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Boardwalk :: Forum List The Phoenix Quarter General Discussion

<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next > End >> s.oliver   Re:Southwark Council meeting June 5th - 2007/06/03 17:42 Apparently Southwark have been rather unwilling to release any information regarding the amazing deal that the Style brothers refer to, in regard to the site. I wondel if anyone has made an FOI request concerning any discussions betewwen LDC and Angel that might explain why they spent 2 years of Officer time in meetings before revealing that they were going to refuse to sell a large part of the land. One wonders what exactly put them off after investing so much in encouraging Mr Style.   | | You must login if you wish to contribute to this forum. Christine   Re:The Jam factory - 2007/06/07 11:42 I visited the Jam factory yesterday. Anyone interested in the future of North St Industrial estate should go and see this development, and talk with the residents there. The Contoversial 'D' block has to be seen to be believed. What initial looks quite convincing does not bear detailed scrutiny. 3 walls are clad in black coated lapped wood. Much of this cladding has not been attached properly. There are large gaps all over the building revealing the insulation and structure underneath. The cladding clearly does not reach the roof on one side and tatty looking strips of wood are screwed on along one long side, despite being too small. Vandals have been climbing up the side using what looks like thick wiring, now falling off, and a couple of windows have been smashed and just left unrepaired.The street frontage is made of better wood cladding which is now fading to the inevitable grey, has been urinated on , and graffiti-ed. The building uses a lot of metal sheeting which is so thin it has buckled when applied, and been badly dented and come loose in various points. Other metal fittings have gone rusty, despite being so recently constructed. Mica board has been used to clad the underside of external ceilings, and seems extraordinarily inappropriate. The general finish is very poor, though at first glance the building looks quite smart. The whole of the bottom of the building has an unresolved pedament. It is hard to see how this can bee successfully finished, and indeed it hasnt at the front where litter collects under an inaccessible recess across the front. When you speak to residents of the Jam factory you discover a new problem that has come to light.A couple of residents have had serious problems with sewerage and drainage. A big pile of wood is the entire floor of one basement flat. Two issues have arisen. One unit was apparently not linked into the sewerage at all, so you will be able to imagine what eventually happened. The other had similar problems because all the sewerage of the flats above overloaded the system. It seems that it cannot cope with all the flats, who have been sent a letter asking them not to flush certain items. This is all in a new development, and one wonders how this has happened, as there are legal requirements specifically for drainage, due to public health reasons. The extra flats which have been built will overload the system even further, and were not accounted for, when the suitability of drainage was considered. The same problem exosts with car parking, which was approved for one amount of flats and there cars, but now has to cope with more. I heard about how the plans for a new block had changed, and that Angel were proposing to use up amenity space, that residents had been exprecting to use. There is very little space for the number of flats. Other details are farcical. Some lights added to steps did not reach the bottom, and neither did the handrail. This remained unresolved , until it was finally dealt with by attaching on an additional piece of handrail, Heath robinson style, adding in a light, and an additional step. Residents themselves had to paint on white safety edging. A long row of light fittings 7 floors up underneath a large overhanging roof extension still have cardboard swing tags hanging from them, fluttering in the breezer as cannot be reached to be cut off Residents that I spoke to are angry annoyed and fed up. One that I spoke to in detail has had almost nothing to do with the residents association but said that she often asks herself if she did the right thing buying a unit here, given all the problems. She wonders what will happen as time goes by and other problems reveal themselves. The drainage is particularly worrying. The residents of these units are professionals, who have paid large sums for expensive residences and work spaces. They clearly are not NIMBY's as have chosen to live in a challenging modern development. I came away with the feeling that Angel had got completely out of their depth.   | | You must login if you wish to contribute to this forum. Harry   Re:The Jam factory - 2007/06/07 12:51 I went to see the Jam Factory a couple of months ago and I can only agree with what Christine describes. Of course, Angel won't be too bothered as I'm sure they've taken their profits, which are all that matter. The people who have to live with the results are unimportant. Lewes beware.   | | You must login if you wish to contribute to this forum. Sashka   Re:The Jam factory - 2007/06/07 14:00 my So lets get this straight. The affordable housing was built out if cheap shoddy materials, and a whol extra floor was added in, then when Angel fancied it (short of cash?) they decide to try and sell them at higer prices as 'not' affordable housing, but without already having provided the affordable elsewhere. This just gets worse and worse. I feel so sorry for the poor residents.   | | You must login if you wish to contribute to this forum. John Stockdale   Re:The Jam factory - 2007/06/07 16:52 If the contributions to this thread are factually correct, the question for Lewes, surely, is this: if Angel can't manage a project converting a Victorian factory into 150 units how on earth are they going to be able to handle one involving new build on a difficult site with decontamination, flood defences, infrastructure (roads, services, etc), a bridge, multistorey carpark, cinema, arts centre, shops, offices and 775 dwellings? Angel previously converted existing buildings to 8-54 units and the Jam Factory was clearly intended to up their game to the next level. How successful have they been? What's more, as evidenced by his website, Charles Style appears to have lost the impressive team he had with him while he was doing the Jam Factory. Can he more or less singlehandedly manage a project that must be ten times larger and much more complex than the one that seems to have come unstuck?   | | You must login if you wish to contribute to this forum. jstockdale   Re:The Jam factory - 2007/09/11 14:56 Jam Factory Progress Report Those who follow the ups and downs of Angel Property's last development (one tenth the size and scale of the proposed Phoenix Quarter) will be interested to know that revised planning applications have now been submitted to Southwark and these will probably be considered by the Planning Committee on 2 October. Have a look at the Jam Factory Residents Association website for a summary and commentary at http://www.myjamfactory.com/planning/.   | | You must login if you wish to contribute to this forum.

Boardwalk :: Forum List The Phoenix Quarter General Discussion

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