Fairlawn Nursery Site

Any news on what is to become of the old Fairlaen Nursery site?

It is on agenda for our next Assemly on Tuesday 7pm at Sydenham Girls in Dartmouth Road.

Come and participate.

Thank you for reply. Unfortunately I already have plans for Tuesday that can’t be changed, but I’m sure an up-date will be posted here?

@MajaHilton I can’t make Tuesday either but would be very keen to know what is proposed. Its an important town centre site for community and nursery uses. Although I am sure it could accommodate some housing too!

Yes I agree. Hopefully Sainsbury’s don’t get the land ️

Is that Tuesday 27th June? Could you share what the actual agenda is? Are there any options listed for discussion or is it totally open for ideas?

Fairlawn Nursery site is on the Agenda. Jeff is there as he knows the site but he needs local perspective on what community usage would be best for it.

Not in the cards at all.

Any updates on this after yesterday’s meeting? I wanted to attend but didn’t make it back from work on time.

Below is the update provided for the meeting last night

Waldenshaw Road site - Update for Forest Hill Ward Assembly 27th June 2017

Background to nursery Closure

Fairlawn Primary’s nursery class which previously operated out of the Waldenshaw Road site closed in August 2016. The decision to close was made by the school’s governing body because it was no longer financially viable to keep the nursery open. The reasons cited by the school were falling numbers and high running costs of the separate building and site.

The building has now been returned to the Council. It has not been re-opened as it is un-economical in its current state.

What is the Council planning on doing with the site?

The Council is in the process of putting together a team to run a project which will look at options for the future of the site. The current building doesn’t make best use of the land it sits on, and so over the coming months we will look at the potential for redeveloping the site. Our thinking at this stage is that this would involve a non-housing use on the ground floor, and then new homes above.

The homes themselves could be for a range of purposes, but the Council has an objective to build at least 500 new Council homes, and the site could contribute towards that programme. Equally a range of other useful housing approaches could be considered.

On the ground floor provision, we would want to consult with local residents and groups about how it can work best for the community. Our ideas at this early stage include re-providing a nursery, or a new GP surgery. At this stage we believe the site on its own is likely to be too small for a doctor’s surgery, but we are liaising with Lewisham CCG on the potential for branch surgery instead.

As well as our ideas we also want to hear from the community about what would be most useful on the site, and we will be carrying out consultation from late summer/autumn once the project team is in place.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about this project, please contact: housingstrategy@lewisham.gov.uk

Thank you very much for the update. Both a GP surgery and a nursery seem like good ideas.

Any of those ideas seem a good idea. But a doctors surgery I think would be very useful.

The people who live on Waldenshaw Road, a notorious rat run, may not agree with you.

Are you concerned about the impact on parking for residents? It is a CPZ in any case right?

It is a CPZ yes. On contemplating this I guess with the Sainsbury’s having parking there is no issue for drivers using the surgery. I just wonder how many flats they will try to squeeze in and where these people will park?

The building itself will need a lot of work done to it before anything can be considered. I know because I worked at the nursery, hence my interest!

They’ll demolish the existing building and start again I’m sure. It’s so close to the station/buses so I don’t think it would have any car parking. I can’t recall Lewisham planning policy but the scheme is likely to work without it and it would allow best use of the site for new homes and other uses

Yes, and no. I got this email from the Lewisham ‘New Initiatives Team’ back in June. Yes in the sense I have an update and no in the sense I have no idea what is happening.

Lewisham Homes Development New Initiatives team, on behalf of Lewisham Council are exploring locations in the Borough where there may be potential for new social rented housing. Approval is being sought from Mayor and Cabinet to explore the potential for any new housing at the old Fairlawn Nursey site that would viable and undertake technical and legal due diligence.

If approval is given a consultant team will be appointed and we will get the insight from the local community through a series of engagement opportunities so that local insight can be gained to influence the analysis of any potential redevelopment. We would want local residents to meet the architect and attend a ‘walk and talk’ (this can be virtually through lockdown) of the site. We would like to explore local views on their ideas and concerns from the outset. We will establish an opportunity for the community to give their anonymous comments digitally if that is their preference too.

Merged into existing topic thread

Given the location (trains into London Bridge and the over ground, existing utilities and sought-after shops and amenities a stone’s throw away), Lewisham would be mad not to sell it on to a private developer.

I’m surprised it is still standing! Why are Lewisham taking so long!!
I wonder if they still have security staying in the building itself.
The parking at the back of the nursery belongs to Lewisham as well. The very rude man who used to be in charge of Sainsburys thought it belonged to them!

