Freedom of Information request

Dear Sir or Madam:

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION LAND AT RYE LANE BOURNEMOUTH ROAD AND RYE LANE, PECKHAM UDP SITE 63P

We are the owners of the Copeland Industrial Park (CIP).

As you are aware, site 63P provides employment for several hundred people, studio space for some 60 local artists, and a variety of businesses as well as space for community organisations. We also have plans to open a new community art gallery within our premises. Indeed, having assembled the site over a period of some 12 years we have begun examining opportunities for achieving significant regeneration objectives on this site.

We have also been working with local community organisations and others to review these opportunities.

However, our attempts to rationalise activities on the estate and invest in Peckham Town Centre are currently being blighted by the broad brush allocation of a very large area of land for a tram depot.

Coupled with this is an emerging policy which states that any planning applications which conflict with a rather uncertain vision for a tram depot will be refused. To date we have been unable to obtain any concrete idea as to the nature, scope and extent of the depot proposals. We understand that TFL claim to have carried out further viability exercises which cannot have been possible without examining detailed proving layouts for the split site depot.

These proposals not only affect our own livelihoods and those of numerous local businesses and local artists, and hundreds of employees, but also the amenities of many neighbouring residents.

It seems remarkable that in such circumstances the Council is seriously contemplating the introduction of a major transportation depot, shunting yard and engineering operation into this mixed residential area without a full comparative review of the possible sites for the depot, with each site being compared on an equal footing using full and up to date comparative information on the impact on homes, jobs, town centre retailing, regeneration objectives, traffic, community facilities and historic architecture, townscape and conservation and other environmental issues.

In the circumstances (and in order that we may have a better understanding of the proposals which are blighting our site) we would be grateful as a matter of priority for copies of the following correspondence and other documentation relating to the proposed split site tram depot on the site known as Site 63P;

• Copies of all plans, proving layouts, drawings, schematics and other documentation relating to the scope and extent of the proposed split site tram depot in Peckham.
• Notes of any meetings and internal or external correspondence reports and plans relating to it.
• Copies of all agendas and minutes relating to the split site depot proposals
• Copies of all agendas and minutes of the Cross River Partnership relating to the split site depot proposals
• Copies of all agendas and minutes of the GLA/Transport for London relating to the split site depot proposals
• Copies of all assessments, viability exercises, traffic transport, transport and environmental reports relating to the split site depot
• Copies of all consultants’ reports relating to the split site depot
• Copies of all internal reports, correspondence, emails and communications with any person including members, officers, other local authorities and outside bodies relating to the split site depot proposals.

These should, we believe, be open to inspection under the Freedom of Information Act which came into force in 2005:-

We remain troubled by the fact that the published UDP reports contain no meaningful information as to the scale, scope and extent of the proposed split site tram depot or its potential impact.

It is our view that no meaningful decisions can be taken on the depot without this information being made publicly available to everyone involved in the decision making process. It troubles us that as a principal stakeholder in the future of Peckham Town Centre and the proposed split site tram depot site that we have no clue as to what is now proposed on our site.

This company has already made a very substantial investment in Peckham at a time when very few private investors were prepared to invest in Peckham. In the circumstances, and in order that we may properly prepare our representations on the UDP review, we feel obliged to continue to pursue this line of inquiry and find it regrettable that the information is not already in the public domain.

Thanking you in anticipation.