Tileman House consultation problems

A number of local residents have contacted me directly to complain that they have not received the consultation notice from the council regarding the important Tileman House planning application.

In addition, a number of irate residents have posted similar concerns on the local putneysw15.com website. Given the significance and controversial nature of this application I contacted the Borough Planner on Monday to raise these concerns.

I was pleased to receive a very prompt reply from him which I am reproducing in full below as I believe it is important that people have full confidence in the consultation process.

I welcome the acknowledgment that there has been a problem, as I do the action proposed to remedy the situation. I will be doing my bit to help ensure that those residents most likely to be affected by this application are aware of it, and have a full ability to let their views be known.

Here's the reply:


Dear Mr King,

Thank you for your email.

I think it is fair to say that we have had some problems with the company we used on this occasion to deliver the newsletter. Although from the information they have provided to us I hope the number of addresses missed is not as great as suggested.

When we have a major application that is likely to generate more than normal public interest we use a newsletter to notify people in the area. Often, as in this case, the newsletter is in colour and includes visual images from the submission information. So I hope it isn?t binned with other junk mail.

We provide basic details of the application, say where further information can be obtained and invite comments. We adopt a neutral stance, neither in favour or against the application and, in order not to lead respondents, we invite comments rather than objections. Where we use a newsletter, the extent of consultation is wider than would be the norm for most applications where we consult by letter.

For this application I wonder if the boundary of the area could have been more tightly drawn? The map of the area has been posted on the website. In addition, of course, for an application like this we post site and press notices.

We had a number of newsletter drops due to go out around the same time for major applications, including for the Springfield hospital site. Given the pressures this places on using planning staff who often distribute newsletter at the weekends, we took the opportunity to market test and obtained prices from specialist leaflet distribution companies. We received a competitive price from a company and decided to test their services.

We?ve been disappointed with the outcome and it has generated much additional (and unwanted) work for the case officer. She has followed up some emailed complaints from residents that they haven?t received the newsletter with a PDF emailed copy. She has also followed the matter up with the distribution company and has a list of the addresses they concede they have been unable to deliver to. She will try to deliver those herself or put a copy of the newsletter in the post to those addresses, so all the addresses we identified should be covered. On the evidence to date, it seems to me that our market testing exercise shows that our in-house staff are more reliable and do a better job.

If people have internet access then they can get information from the Council?s website. Click on the planning service page, the first thing to come up under planning headlines is "Redevelopment proposed for Tileman House". If you click on that you get:

Redevelopment of Tileman House, Upper Richmond Road
The council has received an application for planning permission to redevelop the site at 131-133 Upper Richmond Road, to construct three linked blocks alond Upper Richmond Road of 12 storeys, 15 storeys and 8 storeys in height, and a 12 storey block to the rear, providing 99 flats plus office and commercial units. For more information contact Helen Keegan on 020 8871 8411. Comments must be received by 1st March 2009.

More information: consultation leaflet

More information: search the planning register and enter application number: 2008/5428

At the moment, I?m keeping an eye on what has happened but, provided the case officer doesn?t have difficulties dispatching the newsletters, I don?t think we will need to either extend consultation or the consultation period.

Please let me know if you need any more information.