A letter from the Kensington Society:
You may be aware of the changes the government has recently imposed removing the divisions between the classes. All are now lumped together as Class E use class.
Now the government is proposing to go further.Your support in opposing this policy change is needed as well as your friends and other retailers!
The proposal as written will have disastrous consequences. It will allow entire high streets and town centres to be converted into housing. Gone will be the hopes for “walkabout neighbourhoods”.
This is a charter for developers, not for local communities. We need your support in opposing this proposal. The consultation ended last Friday but we can still fight this through our own MP Felicity Buchan at felicity.buchan.mp@parliament.uk
A few points to make:
Because housing has such high values in Kensington and Chelsea, just think what these proposals would mean for your local retailers, such as:
stripping out locally needed uses from our main shopping streets, local neighbourhood centres, indeedanywhere;
reducing vitality and viability of the remaining centres, reducing the attractions, the range of shops and services;
reducing the range of choice they provide by having them all in one place providing mutual support, consumer choice and public transport ...perhaps miles away;
reducing accessibility to these facilities – residents will have to walk further, take public transport or a car to get their day-to-day shopping and services – we choose to live here because we can go round the corner to get a pint of milk;
reducing the number of major employment uses (especially offices), resulting in less footfall, loss of vitality – which will be a vicious circle of more loss and less need for the services;
encouraging asset stripping – random cherry picking, creating gaps in our shopping frontage; and
killing the idea of sustainable walkable neighbourhoods – through the decline of our local centres.
Please share this with all the retailers you know. It must not be allowed.
Yours sincerely
Amanda Frame
Chairman
| The Kensington Society; T: 020 7193 8217; M: 07557 221 110 |
www.kensingtonsociety.org | Registered Charity No. 267778
