ORCHARD WHARF DEVELOPMENT
Orchard Wharf Gets the Green Light – but Questions Remain
If you’ve ever walked between City Island and Goodluck Hope, you’ll have passed the stretch of brownfield land that sits between us. That’s Orchard Wharf – and it’s about to change significantly.
Planning permission has been granted for several tall buildings on the site. To get a sense of the scale, some of the new proposed tower blocks would equal the size of Douglas Tower. We’re talking around 208 affordable homes and roughly 3,400 student units – a significant amount of development on plot that’s a quarter the size of City Island
From empty land to 24-hour wharf
The site carries a working wharf designation from the Port of London Authority which means that if residential buildings go up, the wharf must also become operational. In other words, the development doesn’t just add thousands of new residents to the area: it also creates a working wharf that doesn’t currently exist, with deliveries unloaded from boats and transferred onto vehicles, potentially around the clock.
Noise, air quality, and road safety
That activity would all take place on the same single road that serves London City Island and Goodluck Hope – the one way in and out that many of us already find a squeeze. More vehicle movements, including delivery vans at any hour, on the same stretch that residents use every day, to shop at the bakery, walk their children to Faraday school or wait for the D3 and SL4 buses.
If there’s a fire
Those access concerns take on a more serious dimension when you consider emergency situations. The London Fire Brigade has raised formal concerns about whether fire engines would be able to get in and operate effectively on the site. Approval has been granted on condition that this will be addressed, as the current plans simply don’t allow enough room for fire engines to enter and turn around. How that gets resolved is not yet clear. We’ll be watching this closely.
Where we stand
Development is going ahead, so our focus now is on engagement and accountability. Committee members are in conversation with the developers and other stakeholders to make sure planning conditions are met, that improvements are pushed for, and that the impact on residents is kept to a minimum.
We’ll keep you updated as things develop.
Here is a report of a recent meeting convened by Ashley our Chair to discuss the proposed Orchard Place development.
