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To: ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL NHS TRUST

STOP THE CLOCK – AND START PROPER CONSULTATION

The Hampstead Green Neighbourhood Group (HGNG) asks the Royal Free Hospital to withdraw the current planning application (No. 2014/6845/P) for the construction of a seven-storey free-standing block, and initiate a proper consultation process with your host community. Please sign this petition to ask that the Royal Free’s stated commitment to patients is reflected in its behaviour towards its neighbours: that is, to be respectful, communicating and reassuring. As well as South End Green and Hampstead Town ward, these neighbours include Hampstead Hill School, whose kindergarten playground will be overlooked by the proposed patient hotel, and the Grade-1 listed St Stephens, one of fewer than ten thousand Grade-1 listed building in the UK, whose structure has already seen considerable damage from the original construction of the Royal Free.

Why is this important?

The Royal Free Hospital is a jewel in the NHS, and we’re proud to live and work alongside it. However, the site is already overdeveloped. This new proposal will make it much worse, encroaching on a green corridor between Haverstock Hill and Pond Street, reducing a memorial garden facility, and reducing the light for Hampstead Hill School and overlooking its children’s playground. The deep excavations will endanger the stability of the adjoining St Stephen's site and foundations, while the construction works will create total gridlock for local traffic. An additional aspect of the plan involves de-fencing Hampstead Green, the unspoilt meadowland attached to St Stephen's, and turning it into a municipal park. These plans were developed without proper consultation – without the respectful communication and reassurance that the host community deserves. So please, Royal Free, stop the clock, and come and talk to us; create a centre of excellence that works for everybody.

How it will be delivered

By email

Hampstead Town ward London NW3

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Category

Updates

2017-11-09 19:35:15 +0000

500 signatures reached

2016-07-13 13:51:29 +0100

The threat
The new building proposed by the Royal Free Hospital threatens the structural stability of both St Stephen’s and Hampstead Hill School in the Church Hall.

Camden’s democracy
The Council are currently denying the public the right to properly examine　the proposals. Most importantly of all, our experts seriously doubt whether the proposed new building can ever be built without serious damage to St Stephen’s, but will not have the opportunity to argue this when the Council are clearly so anxious to see this built at whatever cost to the environment.

Judicial review
We now have to devote yet more effort and money in the Courts and apply for a Judicial Review. We are convinced that Camden has shrugged off its statutory duty to protect heritage. St Stephen’s is of national importance. The key question for the Royal Free to answer is: why build it there? And for the Council: where does Camden stand on our heritage?

2016-05-09 15:43:37 +0100

Dramatic new expert evidence has emerged to highlight the threat to St Stephen’s and Hampstead Hill School from the proposed Royal Free Pears Building, an application recently approved by Camden Council. The report includes the following:

17. LBHW needed to ensure that Camden clearly appreciated the risk associated with this application. The Risk here, in insurance terms, is the “Probability” of a “Hazard” occurring and its “Consequences”. Here the “Hazard” is that of ground movement beneath the Church Hall that causes the Hall to collapse. The possibility of the church, also used by the School, also being involved either at the same time or soon after, adds a further level of concern.

Our legal and technical advisers are confident that there are substantial legal and technical issues to be addressed, and on these grounds we are now applying to the courts for a Judicial Review

2015-05-03 20:07:40 +0100

Please note: St Stephens meeting is on TUESDAY, May 5, at 7pm. Apologies for a previous communication giving Monday as the 5th!

2015-02-19 23:23:48 +0000

Sorry, everybody, we lost. The serried ranks of the RFH, with the overt and extraordinarily detailed support of Camden's Planning Officer and his staff, were too much for a couple of struggling, underfunded little local groups of actual residents (and council tax payers). Without wishing to be unkind, the scrutiny by councillors on the planning committee did not strike everyone present as keenly informed, and a long evening in the council chamber did little to dispel worries about the quality of Camden's oversight of determined developers. Stay tuned.

2015-02-18 12:08:36 +0000

A signatory writes (for which many thanks): I am a patient of the very department being rebuilt, having scleroderma, and I am also a local resident who values our built and natural surroundings. Even so, I strongly question the plans for this building in terms of size, location and general need. Much research is carried out on the Internet and by interview face-to-face and by phone. It isn't all men in white coats and face masks in labs.

2015-02-17 11:56:09 +0000

Publication of the Officer's Report at
http://democracy.camden.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=120&MId=5391&Ver=4
(see pages ff page 95) allows you to write again to object even if you've written before!

Email your letter to:
[email protected] ref planning application 2014/6845P. Deadline is 9am Wednesday but tomorrow is obviously best! Letters cannot be any more than two pages.

2015-01-28 19:01:12 +0000

Looking forward to seeing you tonight!

2015-01-26 22:03:56 +0000

Please note that there is to be a public meeting at St Stephen's next Wednesday (28th January) at 7.30pm prompt. We hope to see you there!

2014-12-22 18:06:27 +0000

A gallery of verified images:

http://postimg.org/gallery/1f8lcbin8/

Please forward this link to your network. You will see that the photomontages come directly from the architects. Many thanks!

2014-12-20 19:26:58 +0000

This is what the proposed building would look like: seven stories with a 100,000 sq ft/9,300 sq metres footprint! http://s5.postimg.org/craag5don/Institute_From_Pond_Street.jpg

2014-12-20 16:09:11 +0000

Despite a very chilly breeze, we had a great response to our pop-up stand in South End Green today, with many people happy to sign a petition. It's clear people are taken aback at the scale of the proposed building!

2014-12-19 13:14:58 +0000

See how the new building will impact the landscape (images from architects' drawings posted on Camden Planning website):
http://postimg.org/gallery/21fxre78k/

2014-12-19 10:42:06 +0000

UPDATE! Hampstead Green Neighbourhood Group (HGNG) and South End Green Association (SEGA) will be collecting signatures for objections to the RFH proposals TOMORROW (Saturday) at South End Green from 11am, and from about midday in Hampstead High Street. Come and say hello!

2014-12-17 10:01:47 +0000

The address is [email protected]