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Scale down these plans
• COMMENTS on the planning application submitted for the Ford site at the Highbury Corner end of Canonbury Road have to be submitted to the Planning Department, at 222 Upper Street, N1 1YA, by Thursday June 5, quoting application number P 080565.
We have followed the exhibitions and plans for the scheme, and believe that all local amenity groups will oppose it because, with mainly six and seven storeys, it is far too high in relation to the area and surrounding buildings.
Islington is typically low-rise. This scheme is out of scale with the Union Chapel, and will simply wipe out the view approaching north or south from Canonbury Road.
The scheme disregards Islington Council’s own planning guidelines as set out on its website. These mention appropriate heights for the site as being four to five storeys along Canonbury Road and two to three along Compton Avenue. And they go on to say that “the quality and height of any proposed buildings must respect the nearby grade II*-listed building, adjacent conservation areas, adjacent residential properties and existing trees”. All this is completely disregarded in the present hugely intrusive planning application.
The scheme takes no account of transport problems at Highbury Corner, where buses and Tube trains are severely overcrowded.
The scheme is too big for the site. One unfortunate result of the attempts to maximize the density of the scheme is that the block proposed along Canonbury Road comes up to the back edge of the pavement at the southern end, so there is no opportunity to extend the line of mature trees along Edwards Cottages and to reinforce the more attractive streetscape at the Highbury Corner end. Ten years ago tree planting was a key part of the approval for the Ford buildings.
This site is a key part of the borough around Highbury Corner, a gateway to Islington used by thousands of people every week. What is required is a smaller-scale, lower- rise project that respects the environment. All of us welcome a sensitive treatment of this important site. This is not offered in the present planning application.
Philip Walker
Chairman, Canonbury Society
Andrew Gardner
Chairman, Islington Archaeology and History Society
Andrew Bosi
Chairman, Islington Society
Anthony Richardson
Chairman, Friends of the Union Chapel
Charles Wood
Acting chairman, The Upper Street Association
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