02/07

Email: COLPAI to the Baggers

Hi Bev

Firstly, can I ask you to forward over the notes from our meeting last week?

Secondly, I have spoken to the Director of Children’s and Community Services and gained his outline approval to keeping all four trees as discuss and re-planting at the City’s cost should they die after the school has been completed.

I still need to agree with Steve- ISG and Emma - BD Landscapes the details (tree planters, cable routes etc) and suspect Steve will still want to condition any agreement to give ISG the provision to remove the tree adjacent to Basterfield service road should they believe it represents a H&S risk, but in any event we will continue to work with the Baggers to make sure you are consulted if this turns out to be the case.  

I also need to check with LBI Planners to make sure they are happy that we submit a revised landscaping proposal showing the retained trees.  

I will contact you again in the near future with an updated landscape plan showing the retained trees.

Regards

Mark Lowman

Property Projects Group

17/07

Planning permission granted with following condition attached

Condition 5

“Unless otherwise agreed in writing by the Local Planning Authority none of the existing trees on the boundary with the neighbouring allotments shall be removed or pruned. Prior to commencement (excluding demolition) details of the protection of the trees including the roots shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. The approved protection shall be installed in accordance with the approved details and shall be erected before any equipment, machinery or materials are brought on to the site for the purposes of the development, and shall be maintained until all equipment, machinery and surplus materials have been removed from the site. Nothing shall be stored or placed in any treeprotection area in accordance with this condition and the ground levels within those areas shall not be altered, nor shall any excavation be made, without the written consent of the Local Planning Authority. Trees which die or become in the opinion of the Local Planning Authority seriously damaged or defective within 3 years of completion of the development shall be replaced with 4m Birch trees or such alternatives as may be agreed in writing by the Local Planning Authority.”

05/09

Email: Baggers to City

Dear Mark,

Following up on your encouraging message after you met with the Golden Baggers at the end of June, I attended the Colpai community liaison meeting yesterday evening where we touched on the construction and demolition management plans, which I understand have been submitted to LB Islington and CoL planners in order to discharge the relevant planning conditions. 

The draft CMP and DMPs on the Colpai website make no mention of tree protection and the hoarding line indicated alongside the Bagger’s allotments appears to sit alongside or on the boundary wall.  When I attempted to clarify this at the meeting I was advised that it was unlikely that any hoarding would be erected along this boundary and that the existing wall and fencing would form adequate protection at this edge of the site.  I was further advised that the trees would most likely be protected using heras fencing, which I would query as this would be vulnerable to being knocked over by construction vehicles and would offer no protection against dust or indeed any additional protection against construction noise along this boundary.

I note that the condition 5 on the Decision Notice requires the submission of details of tree protection and, whilst the condition appears not to apply to the demolition phase, it is evident that trees can equally be harmed during demolition and would appeal to the development team to consider and give assurances that the trees will be protected during demolition.  Could we also request that a detailed tree protection plan is prepared and circulated for consultation with the Baggers as soon as possible? 

Your message below makes reference to an updated landscape plan indicating the retained trees and we would be grateful to see a copy of this if it is available. 

Kind regards 

Anna Parkinson

Golden Lane Baggers Committee

06/09

Email: COLPAI to Baggers

Dear Anna, 

I thought it may be useful for me to respond to this briefly, given Mark was not at the meeting on Tuesday, and we can clarify further at future meetings if necessary. 

My understanding of the discussion at the Liaison Group meeting on Tuesday was the contractor saying he was willing to install hoarding in relation to the trees in a more flexible way to take into account the wishes of the ‘Baggers’ and other affected residents as long as it didn’t have any health and safety implications. This was an offer of the contractor to be flexible rather than stating an intention, such as the trees remaining more visible from the allotment area of the site.

As you mention below, there is a requirement to submit a detail plan and this will be circulated to stakeholders at an appropriate time.

Again, an updated Landscaping plan will be circulated in due course.

Regards

Gerald Mehrtens 
Director of Academy Development

07/09

Email: Baggers to COLPAI

Dear Gerald, 

Thank you for your prompt reply.

We have a social meeting on the allotments this weekend and I will discuss this issue with the Baggers.

