Chinmaya Mission Needs your urgent help please – Hendon Hub Development Plans

Hari Om!

Chinmaya Mission needs your urgent help please.

Hendon Hub development plans

There are proposed plans for a very large development right in front of our building in Hendon, Chinmaya Kirti. We have objected to these to the Local Council. But the matter is now with the Mayor of London for decision in the next few days. Please could we ask your urgent support in logging protests to the plans with the Mayor (we had understood that we had 14 days but it seems the meeting has been brought forward to Monday 3 June!).

Any support you can afford us will be valuable. In particular could I request:

1. You individually lodge your protests - anyone with a UK address is entitled to lodge protest - not just locals or those in London
2. If your personal networks of friends and family could be sympathetic, their protest is welcome too
3. Your fellow volunteers in your respective organisations
4. Perhaps if you can advertise this to your wider databases, that would be great. But of course I recognise this may not be possible for many and totally fine if you can't
5. If anyone has access to the powers that be in the Mayor's office and could perhaps put in a good word for us, that would be much appreciated too

The reasons for our protest and the instructions for logging protest is stated below:

a. Please urgently lodge your protest at: https://planapps.london.gov.uk/planningapps/23-2868-FUL. The choices for the objection we recommend are on the image below

b. You can then insert the details of the objection – the message below is available for you or you may change as you wish:

I am objecting to these proposed plans for the development of on the Burroughs and Egerton Gardens on the basis of:

1. Loss of car parking: The Rotunda building is on a much-used council car park and none of the goodwill parking, afforded to hundreds of religious users of 2 churches and the Chinmaya Mission for decades, is replaced. I regularly visit the Chinmaya Mission centre on Egerton Gardens and the Hindu temple therein. Carparking is essential to our community: the congregation is intergenerational, with both the very young and the elderly participating regularly in our activities. They and their families rely on the immediately available parking. The proposed plan results in the loss of car parking which is not mitigated by the proposed plans. This is particularly because there is no (or no reasonably convenient) alternative carparking in the area. The loss of the Egerton Gardens car park and any street car parking will also affect the hundreds of congregants who attend the adjacent Methodist and Catholic churches. This proposed development will create significant parking issues for three faith communities that will undermine the ability of each to serve the community’s needs.

2. Density: The proposed designs represent over-development in this small, residential area. The proposed use of the new buildings as student accommodation, residential flats, community and educational facilities will cause widespread disruption which has not been adequately considered or mitigated in the proposal. The problems of overcrowding and antisocial behaviour have not been given serious thought

3. Design: The proposed buildings are too large and unsympathetic to the street scene and will clash with the listed buildings in the adjacent conservation areas, in addition to the Chinmaya Mission centre that was carefully refurbished very recently (in 2021) to make a positive contribution to this historic area. The rotunda in particular is out of keeping and has no architectural merit, as noted by Historic England which recommends a different design.

Additionally, as is evident from the pictures of the proposed development on the Hendon Hub website, the development would obscure our building’s view of the neighbouring surroundings.

4. Massing: This overblown development will have a negative impact on the street scene. Blocks 1, 2 and 3 are too bulky and tall. They are not designed sympathetically to the locale nor in keeping with the character of the area and do not complement the grade ll listed grand, charming civic buildings opposite. The newbuilds' footprint is twice that of the existing buildings, I object to the size, scale and mass of what is proposed.

5. Environmental: The demolition of perfectly sound, existing buildings, like Fenella, undermines Barnet's policies on environment and climate change. Policies: ECC01 Mitigating Climate Change and ECC02 Environmental Considerations. The Fenella building is relatively new and not unsightly, therefore why demolish it? This scheme benefits the University, not the residents-there are good transport links to the area and there is no reason why students can't use them to travel, rather than reside here. This scheme is designed to turn the area into a university campus site, which residents do not want.

I request the Mayor to reject the proposals downs.

c. After your objection, please keep an eye out for an email. Please open this email and click "Confirm Comment"