Tales from the Front Line

One Rule for Them…

by Richard Marsh
on August 11, 2009 in Properties

Is it me or is it a tad unjust that if any one of us cut down some trees in the middle of South Kensington, or stuck a neon flashing light on the front of our Grade II listed office then the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) would prosecute. Yet neither they nor Transport For London (TFL) are required to get consent for such things.

‘Trivial’ and ‘NIMBY’ I hear you say, yet here we are in our London office in South Kensington experiencing such an injustice.

In their infinite wisdom, RBKC and TFL have decided to spend upwards of £25 million reorganising the one-way system around the tube station here. Granted, it wasn’t that great, but it wasn’t that bad either! They also had problems with overcrowding on the narrow pavement outside the station, while people were waiting for a bus. So rather than spend a few hundred thousand on widening the pavement outside the station and moving a single bus stop, they decided to close the street to traffic and reroute 2,000 buses a day outside our office. To do so they have dug up most of South Ken, replaced all the pavements, installed more traffic lights, installed bus stops and taken away all the green space to be replaced by acres of granite. Anyone who has visited our office in London will know that Cromwell Place is an unspoilt uniform street, (subject to an Article 4 Directive) with Grade II listed white-stucco-fronted houses. We are not even allowed to paint the front of the building without consent; however, RBKC and TFL are sticking a bus shelter outside our office! All this has been possible without any planningat all. Indeed it has all been carried out using a ‘Temporary Traffic Order’, which once all the work has been completed, will be turned into a ‘Permanent Traffic Order’ . What’s a TTO? Well its one of those bits of yellow plastic strapped round a lamp post with felt tip scrawled all over it, and some illegible code number on it – oh, and they have to advertise it in the Borough Rag.

There is of course a bigger picture to be looked at here, in that this is part and parcel of the “pedestrianisation” of Exhibition Road and the redevelopment of South Ken tube station by TFL – all before the 2012 Olympics and all to the benefit of TFL and RBKC pockets.

Enough ranting, but in the main the planning process exists to preserve and improve the buildings and streetscapes surrounding us. It is why London is the way it is. We have to adhere to their rules, why the hell shouldn’t they? I spend my life advising clients that they have to adhere to the planning process, so what am I meant to say to them now?

Signing off – spare a thought for the poor bu##ers who actually live on Cromwell Place and purchased their properties in what was one of the last quiet streets left in the middle of South Ken. With 2,000 buses a day and a bus stop outside their house, I would hazard a guess that they might be worth 50% less than before, with no right to compensation – Caveat Emptor.