Could you confirm when you intend to commission the tree protection plan, as this will need to be approved by the Planning Authority prior to the commencement of construction on site.  A revised Ecological Study was also mentioned at the meeting - is this a public document and if so, would we be able to see a copy?

Regards

Anna

21/09

Email: Baggers to COPLAI

Dear Gerald and Mark, 

I have spoken with a number of the baggers, all of whom share concerns about the protection of the trees and the boundary with the allotments site, as well as potential noise, dust and disruption from the demolition and construction work.   

Please could you provide any further clarity and detail on the proposals for the hoarding and tree protection at this boundary as the plans I have seen in the CMP and DMP are not specific and we are mindful that the demolition work is due to start imminently. 

I have also requested 

1. an updated landscape plan

2. a copy of the revised Ecological Survey

3. an assurance that the trees will be protected during demolition

4. that a draft Tree Protection plan be circulated to the Bagger’s Committee as soon as possible 

Please could we have an update on the above? 

Kind regards 

Anna Parkinson

Golden Baggers Committee

26/09

Email: COLPAI to Baggers

Dear Anna
Thank you for very much for your email, we apologise for the delay in responding. You have raised a number of items which we would like to ensure are all addressed therefore some information is a repeat of information previously provided.

You are correct that the first draft of the CMP / DMP had little information regarding tree protection. This was also raised by other parties during the ‘documents issued for comment’ period, this was addressed on the revised copy submitted for discharge of pre-commencement planning conditions.

You are correct that the hoarding line indicated to sit alongside the Bagger’s allotment, however as previously discussed, the Contractor stated he was willing to install hoarding in relation to the trees in a more flexible way to take into account the wishes of the Baggers’ and other affected residents as long as it didn’t have any health and safety implications.  Again, this was an offer of the Contractor to be flexible rather than stating an intention, such as the trees remaining more visible from the allotment area of the site.

You stated that you was advised that the trees would most likely be protected using heras fencing and that this would offer no protection against dust or indeed any additional protection against construction noise along this boundary.    Again, the offer of heras fencing is a proposal discussed to suit issues raised by the Baggers at the Baggers meeting on the 29^thJune 2018 where protection was discussed.  The meeting minutes state:

“…boundary shrubs and climbers between COLPAI and the Golden Baggers’ Allotments could be retained and protected during the construction period to provide continuity of habitat; preserve existing biodiversity and offer screening from the construction site to mitigate harm and disturbance for residents and the community allotments…”

Could we ask that you co-ordinate a prioritised view from all the Baggers as there now appears to be mixed requirements to:

·       Protect the trees

·       Request to not provide solid hoarding on the proposed hoarding line

·       Existing boundary shrubs and climbers will provide screening from the construction site

Heras fencing has been discussed to address the requirements and now it is understood that heras fencing is now considered inappropriate in terms of dust and noise protection.   

An updated Landscaping plan will be circulated in due course.

The planning condition in relation to trees (condition 5) states:

“Unless otherwise agreed in writing by the Local Planning Authority none of the existing trees on the boundary with the neighbouring allotments shall be removed or pruned. Prior to commencement (excluding demolition) details of the protection of the trees including the roots shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. The approved protection shall be installed in accordance with the approved details and shall be erected before any equipment, machinery or materials are brought on to the site for the purposes of the development, and shall be maintained until all equipment, machinery and surplus materials have been removed from the site. Nothing shall be stored or placed in any tree protection area in accordance with this condition and the ground levels within those areas shall not be altered, nor shall any excavation be made, without the written consent of the Local Planning Authority. Trees which die or become in the opinion of the Local Planning Authority seriously damaged or defective within 3 years of completion of the development shall be replaced with 4m Birch trees or such alternatives as may be agreed in writing by the Local Planning Authority.”

A detailed plan is currently being considered and worked through. We will liaise further in due course. An update on the revised ecological study was discussed at the last meeting, where the following was confirmed:

“An ecological appraisal was carried out at on the Golden Lane site on the 29th August 2018. The ecologist confirmed that no bats were seen emerging from the building and the only activity on site was from foraging bats passing high which were arriving from the vegetated area to the west of the site. 
Bats are highly mobile and therefore the Contractor will use a precautionary approach to building demolition.
The ecology team have confirmed that there were no other ecology concerns noted and their full report will follow in due course.   The ecology team has confirmed that no further bat surveys are required, other than as may be required by Planning Conditions.”

