Letters on Christ Church Green café kiosk

Majorie Gadd, Spratt Hall Road, Wanstead, writes:

I am disappointed but not surprised at Redbridge Planning Department’s decision, namely, to grant permission for the erection of a cafe/kiosk on Christ Church Green (to call it a park is a misnomer).

Despite the many objections from residents in Wanstead and from the wider local community, the imposition of this kiosk with all the inherent mess and public nuisance its presence will create by its unsociable opening hours, there has been a blatent disregard for the views and real concerns of residents. Those living on the perimeter will be deeply affected.

Yet another eating/drinking establishment in Wanstead is required like a ‘hole in the head’ and flies in the face of the local Planning Authority’s own proposals/rules regarding a Conservation Area where, and I quote from their document published several years ago, “The designation of a Conservation Area imposes a duty on local planning authorities to prepare preservation and enhancement proposals for the area. Wanstead Village was one of the first Conservation Areas designated in the borough.”

The design of the cafe/kiosk aside, the fact being that a permanent construction of any kind is not wanted at all, nor is one needed on Christ Church Green.

I see no vision being exercised by Vision & Culture and Redbridge Council to uphold its rules regarding the preservation of this Green. Rather it is pursuing a plan which interferes and is detrimental to the appearance, preservation and enhancement of this small open space.

Frustration over café application

Charles Llewellyn, Spratt Hall Road, Wanstead, writes:

The disappointment and bewilderment felt by Wanstead locals following the council’s surprising grant of planning permission to install the “shipping container” kiosk will not disappear but rumble on, much to the embarrassment of those who declined to acknowledge or to act on the perfectly reasonable objections submitted by so many locals.

The councillors and the planning department have now set a depressing precedent. Once, applications for planning permission could be refused as unsuitable for a conservation area but now there is to be an ugly steel thing on the green, people will build according to their wants and ignore the council thus making enforcement very difficult if not impossible. Without meaning to, Redbridge has killed its own Wanstead Village Conservation Area.

And for what? A kiosk no-one wants? That detracts from the area? To compete unfairly with High Street traders who pay business rates? When Afghan refugees need the money?
I ask that Redbridge stops being so tin-eared about this and looks again at the decision which many people consider deplorable.

Residents' ignored in kiosk plan

The site of the proposed kiosk on Christchurch Green (Image: Charles Llewellyn)

Scott Wilding, Wanstead Liberal Democrats, writes:

Despite 192 people registering an objection to the council’s proposed café kiosk on Christ Church Green, the scheme was approved on Thursday, August 26.

The planning application received the second highest number of objections to any project ever recorded for Wanstead, yet the decision to approve was waved through at a closed door session by the chair of the Planning Committee. The public were notified around 5pm on Friday, August 27 (the Friday of a bank holiday weekend).

The decision to approve this scheme in the face of such strong opposition was taken by a Labour councillor who neither lives in, nor represents, Wanstead.

Nor did our three Labour Wanstead Village councillors speak up for residents or ask for this decision to be taken at a full, open and public Planning Committee, so denying residents the right to put their views in person to their elected representatives.

We, along with many residents and local groups, had asked the council to take time and pause, listen to the views of the public and consider a better proposal that would be more in keeping with a Conservation Area, or drop the scheme altogether.

They failed to listen and our councillors failed to stand up for Wanstead.

Instead, a decision to install the badly thought through kiosk was taken in way, and at a time, that was designed to bury bad news.

We believe the decision to install this scheme, without proper consultation is undemocratic. If 192 people can take part in a legal and democratic process for their views to side-lined, what is the point of the process? Perhaps the real question should be; what is the point of councillors who neither listen to, or stand up for, Wanstead residents?