Hi. My Sunday’s are not right without reading the restaurant reviews and this one is in Deptford. This comment chimed with me after the who Nando’s business.
For this, all credit should go to Martin Hoenle, from southern Germany. He’s a veteran of the hotel business who has lived in London for years and spotted that the disused building had been given an A3 licence. Weirdly, Lewisham Council were reluctant to let Martin follow through with his plans; they muttered about noise in a residential area. It’s bizarre, because Festa sul Prato – which roughly means party on the lawn or in the park – is the kind of use for abandoned buildings that any community should want.
Does anyone know why Lewisham Council is a bit off? Seiously I’d like to know why on Earth are they so bloody difficult with good stuff but crap when it comes to resolving issues like the monstrosity.
Maybe it's simply that an immediate planning refusal means no more work needs to be done by Lewisham council (or any cash strapped council nowadays). That's all I can think of for when superficially suitable applications are declined without genuine rhyme or reason.
It does strike me and probably all involved that the planning process seems unnecessarily complex, laborious and thus costly, but I don't know if that's driven by a council or government.
Fortunately neither I nor most people in this forum live in Deptford. I used to have an office in Deptford. From that experience I might suggest that any building that causes people to congregate together, there, is probably a potential nuisance. The ones already open certainly are.
I suspect there is more to this than meets the eyes.
Interesting article about level of approval of planning applications in London boroughs - according to the graphic at the bottom, Lewisham is the worst inner London borough and in the same bracket as some of the nimbyest outer London boroughs. Seems to back up the anecdotal stuff that gets posted here.
If the link doesn’t work try searching for Is Richmond the Nimbyest place in London? Should be able to read it without the firewall getting in the way.