceptably incongruous next to the houses it is supposedly emulating, and would harm the character and appearance of the Conservation Area.

 
3.   Garden space

The proposed amenity space is piecemeal (a small patio at the bottom of a lightwell and a small garden at ground level) and therefore is not suitable usable space (Section 2.261 Lewisham DM policy 33) or practical and good amenity (Section 3.6.9 London Plan 2021).

 

4.   Detrimental impact on No. 49 Church Rise contrary to Lewisham DM Policy 32

This was one of the grounds on which Lewisham rejected previous proposals and was upheld at appeal.  Although this proposal has a smaller footprint than previous applications, it is a two-storey building and would still be detrimental to the outlook of inhabitants of No. 49 Church Rise.

 

5.  Layout: location of bedrooms

Bedroom 1 is located on the first floor and Bedroom 2 is located in the basement.   Although a 2-bedroom dwelling doesn't meet the definition of 'family dwelling', it is realistic that a family would consider living in this house but parents wouldn’t want a child's bedroom to be two floors away from their own bedroom.  Such a layout therefore offers poor usage to potential inhabitants and would limit the market for this house.

08 June 2023

Subway Cleaning 2023

The Forest Hill Society will be cleaning the walls of the subway, which runs under the railway line in Forest Hill, London SE23.

All cleaning materials will be provided but please bring your own plastic gloves.

We are looking for members of the community to help us out for an hour: Saturday 17 June, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

https://greatbiggreenweek.com/events/wash-and-scrub-up-for-forest-hill-subway/

03 May 2023

Planning Application: Taymount Grange, Taymount Rise

Reference DC/23/130280, Construction of a 5 storey building comprising 29 flats, TAYMOUNT GRANGE, TAYMOUNT RISE, LONDON, SE23 3UH


 

The Forest Hill Society has written to object to this planning application. Concerns include:

  • Daylight for residents in the new property
  • Issues for transport and parking
  • Difficulty for servicing and access
  • Pedestrian access limited to non-residents
  • Lack of social housing

In addition we are concerned about the impact of the construction of two developments on either side of Taymount Grange at the same time and coordination between developers.

Extracts from the objection:

Daylight

The levels of daylight for almost all east facing windows on the ground floor and first floor of this development are well below any suitable daylight factor. In total there are 7 units (24%) across the four floors where the Living room/Kitchen/Dining room less than 20% of the room area meeting required Daylight Factor.

These figures demonstrate a poor quality of residential amenity that falls below Lewisham policies and national expectations for daylight, due to over-development of this backland site. 

Parking & Servicing

Despite the flawed transport statement, it should be clear that based on policy 29 that this application should be refused as this development is outside of PTAL 4 rating and will cause detrimental impact on the provision of on-street parking on top of that already allowed by Lewisham with the previous permission given.

In relation to servicing, paragraph 3.5.1 of the transport statement says that parking for servicing will be provided in the turning area. This will prevent people parked in the disabled parking bays from being able to leave this site without reversing for approximately 200m up a narrow, sloped driveway. The dual use of the turning area for servicing and turning for disabled residents is inappropriate and could be unsafe for disabled residents.

Pedestrian Access

We welcome the creation of a new pedestrian route between Taymount Rise and Derby Hill Crescent. However, we do not believe that this should be limited to residents of the new block. Large numbers of children from Grassmount, Forestholme Close, Forest Croft, and other flats on Taymount Rise attend Eliot Bank and Sydenham Schools. This route should be open to them and should not result in children having to wait for somebody to open the gate to let them through.

We would ask that a condition should be placed on any permission, that access should be available to all residents located on Taymount Rise to make use of this new access route. 

Social Housing

We support the London Plan and Council plan that social housing should be included in new developments of more than 9 residential units. This scheme, at 29 units, should be expected to contribute in some way to the provision of social housing in Forest Hill. 

Construction

Should permission be given for any development on the Taymount Grange site, we ask that coordination takes place between the two developers to limit traffic and noise disruption. It would be completely unreasonable for existing Taymount Grange residents to have to deal with ground drilling on both sides of their property at the same time. This may require restrictions on a development that has already been given permission or limitations on the start of work on this site until work on the previous site is completed.

28 April 2023

Forest Hill Society Whisky and Cheese Tasting

Wednesday 24 May 7.30pm, All In One Pub

 

 

Join us for at the All In One for a guided exploration of six different whiskies, each paired with a matching cheese from Aga's Little Deli in Forest Hill.

On our tour, we will explore various types and styles of whisky, all available from major retailers, and see how the flavours can be matched with different cheeses, for the perfect tasting experience.

To book tickets please follow this link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/whisky-cheese-tasting-tickets-626098516517. Tickets cost £15 per person and are limited to 40 people.

27 April 2023

London City Airport- all day Saturday flights over Lewisham are in the balance

by Tim Walker and John Doherty

In summer 2022 London City Airport launched its latest expansion consultation, this time proposing to operate all afternoon and evenings on Saturdays, with more early morning flights on weekdays too. The Forest Hill Society made a response, along with many other Londoners and Borough Councils, including Lewisham. We opposed the extension of operating hours, saying that until the airport, together with Heathrow, introduces replacement flight paths, due 2027-28, no changes should be applied for or considered. This is consistent with our approach since City introduced its 2000 ft concentrated flight path over Forest Hill in 2016. The current 24 hour weekend ban on flying gives all overflown Londoners peace and quiet from this centrally located airport at a time when we are enjoying our homes, parks and gardens. City-bound flights over our area occur in east wind conditions, often associated with prolonged periods of fine weather in summer.