We will share relevant reports that will be required to be submitted for Planning Conditions.

Kind regards

The CoLPAI Team

05/10

Email: COLPAI to Baggers

Good afternoon Bev

I am sure you are aware following the Community Liaison Meeting on Tuesday 2 October, that ISG are struggling to keep all four trees adjacent to the allotments in situ during the construction works.  I have spent the last six weeks working with ISG, BD Landscapes and Hawkins Brown Architects attempting to find a solution to save the trees but are coming to the conclusion that for a number of reasons  (Health & Safety concerns, potential for the trees to die once pruned and the volume of root ball that needs to be removed) three of the four trees would possibly either die during construction or pose such a risk or falling down they would need to be removed prior to a start on the assembly/ Sport Hall.   I appreciate this will be a great disappointment to the baggers and residents and therefore would like to explain the reasons behind this with You , Anna and Jaqueline (and your tree expert ) and explore other opportunities to mitigate the loss of the trees.

If you are all free during the week 15-19 October I will arrange the meeting.

Regards

Mark Lowman

Corporate Projects Director

18/10

COLPAI and Baggers meet

Baggers were presented with all the reasons why retaining the trees was a problem for the contractor / developer.

22/10

Email: Baggers to COLPAI

Dear Mark

Thank you for arranging the meeting about the trees last Thursday.   Apologies I had to rush away to pick up my son. 

Whilst we were grateful that you had had further survey work done, on reflection there appeared to be little information produced at the meeting which went any way to convince us that you had seriously explored any options to protect the trees, nor any creative thinking to alleviate our concerns.  In fact the only drawings you showed us had the intention of justifying the position that the trees would have to be felled.

· Had you looked at engineering solutions which looked at cantilevering out a slab from piles and beams deeper into the site to avoid the tree roots?  Where were the drawings and calculations?

· Had you looked into relocation of the proposed service trench?  Why were any alternatives dismissed?

· Had you looked at using anything other than a deep scaffold for construction of what is effectively a single storey building?

· Was there any exploration of the boundary treatment and retention of the existing established plants and climbers on the wire fence which currently form an effective screen to the building site?

· Have you looked at sequencing the site operations so that existing trees can be retained for longer and new trees planted in their final position sooner to minimise any temporary planting and provide continuity of habitat and biodiversity.

· We would have expected to see an arboriculturalist’s report on the effect of pruning back the trees to enable the building work to be done.

· The Baggers had also requested at the recent Colpai Communications meetings that the new ecology survey report be copied to us but have not yet seen this.

Having talked to some of the other baggers and gone back to look at the potential impact on the growing boxes which we only constructed, as a community, a couple of years ago, we feel deeply aggrieved that our concerns are being dismissed with an unsatisfactory response.  Looking at the impact of your proposal to import trees temporarily into the established allotments, this is going to be destructive and disproportionate.  It feels like all the compromises are being dumped on the existing community on our side of the wall. 

We appreciate that there is an imperative for you to start on site now that the permission has been given, however true consultation offers options and an analysis of the pros and cons - this has not been done here.

We feel that the Baggers have been treated unfairly by being lead to believe that you had a will to work with us and we will be making representations to the planning authorities to express our disappointment that the ‘consultation’ has resulted in a deeply unsatisfactory outcome for the Golden Baggers and the wider community on the estate.

Regards

Anna Parkinson

24/10

Email: COLPAI to Baggers

Good afternoon Anna

I am disappointed to hear that the Baggers feel they have been treated unfairly by the City which has resulted in a deeply unsatisfactory outcome for the Golden Lane Baggers and wider community on the estate.

Following our meeting last week I was of the understanding that we have agreed that the 3No trees identified could not be saved for numerous reasons and that as compensation the City / ISG would bring onto site a number (TBA in consultation with Baggers) of large pot grown 6-8m high trees which will be located on the allotment site. ISG would adapt the planting boxes to accommodate the trees and provide a permanent watering point with timed irrigation. In addition we offered to look at locating pot grown planted ivy screens to mask the line between our site and the allotments . 

However that said – I am happy to meet with you all again next week and discuss your concerns listed below.    

