The site of the old Chepstow house is a large corner site at the end of Leicester Road where it meets Nutter Lane. The site was acquired by Telfords and the house very quickly demolished.
Telfords' first set of plans were refused by the Inspector (six semi-detached houses and two blocks of flats, the one in Nutter Lane particularly large).
The second set of plans submitted by Telfords claimed to have addressed the Inspector’s comments and the concerns of the local residents as voiced by the C.R.S. (Counties Residents Association) and The Wanstead Society.
These were met with universal condemnation from residents, the Redbridge C.A.P. (Conservation Advisory Pannel) and from English Heritage. The main points of objection concerning the design. Remember that this is an area of family houses and having been recently granted Conservation status, a higher standard of design to fit in with the surroundings is necessary.
On Thursday 30th May the Regulatory Committee of councillors met to agree or not these plans. There was universal condemnation; the Counties Residents Association and The Wanstead Society put up a very strong case against acceptance. Strong objections were voiced by several councillors from other parts of the borough so we were fairly confident that the plans would be refused.
Not so! The decision is to be deferred to a later Regulatory Committee meeting in order to give Telfords time to tweak their plans in order to come up with a satisfactory offering and so that English Heritage can be more involved. In view of the all round condemnation of the plans, no amount of “tweaking” is going to make them acceptable. In our view, Telfords need to go back to the drawing board and come up with a set of plans suitable for a Conservation area which both they and Wanstead residents can be proud of.
We are deeply uneasy at the outcome of the Regulatory Committee meeting and wonder why the much condemned plans weren’t refused.