MP Vincent Cable reports that one of the largest and longest running planning disputes in the area has come back to the surface with fresh proposals for the development of the Jolly Boatman/Hampton Court Station site over looking Hampton Court.

The site, which lies in the borough of Elmbridge, lies at the foot of the Lutyens Hampton Court Bridge and it is the first thing visitors see when making their way from the station to the Palace via the bridge.

In the House of Commons, Liberal Democrat MP Vincent Cable and Conservative MP Ian Taylor, who represents the area on the Surrey side, met with Elmbridge planning officials and community groups who are deeply concerned about a new set of proposals from the land owners, County and Metropolitan and Network Rail.

Both MPs are agreed that the proposal is "highly commercial" with "dubious aesthetic merit" and it should be opposed.

Dr Cable said: "While the planning authority is Elmbridge, our own residents have a strong interest in ensuring that this important site, immediately opposite Hampton Court Palace, is not ruined by some crass commercial development. Yet this is exactly what is envisaged.

"We are at a fairly early stage in the process but a planning application is expected in November.

"The options on offer are not inspiring: either the Jolly Boatman remains as a derelict eyesore or it is developed as a commercially profitable eyesore. I suspect the developers are hoping to grind down local resistance instead of doing what they should be doing and producing an imaginative design appropriate to the location.

"Fortunately there is a common position amongst communities on both sides of the river, and their MPs."

However, the entire area is indicated as high risk on the Environment Agency's new flood maps, from the Thames as well as from the Mole and the Ember rivers.

See the Environment Agency website for the flood risk maps

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

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