In addition to the scrutiny described below, residents have been engaging legal teams to question and curtail the activities of the developer Catalyst (now Peabody). Read more about those activities here.
Please watch this film of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting that was held on 17 December 2020. Catalyst Housing ignored all recommendations from the meeting, to consult and engage, and went ahead with the felling of 35 trees in March 2021.
Our petition was presented calling on RBKC to stop the felling of 42 trees on Wornington Green Estate and for Catalyst Housing to consult with residents over the regeneration.
Residents of the estate and the wider community made the the following statements:
Keith: "Our environment will be degraded by this".
Christine: "It is so devastating and upsetting to think about cutting these trees down that have been part of our lives".
Abbas Dadou, Chair of Lancaster West Residents Association: "Catalyst Housing please engage with residents to find a fair resolution. Residents should come before profits".
Isis Amlak: "My question to Catalyst is could you evidence how you have taken the impact of the Grenfell Tower atrocity and the multiplicities of issues that it has caused, into consideration in your plan? I'll be horrified to think that this regeneration plan went through 10 years and that Grenfell happened 3 years ago and no on has sat down at Catalyst to reconsider how they are going forward".
We also thank Cllr. Marie-Therese Rossi, Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Meeting, for her comments and recommendations to Council and Catalyst:
"To sum up, I have something to say to Catalyst. Something has gone very badly wrong here. You've got a planning permission, which by the sound of it, you got by the skin of your teeth, 10 years ago. You have not been engaging with the residents. And something I learnt a long time ago. I used to work with the urban regeneration agency and rule number 1 for regeneration is that you don't impose it. It's got to be bottom up. You have got to take people with you. And it really seems in this instance that that is not happening."
"So I would urge you Catalyst to go and look at your plans again and just see by building a few less houses or flats that you can actually save some of those trees. Because that is what the residents want. And as they have said they are the ones who have to live there for years to come. And Catalyst cannot just dump a project on residents and expect them to be happy about it because they would like to keep their trees. My sympathies are with the residents. I would urge you Catalyst to look again, because it can't be right, this level of protest against what you are doing and that you have not engaged with people down the years."
Email written to
Richard Smith, Managing Director of New Homes and
Charlotte Stamper, Head of External Affairs
Catalyst Housing
From Cheryl Saverus, Principal Planning Officer, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea on behalf of residents on 9 April 2021
Despite repeated requests, these 20 questions remain unanswered by Catalyst Housing, who refuse to engage with residents and provide transparency over their management of tree felling during the Wornington Green / Portobello Square redevelopment.
Dear Mr Gras,
Thank you for your response. I note the questions at the end of your email. In order to assist with providing answers to these, I have compiled a list of questions for Catalyst (representatives included in this email), who are best placed to respond:
Pre-development
How many trees existed on the estate prior to any re-development beginning on site? Please express this as a site-wide total and breakdown per phase area (Phases 1, 2 and 3)
Removed trees
How many trees on the estate have been removed since works began on site (i.e. from Phase 1 to present)?
Provide an up to date plan which identifies the locations of all trees removed from the estate so far (i.e. from Phase 1 to present)
Provide a schedule of the trees removed since works began on site (i.e. from Phase 1 to present), to include species, size and maturity
Confirm the number of trees removed in Phase 1
Confirm the number of trees already removed and yet to be removed in Phase 2
Confirm the number of trees proposed to be removed in Phase 3
How does the timescale for tree removal in Phase 2 fit with the programme of redevelopment in this phase?
How does the timescale for tree removal in Phase 3 fit with the programme of redevelopment in this phase?
New trees
How many trees have been planted on the redeveloped estate since works began on site (i.e. from Phase 1 to present)?
Provide an up to date plan which identifies the locations of all trees on the redeveloped estate planted so far (i.e. from Phase 1 to present)
Provide a schedule of the trees planted since works began on site (i.e. from Phase 1 to present), to include species, size and maturity
Provide a schedule of trees yet to be planted on the redeveloped estate (i.e. from present to end of Phase 3), to include species, size and maturity
Confirm the number of trees planted in Phase 1
Confirm the number of trees that will be planted in Phase 2
Confirm the number of trees that will be planted in Phase 3
How many of the trees already planted on the redeveloped estate are located in the public realm?
How many of the trees already planted on the redeveloped estate are located in private gardens?
How many of the trees yet to be planted on the redeveloped estate will be located in the public realm?
How many of the trees yet to be planted on the redeveloped estate will be located in private gardens?
Richard and Charlotte – as a matter of urgency, please could you provide responses to the above questions.
Thank you,
Cheryl
Cheryl Saverus MRTPI | Principal Planning Officer, Strategic Developments Team | Development Management
Planning and Place | Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
A letter in support of the Wornington Trees petition to the Environment Select Committee of RBKC (September 2021)from The Golborne Forum and the need to hold Catalyst Housing more accountable to the removal of trees throughout its rebuilding programme on Wornington Green and its Portobello Square.
