CONSTRUCTION
ACCESS DENIED. MICHELLE LOWE Founder Redshell Consulting www.redshell.org
Planning said yes, Highways said no. What happens when the Highways Authority refuses your construction vehicle access to your site from the road, the only road, after Planning Permission has already been granted? Well, nothing happens for a while. Not on site anyway. Our client, Urban-lab, is a socially conscious architecture and development practice that created a niche development strategy forming Development Agreements with existing and dilapidated church facilities in and around London. The plan? Demolish the existing drafty, un-modernised, and under-utilised church spaces, and construct modern and welcoming community spaces for the church with apartments above. A win-win situation for the Church, the community, the local housing requirements 068 – Qandor – Issue No. 4
and the developer, of course. The project planning process was a long drawn out 10-year saga. The church pastor was decidedly fatigued by the whole affair, initially working with a previous developer who had been refused planning permission multiple times over the years. Urban-lab picked up the project and sped through planning in 2018, satisfying what seemed like an eternally unsatisfied Newham planning authority. The planning application submission did include a detailed construction logistics plan by PTP, noting access arrangements and traffic management plans to control vehicular access from the front elevation off West Ham Lane and into the site designated area. West Ham Lane isn’t a red route itself and construction vehicles were not intending to stop and wait on the A class road. The plan by PTP was fully in accordance with Transport for London’s (TfL) Construction Logistics