Save Roding Valley Village Gree from development!

The official website of the Roding Valley Residents' CommitteeRoding Valley Residents' Committee  Tree icon

Chairman Laurence Kubiak    Secretary: Jane Davies

Roding Valley Village Green Website.

A website run on behalf of Roding Valley Residents’ Committee by Jonathan Kubiak (committee member).

This page last updated: Tuesday 22.07.2008 10:37 PM .

A view from 1976A brief history.

In the 1930s, Charles S French built the Monkam's estate (Buckhurst Hill East). He built it using the profits and bricks from his brickyard, which was on the site of Buckhurst Hill Community (formerly County) Primary School. He built Chestnut Avenue between 1934 and 1947. He began building Hornbeam Road, but only built a few terraces before WW2. After the war, Hornbeam Road was aquired by the council, who built prefabricated buildings which, in the 1970s, were replaced by the current council houses and flats (most of which are now privatly owned).

At the southern end of Chestnut Avenue, a large section of land was left. The church was built on the northern half of this land. The southern part of the land was left as a green by Charles French. The green has a bridal path running down the North side.

A view from 1976The 6th May 2006.

At 7:30 in the morning of Saturday, 6th May 2006, contractors working for private builder, Steve McLaren, arrived. They proceeded to start felling trees with chainsaws and, in at least one reported case, transit vans tied to the trees. Local residents rushed to find out what was happening and to protest by sitting on the felled trees so that the workmen would be unable to continue the work. At first the S McLaren claimed to be carrying out work for British Telecom (the workmen had brought British Telecom signs with them and placed them around the site), but this was untrue. At one point, S McLaren also informed the public that he was a security guard.

The police and the RSPCA later arrived. When the police arrived S McLaren finally admitted that he had bought the site and intended to put flats on it if he could obtain planning permission (he said this when he knew that he was being AV recorded). He refused to comment on whom he had purchased it from. The RSPCA took a small bird that had fallen from a nest in a felled tree. The workmen also wilfully sawed a baby squirrel in half when he emerged from another nest in thetree. A council officer came down A view from 1976and requested that the workmen stop work until Monday when it could be ascertained whether there were any TPOs (Tree Preservation Orders) on any trees. S McLaren agreed to stop and did so until the council officer left. The council officer left along with the police who said that there was nothing they could do after which the workmen continued (although it has later been discovered that the contractors’ work, that morning, contravened the Country and Wildlife Act and could have therefore been halted by the police).

The site was then sealed with an approx. 2m high fence which meant that the RSPCA couldn’t check any trees for nests as they would require the police in attendance to enter the site. The RSPCA then left.

During the work one oak, when felled, fell onto the bridal path completely cutting a fence in half. This was becausethe trees hadn’t been gradually choppeddown but sliced at the base in a bid to remove them all before any actioncould be taken.

It turned out that the land had been owned by Charles French Trust, setup by Charles S. French.The council maintained the land at the tax-payers expense. The Charles French Trust were willing to allow the council to build a playground on it in 2000 (a plan that localresidents rejected).

Steve McLaren said that hehad purchased the land the day before commencing the work.

The land, valued between £200,000 & £500,000, was purchased on Wednesday, 10th May 2006 6may2006for £5,210.

One Oak tree has been left but only because to fell it, BT would have had to move some cables. It is now protected by apermantent Tree Preservation Order.

The site was left with a badly secured, green, approx 2m high fence, which fell over within twelve hours.

Click here for the Photo Gallery including the events that occured on the 6th May, 2006

Then...

A committee was set up within days. On Wednesday, 17th June 2006, Steve McLaren applied for 'retention of tempory boundry hoarding'. This was refused on Friday, 11th August 2006 (see 'Notes and Updates' below). On Friday, 22nd September 2006, the fences were finally removed.

FencesAn application to formerly register the land as a village green under the 'Commons Registration Act, 1965' was made to Essex County Council on Wednesday, 28th June 2006. Statements of witness and support for the application were gathered from the public (again see 'Notes and Updates') and sent to Essex County Council.

Steve McLaren, on Tuesday 17th October 2006, requested planning permission for '9 2bedroom flats'. Planning was, again, rejected (see 'Notes & Updates) on Saturday, 28th October 2006. The council had recieved between 200 and 250 objections to the application from members of the public including a 42 page objection from RVRC.

On Saturday, 18th Novemebr 2006, Steve McLaren notified Laurence Kubiak (chairman of RVRC) that he intended 'to commence preceedings against him for applying to formerly register the land as a village green ...'. Information about the court case can be seen in 'Notes and Updates'.

Change of owner.

Towards the end of June, Steve McLaren announced that he intended to auction the green on the 8th July.