That non-statutory consultation was poorly publicised but still drew considerable opposition. Inevitably though, this expansive airport followed up by putting in a planning application running to over 100 technical documents to its planning authority, the London Borough of Newham. Newham was forced to launch their own planning consultation which ended in March. Again, this happened with minimal publicity- the only people written to directly about this lived in a small area close to the airport’s runway. Despite this, some 800 comments, the vast majority being objections, were submitted to Newham – it would surely be many more if all the communities under low City flight paths had been informed directly.


City’s planning application this time proposes flying an additional 7 hours of flights on Saturdays, an hour less in winter. This will include the largest jet we have seen from them so far, the E195-E2. They make a case that this is to meet demand for more holiday and leisure flying from the airport – originally given permission in the 1980’s to open as a small, business orientated airport with no noisy jet flights.


We have spent much time looking at these new proposals and then providing analysis, briefing and information to HACAN East, the campaign group concerned with London City Airport and to our elected representatives including Lewisham Council, our MP Ellie Reeves and the London Assembly. We wanted to support our elected representatives with solid, evidence based information and argument and to encourage them to take a clear position against the expansion of the airport.


One way we did this was to conduct our own noise measurements last summer, comparing the maximum noise levels of City airport jet aircraft at 5 measurement points under the SE London arrivals flight path. Taking 265 separate noise measurements including high up in Horniman gardens meant we were able to compare the maximum noise level of ‘new generation’ aircraft such as the Embraer E190-E2 against its predecessor, the E190. The reason for this is that City Airport has been claiming for several years that the new planes will be ‘quieter’. We wanted to put that to the test.

 

The LCA flight paths are set out by the airport above. In easterly wind conditions the airport uses a low
(at or around 2000ft ) concentrated single arrivals route over SE London then turning north towards the airport, shown by the pink east-west line.


The results were quite dramatic. Our measurements showed that over SE London the new planes were not noticeably quieter than the older ones. And neither type could be described as quiet, at around 70 decibels as they pass low overhead. When we met with the airport’s noise consultants in late 2022 they were unable to provide measured data to show any different; they said that they would expect perhaps a 2 decibel difference over Forest Hill. But we both noted that the Civil Aviation Authority state that this difference would not be noticeable to the human ear.


We published our results as a ‘Citizen Research Study’ in collaboration with HACAN East, and presented it to the airport’s senior management at their Consultative Committee. We also used it in information and briefings to our elected representatives. We said that claims that new generation aircraft are ‘quieter’ in these consultations without giving people a full understanding of where and when they might be experienced as quieter and how noticeable it would be was potentially misleading. Locally we have been delighted to see support in the form of written objections to City’s planning application from Cabinet Member Cllr Louise Krupski on behalf of Lewisham Council and from Ellie Reeves MP, both drawing on our discussions, information and analysis. At a London-wide level, both influential London Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon and the Chair of the GLA Environment Committee Zack Polanski directly quoted from the Citizen Research Study and other briefing we supplied, as members of the Forest Hill Society, to the London Assembly. Our report was quoted or referred to directly or indirectly by a number of other bodies. The full study is here. It’s been a lot of work, but we feel we have done what we can for now to draw attention to this new threat to the peace of our homes, parks and gardens at weekends and to try and make sure our area is represented as best it can be by people in positions of influence.

The next step is for Newham Council to consider the Planning Application. Most, perhaps all overflown London Borough Councils have lodged a strong objection to the application. Newham’s planning committee has the unenviable job of assessing it, probably in May. If they reject it, an appeal by the airport is possible. And at any stage this decision may be called in by either the Mayor of London or by the Department for Transport to take over the issue and make the decision in place of Newham. One positive is that the Mayor of London has recently made it clear that he is against further expansion of this type by the airport.

01 April 2023

FoHo Coins - Launching The Local Crypto-Currency

 

Combining the ideals of local currencies such as the Brixton Pound with innovations in blockchain technology, the Forest Hill Society is excited today to announce the launch of a new hyper local crypto-currency for Forest Hill and Honor Oak - the FoHo.

FoHo coins will be accepted at virtually all local shops with the current rate of exchange standing at 10,000 coins for a Ferfect Chicken Box. But that price is expected to pass the 1,000,000 coin mark before the end of April - showing that now is a great time to invest in FoHos (and in chicken boxes).

Locals will be able to buy FoHo via the universally popular PayByPhone parking app which can also be used to 'pay' for free parking in local car parks. Mining FoHo coins is also particularly simple, our new FoHoApp will generate 0.01 FoHo for every footstep taken along one of Forest Hill or Honor Oak’s shopping streets, or 10 FoHos if you arrive at a shop by bicycle. 
 
Ms A Showers, a local crypto enthusiast, said that the idea of FoHo coins was somewhere between SoSo and HoHo.

More details on how to become a FoHo miner can be found here.
 
* Press release issued by the Forest Hill Society on 1st April 2023. Some of the details in this article may not be valid on any other day of the year.

31 March 2023

Children's Book Sale - 29th April

The Forest Hill Society will be running a book sale for second hand children's books on 29th April outside Forest Hill Library from 10am-4pm.

All funds raised will go towards supporting the library, but even more importantly, we will get books to local children to increase reading.

 




Spring Planting - April 22nd

Saturday April 22nd

Forest Hill Society volunteers will be planting in Forest Hill station forecourt, and the platform and other planters we care for in the town centre, on Saturday April 22nd, meeting by the main station entrance at 2.30pm. No experience is necessary and we welcome all comers, but please bring protective gloves and, if possible, a trowel - although we do have some spares. As we work in close proximity to busy roads this will not be suitable for children.

If you would like to find out more, please email email@foresthillsociety.com

Tell your friends, and come to lend a hand.