Campaign group welcomes scaled down housing development plans

A controversial housing development on the Ealing/Hounslow border has finally been approved and local campaigners have welcolmed the result.

The battle over the redevelopment of Reynard Mills industrial estate (on Windmill Road) began in 2011 and three different planning proposals have gone before Hounslow Council.

Local residents in both boroughs - unhappy with the scale and density of the estate - formed the Windmill Road Action Group (WRAG) and objected en masse to the plans which have - until this latest submission - all been rejected.

Notting Hill Housing took over the development from LP Brentford and, after holding public consultation sessions and listening to objections, substantially scaled down the application which had originally started at 315 homes, 

Last week Hounslow's planning committee granted approval for 195 homes consisting of a mixture of houses and flats with 200 allocated parking spaces.

James Guest from WRAG says:

''Windmill Road Action Group, which campaigned against three earlier applications, welcomed the approved scheme as far more in keeping with the surrounding area. The new developers have listened to and addressed residents’ concerns, many of which will be protected by planning conditions.''

Northfield ward Councillor, David Millican is also happy with the result:

'' The development planned for Reynard Mills is huge improvement on previous plans. These are in fact the fourth plans to be proposed. As each plan was introduced it was a smaller version with fewer homes than the previous, such that the plan is now far more acceptable to the local community.

'' Along with the Windmill Road Action Committee I spoke at an earlier Government Inspector's Inquiry as I was very concerned at those previous proposals, such that they were rejected. The latest plans are more sympathetic for neighbours, will result in less traffic and each dwelling will have a car park space allocated. This is a true example of Northfield Councillors, the Brentford MP and local residents working together to obtain an improved result.''

Roger Arkell, Senior Planning Manager at Notting Hill Housing said:

'' We are delighted to have received approval from Hounslow Planning Committee to our proposals for a high quality housing development at Reynard Mills. We are especially pleased to have received praise from the chair of the committee for the extensive community engagement we undertook during the design stages for the scheme.

''We recognise the benefits of talking to and listening to local residents and this has helped to form our proposals and also to secure a level of support within the community.

''We are now working to prepare the detailed plans to appoint a contractor and expect to start demolition of the redundant industrial buildings and construction of the new homes in the summer of 2015 and to complete the project by the summer of 2017.

5th November 2014