Objection submitted to Harrow Council Planning by The Pinner Association:
Planning Application reference: PL/1276/24
Tesco, 1 Ash Hill Drive, Pinner, Harrow, HA5 2AG
Details pursuant to condition 5 (Construction Logistics Plan) attached to planning permission P/0719/22 allowed on appeal reference APP/M5450/W/23/3314704 dated 05/12/2023 for redevelopment to provide three storey building comprising 7 X 2 bed units and 1 X 1 bed unit; proposed vehicle access via supermarket to rear; parking; landscaping; bin and cycle stores; amenity space.
The Pinner Association has the following objection relating to this, and other “Approval of Details Reserved by Condition” compliance applications, for this proposed development.
A new dropped curb has been constructed on the bend in Cuckoo Hill where there is a granted on appeal to the Planning Inspectorate permission to construct flats in a portion of the Tesco car park at Pinner Green – appeal reference: APP/M5450/W/23/3314704.
There have recently been published on the Harrow Planning Portal several applications (references PL/0944/24, PL/1005/24 and PL/0970/24) from the developers to cover some of the conditions applied to this planning consent. One of these shows that a “temporary access” from Cuckoo Hill is to be used during the construction of the development.
A “Construction Logistics Plan” application has now been published, Harrow Planning reference PL/1276/24, on the Harrow Planning Portal as was required as a condition of the grant of the appeal:
“21. The condition requiring a Detailed Construction Logistics Plan (DCLP) is necessary to mitigate risks to highway safety and impacts on neighbouring occupiers during construction. It is a pre-commencement condition because mitigation needs to be agreed before any works on site take place.”
This “Construction Logistics Plan” application Has made make it clear that during construction access to the site is proposed to be on the inside of the bend on Cuckoo Hill Road – see section 5 of the applicant’s “Construction and Logistics Plan” section 1. This states that:
“Vehicular Site Access:
5.4: As mentioned in Paragraph 2.21, a temporary access will be established on Cuckoo Hill (at the northeastern corner of the site) for construction vehicles to enter and leave the site. This will avoid construction vehicles travelling through Ash Hill Drive and obstructing access to, from and within the Tesco Supermarket, which is expected to remain operational throughout the construction of the development.
5.5 Vehicles will drive into the site in forward gear and will then reverse out of the site onto Cuckoo Hill. As Cuckoo Hill will remain open throughout the works, construction vehicles will only be able to leave the site with the help of marshals who will temporarily hold traffic (using stop / go boards) on Cuckoo Hill (in both directions) and guide the vehicle out of the development.”
This would create a road safety hazard at the inside of a blind bend on a cambered incline which has been the site of many road traffic accidents in the past. Cuckoo Hill is a busy route used by a steady stream of vehicles and stopping this traffic whilst a large vehicle was manoeuvred both in and out of the “temporary access” could result in severe congestion with a queue of vehicles affecting the exit on to Cuckoo Hill from roundabout at the junction with the A404 Rickmansworth Road. The proposed use of the narrow section of Cuckoo Hill between the roundabout and the “temporary access”, where residents’ car parking effectively reduces the carriageway to one vehicle width, as the route for construction vehicles would again cause severe congestion and which block the roundabout exit and hence affect traffic flow on the A404 Rickmansworth Road .
During the consultation on the planning application for this development – reference P/0719/22 – the Pinner Association and many others objected to a vehicle access on the inside of the bend in Cuckoo Hill on the basis of road safety and as a result the applicants changed the proposed vehicular access to be via the Tesco car park and that is the basis upon which the application was allowed on appeal.
Even a “temporary access” on to Cuckoo Hill would create such a hazard to road safety that the other conditions compliance applications for this proposed development should be refused until a “Construction Logistics Plan” application which shows vehicular access to be via the Tesco car park during both construction and occupation of the new flats has been submitted and granted by Harrow Planning.
There would be a greater number of vehicle movements and by far bigger vehicles using the “temporary access” during construction that there would be during the occupation of the flats and therefore the potential road safety hazard of a vehicular access at that point would be even greater than that considered unacceptable when the planning application was modified to change the location of the vehicular access for the flats.
We are concerned that once the development is constructed the “temporary access” on to Cuckoo Hill could be become the de facto vehicular access for the new flats thus resulting in a permanent extreme hazard to road safety in Cuckoo Hill.
Contrary to the pre-commencement condition 21 of the allowed appeal:
“21. The condition requiring a Detailed Construction Logistics Plan (DCLP) is necessary to mitigate risks to highway safety and impacts on neighbouring occupiers during construction. It is a pre-commencement condition because mitigation needs to be agreed before any works on site take place.”
works have commenced on the site as the “temporary access” dropped curb on to Cuckoo Hill is already in place and the part of the Tesco car park to be used for this development has been fenced off.