Regards

Mark Lowman

Corporate Projects Director

25/10

Email: Baggers to COLPAI

Dear Mark

Thank you for your response. Anna is away this week and so we will not be able to meet again until the latter part of next week at the earliest.  

Time is clearly of the essence so it would be very useful, if in the meantime, you could forward any documents / consultations which demonstrate the various options you explored in an effort to save the trees as conditioned, along with an analysis of the pros and cons.  

Kind regards

Jacqueline Swanson

Email: COLPAI to Baggers

Hi Jacqueline  

I am in the process of gathering the documents requested. I am on leave tomorrow so hopefully will be with you early next week.

Regards

Mark Lowman

Corporate Projects Director

26/10

Email: Baggers to COLPAI

Mark, thank you.

We have a committee meeting on Tuesday evening. Could you have copies of your documents delivered to the Estate Office by lunch time on Tuesday so that we can discuss them at the meeting?

It would expedite matters.

Many thanks

Jacqueline

APPLICATION SUBMITTED BY COLPAI – Baggers not informed

30/10

Email: Baggers to COLPAI

Morning, Mark

I sent you an email on Friday - you were out of office so just want to check you received it (see below). 

Will documents be available for pick up at the estate office today? Would be good to know as soon as possible as I will need to arrange pick up, possibly nip out of work.

Many thanks

Jacqueline

Email: COLPAI to Baggers

Apologies Jacqueline the information will not be available today. I mistakenly thought the ‘Tuesday’ meeting was next Tuesday’s Community liaison Meeting.- my mistake.  I will gather the information asap and get it to you.   

Regards

Mark Lowman

Corporate Projects Director

02/11

Email: Baggers to COLPAI

Hi Mark

Can you update us - there is a COLPAI Community Liaison Group meeting on Tuesday and we would like to see the information you refer to in advance. Also, we clearly need to arrange a further meeting.

In your response to Anna's email expressing our concerns you did say that you hoped to make them available early this week.

Many thanks

Jacqueline

Email: COLPAI to Baggers

Morning Jacqueline

I met with Steve ( ISG ) yesterday afternoon and slightly frustratedly he has still not collated all the information requested by the Baggers . I have asked him to make all the information available by Monday morning at the latest.  Assuming it arrives on Monday morning I will review and email out to all on Monday afternoon.        

I am also going to attend the Tuesday evening meeting so can discuss then.

Regards

Mark Lowman

Corporate Projects Director

Email: Baggers to COLPAI

Mark

Thank you for the update. I'll be working from home Monday so please do give me a ring when the documents are available – [number redacted].

All bests

Jacqueline

Email: COLPAI to Baggers

Will do.

Regards

Mark Lowman

05/11

Email: COLPAI to Baggers

Dear Bev, Anna and Jacqueline

Please find attached information requested in your email of 22 October:

• Statement / drawings cantilevering slab.
• Statement on proposed service trench relocation.  
• Statement on deep scaffold options
• Statement on boundary treatment and retention of the existing established plants and climbers
• Site sequencing operations
• arboriculturalist’s report ( to follow- available w/s 12 November)  
• Updated ecology survey report attached.

As said when we last met, the City and ISG are happy to continue working with the Baggers to help reduce the impact of these works but feel we need to move on from providing lots of supporting evidence demonstrating why we cannot keep the trees to one where we accept the trees have to be removed and look positively at options for screening the works during the construction phase with temporary trees / screens etc . I am at tomorrow’s Community Liaison Meeting we can discuss further then. 

Regards

Mark Lowman

Corporate Projects Director

Documents attached

Federated Model_Cantilevered Ground Beam Slab3

COL-ISG-Federated - Section 6

CoLPAI Planning Conditions

4028_CityofLondon_GoldenLane

Statement from ISG

06/11

COLPAI COMMUNITY LIAISON MEETING

Jacqueline Swanson and Anna Parkinson attended the meeting on behalf of the Golden Baggers. Mark Lowman was also in attendance and refused to engage in conversation about whether sufficient investigation had been made into protecting the tress. The City position was very clearly outlined – the trees have to be removed and the conversation to be had with the Baggers was to discuss mitigation only. At the meeting we discovered that the application to discharge the condition had been submitted but the COPLPAI team were unable to tell us the date of the submission. Baggers were obviously concerned to know how long they had to make comments on the submission. We asked for the link to the planning portal and copies of planning submission documents, which were duly promised.

