Plans to redevelop former gravel pits in Feltham and build up to 1,000 new homes on Green Belt land have received a mixed response from residents.
The results of a public consultation into the ambitious proposals for the Lower Feltham Lakes site, in Chertsey Road, have finally been released.
This story appeared 11th March 2009 in the Hounslow Chronicle
This is a Land Banking site of Green Belt and Nature Conservancy land which used to be a gravel pit. A company called Profitable Plots in Singapore bought the site in 2006. confusingly the company that offers the site now is called Profitable Group also based out of Singapore. Previously in marketing the site was called Concorde Village Hounslow but seems to have been renamed in this article to Lower Feltham Lakes. Profitable Group have chopped the site into 9000 plots and are offering the plots to investors in Asia and Canada. You can see the Singapore TV advert for the land plots here. In the advert they are estimating a 250% return in 3 years for investors.
Presumably this survey and press effort is designed either to influence the local authority in Hounslow or convince investors in Asia that progress is being made. There is nothing in the article about what the Hounslow Planning Authority thinks.
The consulting company here is DLP who represent the Singapore based Strategic Land Planning Trust who if I understand the business model correctly now own the site. SLPT is according to the Profitable Group website the trust set up to protect the investors who purchased land plots from Profitable Group. No details on how that trust works. Profitable Plots Singapore is just some division of Profitable Group Singapore.
Neil Osborn from DLP mentioned in this article also sits on the board of Profitable Group.
Profitable Group is mentioned negatively in this Guardian article from a few weeks back.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/feb/21/capital-letters
Another PR company placed story on the Concorde Village / Feltham Lakes site. Still without any response from the local authority although it does mention fuming residents !
http://www.stainesnews.co.uk/staines-and-ashford-news/news-staines-and-ashford/2009/03/04/public-will-get-a-say-on-future-of-ex-landfill-site-54472-23065360/
Public will get a say on future of ex-landfill site
Mar 4 2009 By Adam Courtney
Part of the 122 acre site earmarked for development
New proposals for a 122-acre site bordering Ashford, Bedfont, Feltham and Sunbury are expected to go to consultation in about two months.
Residents were left fuming last year after claiming they weren’t told about the opening consultation, which revealed plans to build homes and offices on half the site, formerly used for quarrying and landfill, while keeping the remaining half as public open space.
And, following feedback from the first meeting, developer Strategic Land Planning Trust and its PR firm, Chelgate, run by former Spelthorne councillor Nick Wood-Dow, says they have commissioned land designers to work on new proposals for the open space, which will be announced at a second consultation.
If it is of any help, details of what SLTP is proposing on the site is at http://www.planningconsultation.com/developments/lower-feltham/. There is a huge questionnaire if anyone wants to give comments – I have.
Sarah
There is a local discussion on Concorde Village / Lower Feltham Lakes taking place here.
http://forums.hounslowchronicle.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=412
The recent history of the Hounslow / Feltham site is discussed here
http://www.propertyscam.org.uk/htdocs/hounslow.htm
There is a freedom of information request relating to this site.
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/position_on_green_belt_and_lower#outgoing-17880
In addition to importing everything manufactured the UK is now importing British land with planning permission. If this site goes ahead and gives the returns to investors suggested in their advert mentioned (250% on £8000 ) then a UK company will have to pay out at least £180M for ownership when it was exported to Singapore in 2006 for £3.2M.
If the Nimbys stopped complaining a British company could be building on this site now at low cost when we need both the work and the houses. Instead we have to pay a foreign company 60 times what is was worth in 2006 to get it back.
Why does the Government allow the export of raw land?
There is now a detailed response from Hounslow council suggesting the Concorde Village site is highly unlikely to get developed.
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/position_on_green_belt_and_lower#incoming-24693
Based on some of the emails at that site I would be be more concerned for the reputation of Britain with foreign investors than worrying about them stealing our land.
Note the above request has been updated with the following statement from Hounslow council. Not reported in the local press but very clear I think
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/position_on_green_belt_and_lower#incoming-24693
Hounslow’s attitude to Green Belt land development is clearly set out in
its statutory development plan, made up of the Unitary Development Plan
(UDP, 2003) and the London Plan (2008). Policy ENV-N.1.2 of the UDP
states a general presumption against inappropriate development (this
term is explained in the policy criteria) within the Green Belt and
states that it will not permit such development, except where very
special circumstances can be demonstrated. This approach is consistent
with the London Plan, which outlines the intention for London’s growth
to take place within its existing urban boundaries and without
encroaching on open space. The approach to development in the Green Belt
set out Hounslow’s development plan reflects national Planning Policy
Guidance (PPG 2) on Green Belts. These documents are available online by
following the weblinks at the end of this email.
Relating to the attitude to development at the site at ‘Concorde
Village’, the approach described above would be applied and an applicant
would need to present very special circumstances if development were to
be allowed. It should be noted that a planning application for this site
has not been submitted to the Council. Given that the Council has
evidence that it can meet its development needs (for both housing and
commercial/ industrial uses) for the foreseeable future and the housing
targets set out in the London Plan (which have been established on this
basis) by developing existing urban land that is not designated as Green
Belt or open space, it is very unlikely that planning permission would
be given for development on this site.
For information, the Council is in the process of producing a new
statutory development plan, the Local Development Framework, which is
gradually replacing the UDP. The main element of this will be the Core
Strategy, which will cover Green Belt designation and policies, and will
undergo a second phase of consultation (preferred options or preferred
strategy stage) early in 2010. The Core Strategy will be informed be a
review of the Green Belt boundary, which will identify and deal with any
anomalies in the Green Belt whilst ensuring the integrity and permanence
of the Green Belt is maintained, as outlined in the London Plan and PPG
2. There is no expected change (although reliance should not be placed
upon this) to the strategic approach to Green Belt set out in the London
Plan and PPG2, and the review of Green Belt boundaries together with the
assessment of any proposals to build on the Green Belt will be made in
this context. We do not anticipate the need to make any exception to
this policy to accommodate the borough’s expected growth.
In response to your request for a copy of all communications received
and transmitted relating to this site, please find attached 38 such
documents (these will be attached to three consecutive emails).
It seems to me that Feltham as a whole has had enough houseing DUMPED on its land to cover the requirement placed on it by the NIMBY M.P.s.
I like Feltham.
I live in Feltham.
PLEASE leave this areas Green Belt alone!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Green Belt housing scheme promoted by footballers leaves investors in the red
Investors from the Far East have been left without a penny gain in four years after putting money into a “get rich quick” property scheme promoted by two former England football players.
While Profitable Group, the Singapore-based property company behind the scheme, has made at least £47 million from the deal, nothing has yet materialised at the site – not even a planning application to build a single house.
The two former footballers, now living in the Far East, used their celebrity status to market the scheme on television across south-east Asia in 2006.
Profitable changed the name of the tract of land from Lower Feltham Lakes to Concorde Village for the purposes of the marketing drive.
But no development can take place unless a planning inspector can be persuaded to overrule the site’s green belt status against the wishes of Hounslow council, the local planning authority, which firmly opposes building there.
More here……….
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/propertynews/7436428/Green-Belt-housing-scheme-promoted-by-footballers-leaves-investors-in-the-red.html