The green was sold out of auction to a private individual who, when visiting the green, announced that he intended to build a house for himself and his family. No further details are known about this individual at this stage.

Strettons have confirmed that the land has been sold, have also given what the purchase price was (£32,000) however were not willing to name the buyer.

The listing may be seen here.

The committee contacted Strettons to point out the errors in this listing. The auctioneers informed the committee that they would make an announcement at the auction. However, it is presumed that, as the land was purchased privatly, the buyer was not made aware of this informaion.

The committee is also placing pressure on Strettons to disclose all the relavent facts to the buyer. The sale is not yet completed as the the buyer has only payed a 10% deposit on the land. He had 28 days to pay the balance.

Strettons notified the committee that the buyer had paid.

More Recently

now1now1The Residents' Committee tried to make Planning Services force Steve McLaren to replace the trees that he has removed through an enforcement notice. As yet, the council have been un-willing to enact such a notice.

They are also seeking to protect St Elizabeth's church (next to the green) from development, where services have not taken place for three years. It has now been included on the 'local list'. This is a list maintained by the council of buildings of local importance. It protects the exterior of the building from modification.

Now

It was decided by Essex County Council that the vilage green application should be taken to public appeal. RVRC consider this an unnecessary action and are curently attempting to reverse this decision.

Mr Hamidi has also taken his planning refusal to appeal at the planning inspectorate.

Notes and Updates

Note.

Please note. A lot of information was being withheld from this website, due to the court case.

This is the reason that the committee’s statement of objections to the flats was removed.

The withheld information shall (re)appearing gradually, along with court documents.

RVRC thanks you for your understanding.

Items in RED indicate a new document.

Note. When viewing any document, click on blue numbers in the text (e.g. [1]) to view the relevant foot-note). Once the foot-note has been read, click the blue number to the left of the foot-note to return to the text.

Court Case.

We have been having difficulty with our solicitors with regard to unpaid fees.

Briefly, due to the non-award of all of the claimed costs, the solicitors determined that the committee still owed them another £####.

The committee, appalled at this allegation, were forced to take the matter to the legal complaints service.

After many months of deliberation, we were able to have the outstanding debt removed.

This means that, although we now owe no more money, we are unable to refund those who donated.

This had been our intention, but, unfortunately, we are unable perform these refunds. We apologise for this but the matter was beyond our control.

 

14/05/2007: A telephone conference took place with the judge, S McLaren's legal team and our legal team to decide how costs were to be awarded.

THE JUDGE RULED THAT MR McLAREN SHOULD PAY BOTH HIS AND OUR FULL COSTS!

Mr McLaren's legal team requested 'leave to appeal' (no costs payment while he appealed).

THIS WAS ALSO REFUSED!

S McLaren can still appeal, but to do this he must pay costs, then submit an 'independant appeal'. An independant appeal means that the court of appeal decide (based on papers) whether the case has merit before deciding whether to hear the case in court or not.

 

11/05/2007: A judgement was handed down.

The court ruled that the case should be struck out as an abuse of process!

In other words, we won a very important test case!

The full judgement may be found here.

A report shall appear here soon.

Please continue to watch this space.

The judgement may be appealed.

Roding Valley Residents' Committee would like to thank the public for financially supporting the case.

 

04/05/2007: A summary judgement took place before Mr Justice Pelling at the Royal Courts of Justice, London.

The case was argued for over four hours in court.

A judgement wasn't made at the time.

 

15/01/2007: A directions hearing took place, where a timetable was agreed.

Witness statements (claims of evidence) went between the applicant and the defendent for several months.

 

18/11/2006: Summons were made.

Village Green Applications.

To View the Committee's document justifying the registaration of the land as a town or village green, click here.

28-29/08/08 A PUBLIC HEARING WILL TAKE PLACE TO DETERMINE VILLAGE GREEN STATUS. WITNESSES MAY BE CALLED OVER THESE TWO DAYS.

The council have been able to push the date of the public hearing back to August 2008.

The council have decided that the case shall be taken to public hearing. This hearing is sheduled to take place in April 2009. RVRC are contesting the necessity to take the case to a hearing. RVRC feel an 'in house' decision should suffice.

 

02/2008 Sheik Z Hamidi submitted an objection to the second village green application.

 

20/04/2007: S McLaren notified L Kubiak in a witness statement that he had submitted a statement of objection to Essex County Council, out of time, on the grounds that he moved house and therefore didn't recieve the origional notification of 'application to register' letter from the council.

 

13/04/2007: An application was made to register the land as a Town or Village green under the new act.

This application and the old one are currently being processed concurrently.

 

06/04/2007: An amended version of the commons act came into force.

For more information about this act, please click here* and here*. (exterior content).

