Hi,
As a local family for whom the memorial green space has been a godsend and oasis during Lockdown for our kids to play and us to walk and decompress I and my family are very keen that any building undertaken should only be with an exceptionally clear and robust justification as the loss of open space to locals will have a significant impact.
I just watched the webinar presentation from CHP for the finchley memorial development and was struck by the lack of concrete evidence they could provide for the actual demand from NHS staff in the local area, assurance that the properties will not just be sold into private ownership if there is insufficient demand from key workers, or mitigation for the likely large increase in impact on local parking roads and amenities. To me, whilst I sympathise with the need to provide affordable housing and monetise NHS real estate at this time, it sounds like a disingenuous and opportunist attempt to secure planning permission on a contentious site leaving it very open for commercialisation by those who stand to benefit at a later date.
In particular I would like to see detailed evidence of actual demand from surrounding NHS Trusts and workers for housing of this nature to confirm it is in line with their needs, budget and preferences? Without this you are relying on generic regional data which provides no guarantee of actual demand locally. For a project of this scale it is surely inconceivable that you would not want to first be as certain as you can be you are building the right accommodation, in the right location with the right purchase/ rental models to address the need you claim to be addressing, but CHP’s answers on the webinar and FAQs are strangely vague and sound like you are either building and hoping for the best, or deliberately keeping your options open for what happens to the development in the future.
In terms of the planned buildings they do seem very high density and unsympathetic to the scale and character of the surrounding area which is cherished for its consistent Edwardian character.
I hope you will take my comments into consideration and keep us informed of how you plan to take account of this and other concerns about the motivations and
plans for the project.
Yours sincerely
Matthew