Tolworth Tower Questions from residents not speaking in the meeting 1.Jane Williams What local, traffic, commercial, and importantly social impact studies have been commissioned and reviewed prior to decisions by Kingston local authority? Many applications for similar high rise buildings were opposed at Jubilee Way site by Lib Dem councillors over many years. Reported social studies by Kingston Council (Cambridge Estate) and others have found living in high rise blocks unfavourable, socially isolating, lacking community. In fact high rises have been demolished. Why are they being considered now at this site at such close proximity? Who will want to be living in them? 2.Linda Mason Due to the large number of properties proposed in this development can you say where the children living there will go to school and where all tenants will register with local doctors as all the local schools are full as are the doctor surgeries? The development is far too large and parking is going to be a real issue apart from the concerns above. I do hope Kingston is sensible and not only interested in bragging on how many new homes they have had built. 3.Kathryn Ingham I am appalled to see that there are plans still going ahead to build 2 more towers on Tolworth Broadway. This is dreadful from the point of view of traffic, the rise in population, air pollution etc. Of course with the proposed buildings on the Toby Jug site also, this makes the plan even more unviable. Please think of those who already live in the area this development is a step too far. 4.Diane Culpin I am wondering why such a high density of development is allowed on such a small site. The density is much higher than all the surrounding streets and will look completely out of character. A total of 500 flats is a massive increase in population for this town. Has any thought been given to where the children will go to school? Where the people will access GP services, how this will impact parking in the local area (especially as there will be less parking available than there is now)? I believe that high rise development like this will redirect the area into more high rise development in the future on the other side of the roundabout. What this area needs is small affordable family housing with gardens (like the sunray estate) to give people the opportunity to have a good quality of life. This high rise development will set Tolworth on the path of Croydon and change its character permanently. Tolworth Tower was initially designed to be a stand alone landmark high building. It was never designed to be surrounded by other towers and will lose its impact if this happens. I call on the planning committee to limit the height of additional towers to the height of the travel lodge to ensure the area is not overdeveloped and to protect the original vision of the architects of Tolworth Tower. 5.Melanie Burrows I would like to understand how the applicants have taken into consideration and provided solutions for categorically increasing the demand and pressure on school places and Tolworth Station which only has 2 trains per hour. 6.Michelle Stone I received a copy of the Good Life newsletter and was disappointed to discover that two tall towers were being added to the Tolworth Broadway site when a low rise development would be preferable that would not lower the appeal of the site for shoppers, residents and hotel guests. Have you considered a low rise option where a horizontal low rise Travelodge is built at the front of the site at the approximate height of the existing Travelodge and covering the floor area of the existing ground floor shops along Tolworth Broadway? The existing Travelodge site would be used for rental or leasehold. Travelodge may be very interested in funding the project to improve their customer site profile and customer base with an exciting new building. The Travelodge customer would then be staying in a new upmarket building with an impressive view of all the restaurants and food shops they could visit during their stay on the other side of Tolworth Broadway as would the residents and shoppers. The site would be more appealing for shoppers, residents and hotel guests and the rental/leasehold capacity would be increased, as the two towers are quite out of character with the site, shops and hotel and may lead to a loss of custom on both sides of the main Broadway road. The Travelodge passengers could be set down at the rear of the building as at present with appropriate car park modification to enter the rear of the exciting new Travelodge building sited on the Tolworth Broadway The customers and residents surface parking would not be disturbed to ensure continued footfall at the shops as the shoppers drive, sometimes from quite a distance, to the supermarket and do enjoy the surface parking both at the front of M&S and under the overhead car park. 7.Paul Enright I wanted to express my strong objection towards the high rise development proposed for the Tolworth Tower site. I am a lifelong resident of Tolworth for over 60 years. I would have liked to have joined the meeting on 11th March but I have a Governors' meeting at a Tolworth Primary School that evening. I have a number of objections to the development. The new blocks, along with the conversion of Tolworth Tower into flats, would bring almost 500 new households into Tolworth. This is in addition to the 950 new flats on the Toby Jug site. Tolworth simply does not have the infrastructure to cope with such an expansion. The Ewell Road already suffers from long traffic jams during the rush hour periods. This has been exacerbated by the narrowing of the road over the last year. Once the Covid crisis is over we will be back to long, frustrating delays in travelling between Tolworth and Kingston. The new development would greatly increase local traffic problems in the area including car parking. The development would also greatly increase pressure on local services such as medical and dental care, collection of rubbish, policing, public transport, road maintenance, social care, leisure facilities and school places. Our local schools are already full. I also object to the impact that the development will have on the character of Tolworth as an attractive London suburb. The construction of these high rise blocks will set a precedent for further such constructions throughout the area. Tolworth will become more like an inner London Borough with all the consequent social challenges that they face. The days of high rise developments are over. Surely we have learned from the mistakes of the 1960s and 1970s. They undermine the sense of community and belonging. I hope that the Surbiton Neighbourhood Committee and the Council will oppose these plans. 8.Maria Kyriakou How would they deal with the inevitable traffic congestion and mayhem which would ensue during over 4 years of building work? A lot of traffic passes through Tolworth including 5 bus routes? 9.Barbara Kyriakou With the increase in residents from both this proposal and the Toby Jug site, what provision is being made for an additional school and additional healthcare facilities? The Property Developers, Meadow Partners, have talked about 500 job opportunities. What commercial retail interest has there been so far in this development, bearing in mind Boots and Costa Coffee are to be demolished. Once the construction workers have gone, how many jobs would have been created? How can Meadow Partners reconcile 499 new homes of 1, 2, and 3 bedroom homes, with only 161 car parking spaces? They are in cloud cuckoo land if they believe these flat owners do not have cars and will want to be on bicycles. The surrounding areas should not have to pay for residents parking. The construction work is 4.5 years. How is the traffic going to be controlled going down the Broadway and on to the A3. What protection is going to be offered to the nearby roads to prevent rat running. 10.Christopher Georgallou a) overdevelopment of a relatively small site; b) naive to think that people will resort to cycles rather than cars - increase in illegal parking; c) congestion in the surrounding area - already A3/A240/Broadway is extremely busy as a thoroughfare - will be compounded by the proposals for the Toby Jug site; d)) disruption over a period 4.5 yrs - this will inevitably lead to a closure of many small and large businesses (esp in view of the lax planning regulation in the conversion of commercial to residential usage.) Has an assessment of the impact of the proposals on this be made? e) the impact on amenities and social services. Has a cost benefit analysis of this been made and if so the results please? f) this sets a precedent for further tower blocks in the vicinity of the application site as well as further afield in Surbiton; There is a need for a mixed and balanced development on appropriate sites in the suburb of Tolworth. The current proposals smack of the disastrous schemes we had in the 1970s with tower blocks offering low cost housing only to find tenants entrapped inside them! (I worked on the Government’s Estate Action Scheme in the 1980s/90s and visited several such sites.) It appears that there is a hidden Govt agenda to make Tolworth an eventual overspill for the London Boroughs and if so this will be a disaster.