New victory for flood-fear neighbours - Proposals for Kiddepore basement pool sunk

Published: 08 September 2011
by DAN CARRIER and ROB WHISTON

COUNCILLORS have thrown out ambitious plans for an underground swimming pool two storeys beneath a Hampstead home.
 
The owners of the property in Kidderpore Avenue were hoping to win Town Hall permission to build the pool as part of a large underground leisure area – the second time the scheme had gone in front of the Camden Council’s planning committee. 
 
The revised plans, put forward after the project was rejected by councillors and then thrown out on appeal two years ago, were met with strong opposition from neighbours. 
 
They feared the basement would lead to flooding due to underground streams snaking through the gardens of the street and that the project would mean taking 1,000 lorry loads of earth away – leading to chaos in the street for two years.
 
Councillors heard deputations from neighbour Norman Glinert and Heath and Hampstead Society chairman Tony Hillier. 
 
Mr Hillier said: “We listened to planning officers speak for half an hour on why this scheme should go ahead, but the planning committee very sensibly asked if they could be sure it would not lead to serious damage to a neighbouring property.”
 
Mr Hillier said he was surprised council officers had recommended approval, when it appeared that the development could damage a nearby property. 
 
Independent engineers from the firm Arup had surveyed the homes and found eight different points where the neighbouring property would be vulnerable to subsidence and damage if the basement was built.

Mr Hillier added that the council’s own guidelines on basements meant the onus was on developers to submit the relevant surveys needed to prove the basement would not cause damage to neighbours, which he says was not the case with Kidderpore Avenue.
 

He added: “Officers at Camden Council have to understand how much information developers need to produce to ensure projects like this are safe to give permission for. 
 
“Until they do this, the Heath and Hampstead Society will speak out against such basements.”
 
The owners’ agent, Iilan Sharon of Siaw Ltd, said: “We will probably appeal, though I am not surprised anymore by the decision made by the committee.
 
“We provided a large amount of information for a relatively small project, and had the most renowned engineering firm in the world, Arup, providing a survey.”

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