Thanks for the info. We got a letter a few years ago about a consultation and then nothing since then

Hi all,

I asked our new initiatives team at Lewisham Homes for an update:

“We have been carrying out the early due diligences on the site to check whether the site is suitable for housing development, especially as the land will need to be released from the current Education Act restriction to enable development for housing and considering the viability of the site constraints.
As soon as the site suitability is confirmed we will be engaging with the local community on fact finding about the site and local environment to shape proposals.”

I asked for timelines and was told that the team is aiming to complete the early due diligence and site viability by early next year, around February.

I’ll follow up then.

Sophie

Given there seems to be a shortage of education spaces in the borough, why are you not looking it as a school. We lived on Waldenshaw Road but were unable to send our kids there due to the restrictive hours. I am amazed you closed it in the first place.

The nursery was part of Fairlawn School who slowly cut down the number of children attending. They closed it because it was too expensive to run. It was originally put up in the late 70s as a temporary building which had half reception class/half nursery. My son went to the nursery & did one year in the reception class & my daughter just went to the then just nursery.
Most of the building especially the walls are asbestos, which made putting up displays etc very tricky.
So it will have to be pulled down & completely rebuilt whatever it becomes.

If more housing is built, more school places would then potentially be needed. Seems strange to build more houses when there are so few schools.

There were actually four people in front of the site today with clipboards, pointing at trees and looking ‘official’. On reflection I should have been nosey and asked what was going on.

Received a letter this morning 18/12/21…
Reading it, I don’t feel people have much say in this…?

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We never do, do we?
I hope they do do something with that grassy bank as it gets covered with foxes poo!

Same here on Devonshire road. Just had a year of construction works and guess what’s happening as soon as those construction works are finished? Lewisham council are building social rent housing right next to that private construction site. No say in it. Brilliant for us residents, 2+ years of constant construction work on our doorstep, noise and disruption is ridiculous especially for those WFH. Just cannot enjoy our own homes!

12 affordable homes on the site seems like a good use to me. But it is worth asking why it has taken six years for this to be proposed - given the housing crisis isn’t something new. I believe the answer is that is goes against council planning guidelines to convert community assets and employment sites into pure housing - this is why the ground floor of the old Forest Hill Hotel (pub) and the council depot on Willow Way (and a few other private and council sites) have not been developed for residential. It Is also the reason for the appoach outlined by then councillor Upex in this thread in 2017.

On a different note - swifts nest in the house next to the annexe so this would be a great opportunity to get some nest boxes installed. Swifts like to nest near each other and will be looking for other sites nearby.
There are usually wonderful ‘vesper flights’ ‐ the evening fly pasts of swifts ‐ over Sainsburys car park in the season.

Agreed. We have had a hellish year with Building for Lewisham works behind us on the Forest Estate, including daily pile driving in the depths of the January lockdown when there was nowhere ti escape to.

The builders Lewisham use are not the most considerate.

Reminder that Today 12/01/2022, is the seminar and registration is required.
I just now sent an email to hopefully receive a link to attend-if it’s still going ahead.

Please keep us posted. Will be interesting to see what they are going to do.

I got a letter today which said it’s been postponed to next Tuesday at 6pm due to staff illness.

We got the same letter

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We live on the road and haven’t received any letter about it so far (either the original or the information about it being postponed). Could someone post a link on where to register.

Wow! That will really make a difference to the area.

That actually looks pretty good. I looked at the documents on the commonplace website and it says the trees at the front would be retained contrary to what it looks like from those renderings. By car park do they mean where the Sainbury’s trucks park to unload?

Thanks! Just checked my post and meeting cancellation was received today.

New Zoom meeting date: 6pm 18 Jan 2022.

Registration of interest should be sent to newinitiatives@lewishamhomes.org.uk

For those who didn’t receive the pack… attached are some pics of info and links provided in the pack…

Best.

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To register email: newinitiatives@lewishamhomes.org.uk

Looks like it, yes.

Fairlawn Nursery Annexe | Commonplace - this link takes you to all the relevant documents

These are the display boards being presented:

FAIRLAWN NURSERY ANNEXE - final boards - January 2022.pdf (6.3 MB)

As a construction manager I’m always intrigued by the logistics of these types of proposals. Particularly on our narrow residential streets…

where is this lovely road? spacious, leafy, pedestrians, children, cyclists, no parked or moving cars - the kind of place I think I’d like to live!