Requires Adobe Reader. Download it free here. (exterior content).

 

01/02/2007: The consultation period ended.

 

13/12/2006: The consultation period started.

 

27/06/2006: Statements of witness and support for the application began being collected from the public by the Residents' Committee and forwarded to Essex County Council.

 

28/06/2006: The application was made.

 

To date we have collected 213 witness statements. Essex County Council currently hold 195 witness statements.

Planning Applications.

Mr Hamidi's appeal was rejected by the planning inspectorate. (10/06/2008)

To see the planning inspectorate's decision, please click here. (exterior content)

Requires Adobe Reader. Download it free here. (exterior content).

Sheik. Z Hamidi took his planning refusal to appeal. (03/2008)

To see the grounds for appeal, please click here.

Requires Adobe Reader. Download it free here. (exterior content).

Sheik. Z Hamidi applied for permission to build a four bedroom house with double garage. (02/08/2007)

24/09/2007: Sheik. Z Hamidi's application was refused on the following grounds.

1. The proposed development, by reason of its design, size and appearance, would represent an intrusive development, out of keeping in the street scene, and would have a serious and adverse effect on visual amenity. This is contrary to policies BE1 and H4 of the Essex and Southend-on-Sea Replacement Structure Plan and policies DBE1, DBE2 and DBE9 of the adopted Local Plan and Alterations. 

2. The proposed development would result in an unacceptable loss of the existing area of open space and would harm the setting, character and townscape of the surrounding urban environment, contrary to policy CP2 of the Adopted Local Plan and Alterations, policy CS2 of the Essex and Southend-on-Sea Replacement Structure Plan, and Government Advice as set out in PPG17. 

3. The proposed development would result in the loss of an area of open space previously used for informal recreational purposes by the local community. This is contrary to policies CF12 and LL5 of the Adopted Local Plan and Alterations and Goveernment [sic] Advice as set out in PPG17. 

 

Steve McLaren applied for 'permission to build 9, 2 bedroom apartments.' (17/10/2006)

28/10/2006: The application was rejected on the following grounds:


1. The proposed block, by reason of its design, size, bulk and inappropoate appearance, would represent an intrusive and overbearing development, out of scale and character with the prevailing pattern of development, and would have a serious and adverse effect on visual amenity. This is contary to policies BE1 and H$ of the Essex and Southend-On-Sea replacement Structure Plan and Policies DBE1, DBE2 and DBE9 of the adopted Local Plan and Alterations.
2. The proposed development, by reason of its size and layout, would make inadequate provision for landscaping, contrary to Policy LL11 of the Adopted Local Plan and Alterations.
3. Insufficient information has been submitted in respect of how the proposal seeks to retain the existing preserved trees on the site so that the Council is unable to fully consider and assess the proposal.  In the absence of this information it is considered that the development would have a serious and adverse impact on the trees which would result in the loss of trees significant amenity value, to the detriment of the visual amenities of the locality, contrary to policy LL10 of the Adopted Local Plan and Alterations.
4. The proposed development would result in the loss of exsisting area of open space and would harm the setting, character and townscape of the surrounding urban environment, contrary to policy CP2 of the Adopted Local Plan and Alterations, policy CS2 of the replacement Structure Plan, and PPG17.
5. The proposed development would result in the loss of an area of open space previously used for informal recreational purposes by the local community.  This is contrary to policies CF12 and LL5 of the Adopted Local Plan and Alterations and PPG17.

Click here to view Roding Valley Residents' Committee's objection to the application for flats.

 

Steve McLaren applied for 'retention of temporary boundary hoarding'. (17/06/2006)

11/08/2006: The application was rejected on the following grounds:

1. The proposed boundary hoarding, due to its height and visual dominance, would be an incongruous feature detrimental to the character and appearance of the surrounding area, contrary to Policies DBE1, DBE2, and DBE9 of the replacement Local Plan.
2. The proposed boundary hoarding, due to its height, appearance and means of enclosing an open area, would harm the setting, character and townscape of the surrounding urban environment, contrary to Policy CP3 of the replacement Local Plan.
3. The proposed boundary hoarding would result in the enclosure of an area of previously open space used for informal recreational purposes by the local community, contrary to Policies CF12 and LL5 of the replacement Local Plan.
4. Inadequate information has been supplied for the retention and protection of the Preserved Tree located on the site, contrary to Policy LL10 of the replacement Local Plan.

Appeal

Roding Valley Residents’ Committee would like to thank everyone who donated so generously to the recent appeal.

We shall continue to update you with the proceedings.

We are, unfortunatly, unable to reimburse everybody who donated as the court didn't quite award us full costs. For more info, see 'Court Case' in 'Notes and Updates'.

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