A meeting was arranged between Mark Lowman and the Baggers for Friday 9 November at 8.15 am.

09/11

Meeting: Mark Lowman (for the City), Anna Parkinson and Jacqueline Swanson (for the Baggers) meet 8.15 am at the allotments.

Anna pointed out that the documents that we had been sent earlier in the week did not indicate any investigation by the City to retain the trees. Mark Lowman responded by saying that they had sought opinion and on the advice given had decided there was no need to spend the money on alternative detailed investigations and would only do see if instructed by the planning officer.

Although there was a constructive conversation about potential mitigation if the trees had to be removed, the Baggers made it clear that they were still not satisfied that the City had followed due process in their efforts to discharge the condition and were therefore keen to see the planning submission documents.

Email: Baggers to COLPAI

Mark

Thank you for meeting us this morning.

I have had a look at both Islington and the City’s planning websites and cannot find the applications to discharge the condition about the trees so would be very grateful if you could send us a copy and let us know the date when these were submitted.

I thought that the communications people had said that they would list the separate applications on the Colpai website, but the planning section of the site only make reference to the original permissions.  There was an action from the last community liaison meeting that a schedule of applications to discharge conditions should be made available and this would be very useful given the speed of the demolition and construction programme. 

We will follow up on our other discussions with a separate message.

Regards

Anna

13/11

Email: COLPAI to Baggers

Morning Anna

I am checking into your query re the discharging of the condition not appearing on the LBI portal. I have also passed your question re the COLPAI website onto Comm Comm.

Regards
Mark Lowman
Corporate Projects Director

14/11

Email: Baggers to COLPAI

Mark please can you or your consultants send the planning submission to us directly. With thanks Anna Parkinson

Sent from my iPhone

Email: COLPAI to Baggers

Anna

Will do. I will ask them today.

Did you manage to write up your notes from our meeting on Friday?

Regards

Mark Lowman

15/11

Email: Baggers to COLPAI

Thanks Mark. We’d like to see the submission first - Anna

SUBMISSION DOCUMENTS

The Baggers through independent means find the planning submission on line and discover that the final date for comments from the public is Monday 19 November.

They also noted that the drawings submitted were all dated before the planning was granted ie no changes have been to reflect the requirement to meet the condition to retain the trees.

The cover letter notes the following:

Consultation

These proposals have been discussed with residential of the Golden Lane Estate through the COPAI dialogue sessions, as well as “The Badgers” who manage the adjacent allotments. The reason for the proposed works and the resultant replacement trees have been fully explained and discussed over a series of meetings.

Putting the misnaming of the Baggers as ‘The Badgers’ aside, at the time of submission (31 October) there had been one meeting on Thursday 18 October with the Baggers to discuss and we had made it very clear in our email of Monday 22 October that we were not happy with the consultation process and had a number of questions that we felt very strongly needed to be answered.

19/11

Email: COLPAI to Baggers

Dear Anna

Please find attached  the documents in support of discharging the planning conditions   

Regards

Mark Lowman

Corporate Projects Director

Documents:

Covering Letter – COL

COL-PBA-ZZ-XX-DR-C-0016_iss5_revT04

COL-PBA-B2-ZZ-DR-S-3301_iss3_revT03

COL-BDL-L1-ZZ-DR-L-0005_iss2_revT01

37845-PBA-03-F1-DR-S-3099_iss1_revP2

COL-BDL-L1-ZZ-DR-L-0001_iss7_revT06

COL-PBA-B2-00-DR-S-3100_iss4_revT04

18020 - Golden Lane overlay

COL-BDL-L1-ZZ-DR-L-0003_iss5_revT04

37845-C-UT-006_iss2_revP3

3605_001

Arboricultural Impact Assessment

NBS Specification for Hard Soft Landscape Works

COL-BDL-L1-ZZ-DR-L-0002_iss7_revT05

19 NOVEMBER FINAL DATE FOR COMMENTS FROM PUBLIC

21/11

Email: COLPAI to Baggers

Dear Anna 

I emailed yesterday the documents submitted in support of Planning condition 5 – I assume this is all okay?   