Roger Roberts 357 Portobello Road, London W10 5SA
email: [email protected]
www.golbornelife.co.uk.
Re: A letter in support of a petition to the Environment Select Committee of RBKC (September 2021)
To whom it may concern:
The Golborne Forum brings together people who live and work in the Golborne Ward of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea to speak up for the area.
The Forum has consistently supported the view of many members of the Golborne, North Kensington and wider population as well as RBKC’s own researchers “that its parks and trees are the lungs and heart of the Borough”. The Forum stated in an objection to the Wornington Green redevelopment plans in 2010 that it is perverse that in North Kensington, an area blighted by poor air quality and the unmanageable impact of the raised A40 flyover, green spaces and trees are being reduced. This is even more concerning with recent events such as a Global environmental crisis, the Grenfell Tower disaster and, in and around North Kensington, the plethora of new developments such as Kensal Canal Side.
When Catalyst Housing proceeded with its tree removal plans as part of Phase 2B, they made statements of undertaking to relocate and reprovide mature trees – these commitments were ultimately drastically reduced in its work towards completion of this phase. It leaves serious concerns at plans to progress with Phase 3 with an upcoming planning application. It is clear that the Borough has requested further information about the planned removal of yet more trees and details of how this will be mitigated – and evident that answers to these issues continue to be outstanding. The illustration by Wornington Trees of the decimation of the capital assets of £20 million is of great concern and The Forum would support any moves to have the developers held responsible for reimbursement of these losses – with no future such loss to be allowed. RBKC, too, holds some responsibility in this with regards to the once existing trees of Athlone Gardens.
The Forum supports the call to urgently halt the destruction of any more mature trees, and additionally supports any calls that show how existing mature growth such as the trees lining Wornington Road at Ladbroke Grove will survive any developments in Phase 3 at Portobello Square/Wornington Green. These guarantees should also apply to the mature trees along Ladbroke Grove at Paul House and in the central open green space at the top of Portobello Road. Any additional planting should be of mature or semi-mature trees and mostly in the public realm.
Because of this long standing concern, The Golborne Forum is supporting the campaign by the Wornington Trees and the need to hold Catalyst Housing more accountable to the removal of trees throughout its rebuilding programme on Wornington Green and its Portobello Square.
Yours faithfully
Roger Roberts
Chair, The Golborne Forum
email: [email protected]
www.golbornelife.co.uk.
Re: A letter in support of a petition to the Environment Select Committee of RBKC (September 2021)
To whom it may concern:
The Golborne Forum brings together people who live and work in the Golborne Ward of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea to speak up for the area.
The Forum has consistently supported the view of many members of the Golborne, North Kensington and wider population as well as RBKC’s own researchers “that its parks and trees are the lungs and heart of the Borough”. The Forum stated in an objection to the Wornington Green redevelopment plans in 2010 that it is perverse that in North Kensington, an area blighted by poor air quality and the unmanageable impact of the raised A40 flyover, green spaces and trees are being reduced. This is even more concerning with recent events such as a Global environmental crisis, the Grenfell Tower disaster and, in and around North Kensington, the plethora of new developments such as Kensal Canal Side.
When Catalyst Housing proceeded with its tree removal plans as part of Phase 2B, they made statements of undertaking to relocate and reprovide mature trees – these commitments were ultimately drastically reduced in its work towards completion of this phase. It leaves serious concerns at plans to progress with Phase 3 with an upcoming planning application. It is clear that the Borough has requested further information about the planned removal of yet more trees and details of how this will be mitigated – and evident that answers to these issues continue to be outstanding. The illustration by Wornington Trees of the decimation of the capital assets of £20 million is of great concern and The Forum would support any moves to have the developers held responsible for reimbursement of these losses – with no future such loss to be allowed. RBKC, too, holds some responsibility in this with regards to the once existing trees of Athlone Gardens.
The Forum supports the call to urgently halt the destruction of any more mature trees, and additionally supports any calls that show how existing mature growth such as the trees lining Wornington Road at Ladbroke Grove will survive any developments in Phase 3 at Portobello Square/Wornington Green. These guarantees should also apply to the mature trees along Ladbroke Grove at Paul House and in the central open green space at the top of Portobello Road. Any additional planting should be of mature or semi-mature trees and mostly in the public realm.
Because of this long standing concern, The Golborne Forum is supporting the campaign by the Wornington Trees and the need to hold Catalyst Housing more accountable to the removal of trees throughout its rebuilding programme on Wornington Green and its Portobello Square.
Yours faithfully
Roger Roberts
Chair, The Golborne Forum
