Public
Our ref: J040815
London Borough of Islington Islington Town Hall Upper Street London N1 2UD
4th June 2019
Dear Sir / Madam
Waterlow Building, Whittington Hospital, Magdala Avenue, Archway, London N19 5NF Application for Prior Notification of Demolition
On behalf of our client, Whittington Health NHS Trust (‘the Trust’), please find enclosed an application made under Part 11 Schedule 2 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 2015.
The application relates to prior notification for the demolition consent in respect of the Waterlow Building at the Whittington Hospital site above. As such, please find enclosed the following information:
• Completed planning application forms, • Demolition Method Statement, • Additional information requesting regarding hazardous materials, traffic, site security and amenity, • Biodiversity survey and report.
The site is located within LB Islington, within the Whittington Hospital campus at Archway. The single building to which this application relates is the Waterlow Building, which is located in the north-eastern corner of the campus fronting onto Highgate Hill. The existing building is brick and extends to six storeys with car parking at grade and in an under croft below the southernmost wing. The building is redundant and has been left vacant for a number of years. Prior to this, it was occupied by UCL and was used for teaching.
The demolition of the Waterlow Building and its replacement by a temporary structure will re-provide facilities currently located within the Whittington Education Centre elsewhere onsite. It is not considered that the loss of the Waterlow building or the subsequent demolition of the WEC building will cause a shortfall in the medium- and longer-term social infrastructure provision, given the intentions to redevelop the regeneration of the part of the Whittington Hospital Site and re-provide consolidated healthcare services over a more efficient modern floorspace in the long term. These long-term development aspirations are set out in more detail below.
J:\Planning\Job Files\J040815- Whittington Hospital, Project Oriel\Application Submission\Prior Notification Page 1 of 3 Figure 1 - Whittington Hospital boundary (blue) and Waterlow Building site (red)
The Proposals The Whittington NHS Trust’s intentions are to dispose of parts of their estate that are currently redundant or under-utilised. The decanting, sale and potential demolition of the WEC building within the Whittington Hospital Site creates a need to relocate displaced services. The land and building to be sold to Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust (“C&I”) are currently occupied by the Whittington Education Centre (“WEC”). The WEC is a purpose-built education and training facility principally for the use of Whittington Health staff. The centre consists of 13 training rooms of various sizes, ranging from smaller meeting rooms for 15 people to larger rooms capable of accommodating up to 60 people.
The land disposal will form part of a wider NHS estate initiative facilitating the move of Moorfields Eye Hospital onto a new site at St Pancras Hospital. The project (“Project Oriel”), will see services move out of the current Moorfileds site to a new “integrated eye care, research and education facility” run in partnership with University College London. As part of the same scheme, C&I has secured finance to demolish buildings in St Pancras and move inpatient beds to the current site of the WEC building. The move of services is due to be completed by 2021 so that Moorfields can finish its project by 2024.
It is understood that any planning applications submitted relating to the development proposals would constitute major development. A temporary permission allows for services to be accommodated with minimal interruption to the Whittington NHS Trust service provision at the campus. The redevelopment of the Waterlow building and subsequently the WEC building is best carried out through a two-stage process. The first stage is to submit a Prior Notification for demolition, followed by the application for temporary planning permission.
In the context of the above, it is considered that it is appropriate to demolish the Waterlow building, and as such the submitted material should be sufficient to provide appropriate Prior Notification of the intended works.
J:\Planning\Job Files\J040815- Whittington Hospital, Project Oriel\Application Submission\Prior Notification Page 2 of 3 Justification As already discussed through the pre-application process with LB Islington Planning Officers, the redevelopment will enable the re-accommodation of educational facilities within the Whittington Hospital site.
The benefits of the proposed demolition are as follows: • Provision of new hospital floorspace enabling the right kind of health care in the right location, • Enabling the opportunity to provide modern healthcare from the Whittington Hospital site to the benefit of local residents, • Facilitating staff retention and encouraging high calibre new staff by providing much needed, high quality work and teaching space on site, • Making use of an underused brownfield site in a sustainable location, • Creating an attractive place to work.
We trust that the above (and attached) provides sufficient evidence to provide a comprehensive determination. Should you have any queries or require further information please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely
David Brown Planning Director
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