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Moxon Street car park in Marylebone |
We can do better than ‘shoddy’ plan, insists developer
Company slams council on proposals for car park
THE landlord credited with masterminding the transformation of Marylebone High Street is drawing up plans for the redevelopment of one of the most hotly contested pieces of land in the area.
The debate over what to do with Moxon Street car park has raged ever since the land was the subject of a compulsory purchase from the Howard de Walden Estate by the then Greater London Council in 1966 for “educational use”.
After numerous false starts and political wrangling, de Walden want it back, and are gearing up to put in an offer for part of the site – around £20million – when the covenant enshrining the 100-place car park to Westminster Council expires in 2011.
Over the past few months, three blueprints for the site just behind Marylebone High Street – all of which include the threatened adult education centre – have been put out to public consultation, but de Walden say they are “shoddy” and misleading.
Now the landlord, which owns more than 100 acres in Marylebone, is mounting its own publicity drive to tell residents what they would do with the land – an ambitious plan that includes the extension of Waitrose, banning all traffic from the site to create a public square and building a brand new nursery school, GP surgery, shops and residential units.
Since it emerged last week that the funding agreement for a flagship adult education centre on the southern part of the site was in disarray, the site has taken on a new complexion, with residential developers eyeing up the previously secure portion of the land.
The council denies ignoring de Walden, but could not offer an explanation as to why none of the proposals included closing the roads.
Howard de Walden’s managing director Simon Baynham said: “The three proposals don’t give an idea of what is truly possible. If you close the roads, which is included in the planning brief but not the three proposals, we could extend Waitrose and build a safe square with no cars.
“We don’t have a problem with the adult education centre. I think the council will get the money eventually, but we’re not interested in that part of the site. The consultation process has been limited because the public didn’t know there were other options. We think people living in the area want a bigger Waitrose, a nursery and a GP surgery.”
De Walden plan to carry out their own consultation before drawing up a speculative planning application without actually owning the site.
One of the most controversial aspects of any redevelopment is what to do with the hugely popular farmers’ market that trades on the site every Sunday. Only one of the options put forward by the council maintains the market on site and de Walden say their plan would also keep the market in Moxon Street.
The council’s director of resources, Alastair Gilchrist, said: “Howard de Walden‘s proposals, along with any other interested parties, were one input into the process and have not been favoured or ignored.
“We will now consider the best use of the whole site, taking into account the feedback received from the consultation, the architect’s professional recommendations, and the guidelines outlined in the planning brief.” |
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