The development looks lovely and if it was private, it would no doubt be called Luxury appartments, some with private balconies.

We have over 7,000 people in Lewisham homeless and 12 homes is a drop in the ocean compared to this. It is quite a big site and I do wonder if the council has got the balance right between quality and quantity both in terms of housing those in need and spending our council tax effectively.

Actually Waldenshaw is quite spacious and leafy. But sadly not without parked cars (or builders vans atm).

The trees are retained at the front - note how the right hand side of the facade curves back around them.

I had a 1-1 with the project team last night (as I live next door so they’re being good about reaching out). Some other notes I picked up that aren’t in the brochure…

It will be a ‘car free’ development i.e. they’re not providing any parking at the rear, but they will have bike lockers (yay) albeit that probably means more street parking on Waldenshaw. There will be one disabled bay out front for the ground floor wheelchair accessible flat.

They’re aiming for an energy efficient building and it will have Solar PV and a heat pump for heating/hot water (all up on the roof behind the top brick facade), plus ‘quality’ building materials all round and lots of insulation. Again all good.

Bins will be out front (!) Interestingly they have no control over the Sainsbury’s access road at the back - it’s owned by Lewisham as part of the car park but Sainsbury’s have a perpetual access license to use it whenever they want.

Passageways on both sides will be gated with Key Fob access for residents.

They’re still working on the balconies to make them less of an ‘overlook’ and not transparent glass, some of the rear design may still change in terms of window sizing.

Bricks will be new ‘old fashioned’ style i.e. slightly worn and not too geometrically perfect flat surfaced

I appreciate that the quality, quantity and look of the new housing is very important. As is the biodiversity gain that I think they will have to include. One part of this could be a quick and easy win by providing nest sites or bricks for swifts. There are already swifts nesting locally and they are a wonderful sight with their evening flights over Sainsburys car park. This would be a great chance to expand the colony. The council could even work with other local householders who might be interested in getting swift bricks installed at the same time. The numbers of swifts in Lewisham has halved over the last ten years and this is a wonderful opportunity to help restore numbers. If you are commenting on the local plans it would really help if you could include a postitive mention for including swift nesting sites in the development.

Yes as I have mentioned before one of the nursery staff had a row with the then obnoxious manager of Sainsbury’s who thought it was his God given right to park where or his colleagues liked!
The parking spaces directly behind the building were for nursery staff & all school staff or deliveries.
The business manager of fairlawn had to get confirmation from Lewisham that the car parking spaces belonged to Lewisham, so the point could be argued.
This was about a year before they closed the nursery, & management have changed, but it sounds like it is an ongoing feud.

can someone DM me the Zoom link please… it’s on now.

For anyone interested in details discussed, The meeting was recorded by organisers, they may share it?
For me most important points were:

• Building at the rear will be between 5-10 m further out of line from numbers 8 and 10!
  -they have tested the light and come into conclusion it doesn’t affect neighbours more than the “regulations allow it”! ….( I’m Not sure if they surveyed correct site, it’ll kill light by coming out so far… )
• initial UXO survey done but they won’t know for sure until digging
• employing company with “Considerate constructor certification”
• start of construction end of year, for 2 years
• building work/ loading-offloading will be via rear of the building (via the car park)
• send in YOUR completed survey by January 29.

They were asked they should share all surveys and layouts with neighbours… let’s see if they do…

There were no reaction re. comment on whether neighbours could get reduced local taxes while enduring the construction works for 2 years🤔

They are obviously aware that the building has a lot of asbestos in it as well!

Thanks very much for sharing!

I’m fairly livid that living next door they didn’t share the Zoom link with me. We had a 1-1 with them but we had also asked to join this and would like to have been invited to this zoom call to hear feedback and comment. It’s really tarnished my view of how they’re proceeding with this.

5-10m past the rear of the other buildings is not cool. I’ll not be supporting this now.

Not sure what they’re playing….sorry to say but I got (read “confirmed”) the feeling they are not honest and withhold info unless you ask specifically.

Unfortunately it is and will be a case of “give them an inch they take a yard”….

That’s why I asked about a site visit for residents, as everything they were saying felt quite vague.

This is a typical council turnout isn’t it.
I don’t know if anybody remembers before Dominoes opened on Honor Oak Park.
They were having a meeting that I had applied to attend, but when it came to it you could again only ask certain questions.
You couldn’t object to Dominoes opening in the first place, & there were a lot of people objecting.
So I didn’t bother going, Dominoes still opened & to be fair haven’t caused any major problems as far as I am aware.