Over 34 residents and local stakeholders attended BRRA’s open community meeting about the proposed redevelopment around Bromley North station. A presentation from LBB outlined the issues, opportunities and suggestions for the site and is available here. This was followed by a short presentation from Bromley Civic Society about the site’s heritage and conservation issues.
There followed an open Q&A session and both LBB as well as Councillors from both Sundridge and Plaistow and Bromley Town wards were able to respond to residents’ concerns directly.
Minutes of the meeting have been sent out to all BRRA members as well as all those who attended the meeting. A copy is also available on request from admin@brra.uk.
This will all be down to brinkmanship unless the deal has already been done behind closed doors. The Mayor’s office wants something Bromley Council has in it’s gift and Bromley Council wants something the Mayor has in his gift.
The Mayor needs brownfield sites to build lots of homes on and Bromley Council is desperate for better transport links to London.
Looking at what’s happened in Lewisham around the DLR station they have built lots and lots of homes on former office space with absolutely no parking space for the new reaidents. But that’s OK for the people who live in them because they’re right next to the DLR station and ten minutes from London Bridge so they don’t need a car. Lewisham council is happy as they have lots of yuppys paying council tax and spending in local businesses and the Mayor’s office is happy as they can say they created lots of homes from brownfield sites.
So Bromley North is a similar site. The potential to create lots of homes around a station but unlike Lewisham the station the site is next to as it stands is practically useless.
The issue will be that if the Mayor wants 800 homes he will have 800+ workers that need to get to work without a car and an extra 1000 or so people crossing the footbridge at Grove Park at 8am to go to LB CX or CW just isn’t feasible.
So the quid pro quo will be that if the Mayor wants to build then he’ll have to provide the transport links.
The best that can be hoped for is the DLR comes to Bromley North. At the very least Bromley North will have direct trains to London Bridge after the Thameslink works are finished at LB and there will be more slots available to cross the fast tracks from the outer reaches of Kent at Grove Park/Hither Green. I would guess the direct trains come first and the DLR will come later.
They will build lots of flats on site A, that’s inevitable, and it will be painful while it’s happening and it will change the area no doubt.
The upside is that it will be easier for you to get to work. With much better transport links and reduced commuting time your home will become more valuable.
Your home will also become more valuable still because your house will be nearer to Parish School, Scotts Park, Bullers Girls and Boys, Cooper’s and Chis & Sid and no further away from Ravensbourne or Bishop Justuce than the new homes. The competition for school places in good schools will make your house worth more without a doubt.
So, if you really don’t like Babbacombe Rd anymore your house will be comparatively worth so much more as it’s in the first nice place to live between central London and Kent and in the catchment for both excellent primary and senior schools. So you can sell your house for a fortune and go and move to somewhere nicer.
The people who lived in Lewisham before the DLR and those who lived in Sydenham before the overground came couldn’t believe their luck when their house value doubled because they were suddenly so nearer in time to the places where everyone has to go to work.
The only constant in life is change. London is growing and swallowing up suburbia. When I walk around Sevenoaks it has a feel of how Bromley used to be. And when I walk around Bromley it has a feel of how Lewisham used to be.
This change will make you significantly wealthier, unless Bromley Council completely misunderstand the situation, but I really think that they understand they need this to happen following Lewisham’s win from the DLR and Croydon getting a massive 1bn development for a new Westfield Centre on the old Whitgift site.
Personally I hope that in five years time I sell my house to a couple of investment bankers who have more money than sense, one of which gets the DLR 25 mins to Canary Wharf and the other gets the train 20 mins to London Bridge who send little Sebastian to Bullers Wood Boys and little Penelope to Bullers Wood Girls and they give me a shed load of money to retire with in the country somewhere.
I hope that this opportunity works in all your favour too.
🙂