The Old Stables, Geoffrey Road [UPDATED]

A plan of the proposed new housing

The Old Stables is a collection of ramshackle buildings, squeezed between the back gardens of Geoffrey Road and the railway line. The place is barely used as a stables any more, so it's not surprising that its owners are seeking to redevelop it as housing.

Residents are opposed on a number of grounds, most notably that back gardens will be overlooked, the development will eat up the natural habitat provided by the green corridor that runs along the railway line and that the narrow entrance via Geoffrey Road will cause access problems on a busy road.

The developers are certainly trying to fit a lot on to the site. They are going beyond the footprint of the buildings to build on a very tight plot of land, further up and down the railway track. Houses that previously had trees behind them (and a railway line beyond the trees) will have new neighbours. The trees, which shield Geoffrey Road gardens from the trains, cast a lot of shadow beneath them. The current plans would result in homes with very little natural light. When and if the buildings are occupied, it's easy to imagine the pressure there would be from new residents to thin or chop down more trees.

Brockley needs to do its bit to accommodate more housing, but this looks like overkill. Limiting the project to the redevelopment of the existing building would be more appropriate.

UPDATE:

This proposal has now been refused by the Council, on the grounds that:

The proposed development would considerably increase the intensity of use of the narrow site access road to the detriment of vehicle and pedestrian safety while service vehicles, unable to use the site access road, would place additional demand for on-street parking in Geoffrey Road, which is already very heavily parked, thereby further prejudicing vehicular and pedestrian safety in the local area.