Diogenes

This is a great summary, thank you James. Will you come the committee this evening by any chance? It would be great to have you there.

I missed this – mystery solved about this site not being used! Now, hopefully, this Denmark hill site, which is arguably much more suitable for students, will come back online at some point. “Most students in London live in Zone 2 and 3 because it is too expensive to live in zone 1”: that applies to everyone, not only students. Many Families living in East Dulwich work in Central London. They do have to commute to go to work but at least they don’t have to commute twice, both for work and school runs as there are many local schools.

I agree, considering the scale of the project, one would think they have done some assessment regarding demand for student housing here. But the champion hill student accommodation seems to be mostly empty. It doesn't add up. There is a thesis that these student studios would be essentially turned into massive HMOs.

No demand because there are no universities in the area. There are however many schools and high demand for family homes. King’s college already have student accommodation nearby… and by the way, it appears they are not full: hardly any activity / light at the champion hill student accommodation center ( from a person who lives next to it) Students have to live somewhere but this simply does not make any sense

A good point regarding council tax… As I understand it, student housing is a way to make the project financially viable (a questionable argument considering the 3 other local residential projects in progress)… except that this would come at the expense of the whole neighbourhood (no council tax, no meaningful contribution to local services / economy compared to other dwellers + noise, crowding and other nuisances). I am not saying we shouldn’t do our part… If it means having 50 students on that site (which, again, would be very sub optimal) on top of family homes / affordable homes, so be it… but 400 students? We are talking about a student campus in a small family neighbourhood without any local university. That seems ridiculous and it appears to be driven by financials … In other words, the neighbourhood would essentially be subsidizing the developer’s / land owner’s profits (not mentioning the impact the suddenly prevalent student community would have on the immediate neighbourhood). That just does not feel right.

The Featherstone Mews CGI is impressive! I wish the area actually looked as polished! Perhaps soon with all these developments… The Featherstone promoters won’t be happy about the Sidings for sure. Kinda ruin the luxury experience a little. Neither will the promoters of 2 neighbouring projects: 2A Melbourne grove and the Railway Rise. In fact, to put it mildly, I don’t see anybody in the area cheering the new 7 storeys buildings. And good point regarding shops: commercial reinvigoration is another part of the sales pitch that feels disingenuous. The student population is not exactly the target audience of local shops… no cheering there either.

Based on the renderings, the proposed building is actually much taller than the school or the M&S building (7-8 storeys vs 4 for the school and 3 for the M&S building ). Completely out of line with the neighbourhood. High density too (because student housing), so the impact on the neighbourhood would be massive.

good point... no universities but plenty of schools. The area needs family homes for all these kids, not student housing.