No to Yellowsham

Local residents have launched a campaign against Big Yellow Self Storage's plans to build a storage warehouse opposite Lewisham Art House on Lewisham Way.

There is an online petition, supported by the Brockley Society, which you can sign here. The campaigners write:

Big Yellow Self Storage want to construct a five-storey, 10,000 sq metre (approx) self-storage warehouse on 155 Lewisham Way. Existing businesses were not consulted and will either close or be forced out of Lewisham. It will result in the loss of at least 30 jobs.

The architecture is unsympathetic and sits opposite a listed building and conservation area. If it is built it will blight the area for decades. There are already 11 storage companies within a 2-mile radius, nobody in Lewisham needs another one.

If it is built it will blight the area for decades. The first application was unanimously thrown out by Lewisham Councillors, but now Big Yellow are demanding a Public Inquiry and we need to make the Planning Inspectorate fully aware of local feeling by the 5th November.

That's a succinct and well-reasoned set of objections. Storage warehouses don't belong on high streets - they have large blank facades that offer nothing to pedestrians and they rely on customers in cars, adding traffic to a stretch of road that already suffers from congestion. Allowing this to go ahead would be tantamount to throwing in the towel - giving up on any prospect of improving Lewisham Way's fortunes.