In relation to our meeting on 9^th November I have still not received your notes of the meeting and am therefore unable to progress considering or implementing  your requests, whether these be air pot trees, ivy planted screens, planted hoardings or water irrigation provisions. 

As agreed at the meeting if you collate your requirements the City will review the list and agree which of the items it can implement and agree a timescale for delivery.  

I would ask that you provide this information by 30^th November, if I don’t hear from you by then I will assume you have no requests. 

Regards

Mark Lowman

Corporate Projects Director

21/11

Email: Baggers to COLPAI

Dear Mark 

Thank you for forwarding these documents, however it is extremely disappointing that they only arrived on the day of the deadline for public comments to Islington Planning department and beyond the deadline for public comments at the City.   An unfortunate coincidence?   We discovered the deadlines for ourselves at the end of last week. It put a huge burden on us as representatives of the Baggers to make sure that everyone who wanted to comment was made aware of where and how to do it.

We were promised these documents and a link to the planning portal at the COLPAI community liaison meeting on 6 November and we trusted that they would be forthcoming in good time for us to liaise with the community to make comments to meet with the Planners’ statutory deadlines.  We are sorry to say that any trust that we have in you personally or as a representative of both the City and Colpai is quickly evaporating and your lack of urgency in sharing information with us only goes further to demonstrate this. 

We have made it clear both before and since you submitted the application to discharge that we do not accept that you have sufficiently investigated an alternative construction plan in order to retain the trees.  Although the format of the documents you sent makes it hard to read, it appears that none of the drawings or documents submitted have been revised or updated since the planning conditions were agreed in July this year.  We have therefore concluded that there was no further design or analysis work done nor ever any intention to attempt to retain the trees. In fact you even went to far as to tell us when we met in the allotments on morning of 9 November that the City would not spend the money to do so unless instructed by the Planners. 

We sincerely believe that the Planners should and will ask you to thoroughly investigate alternative options. The condition is in place to retain the trees, it is therefore incumbent on COLPAI to come up with a construction management plan which protects the safety of its contractors without removing the trees. Until the planning decision has been made you cannot expect us to agree that the trees should be removed and provide you with a list of possible mitigation measures.  We also fear that this will be used to demonstrate that we support your position and this fear is well founded as we have been clearly misrepresented in your submission to discharge the planning condition. 

However, the conversations we have had about greening of the estate in general have been extremely useful.  We would be more than happy to provide you with our ideas – something that COLPAI should be considering as a matter of course as there will shortly be 66 additional families wanting to use the estate’s shared spaces. The Baggers have developed a successful growing and greening initiative which has worked to create a sense of community and it makes perfect sense to build on this. 

Should ultimately the Planners decide that the trees need to be removed then of course we would like to speak to you about how to mitigate the loss. We hope that your email is not implying that unless we agree to the removal of the trees before the 30 November (which we assume is the planning meeting) then there will be no further opportunity to discuss mitigation measures? 

Jacqueline, Bev and I have tried hard to be patient and emphasise to you the sensitivity of the relationship with our community allotment project and the wider Golden Lane community but are rapidly drawing the conclusion that this is of no interest to the COLPAI development team. Our patience is running out.   

We expect a much more concerted effort from your team if the ‘consultation’ process is to be meaningful in any way.  

Regards 

Anna Parkinson

Golden Lane Baggers Committee

22/11

Email: COLPAI to Baggers

Dear Anna

Thank you for your email.  I would like it noted that I do not accept the content of your email as a true reflection of the accounts that have taken place since our first meeting in June 2018 .

In addition, as requested in my email of 21/11/18 could you please provided a list of the Golden Baggers requirements so that it can be review and implemented where possible.

Regards

Mark Lowman

26/11

Email: Baggers to COLPAI

Dear Mark

I think Anna outlines very clearly in her email why we can't provide you with what you refer to as a 'list of requirements'. To do so could implicitly suggest an agreed transactional arrangement and hence the acceptance of the removal of the trees. 

We don't and can't accept your position that the trees need to be destroyed as there is yet to be a proper investigation into other construction methods. We await the decision of the Planners.

Kind regards

Jacqueline Swanson

Golden Baggers Committee

Email: COLPAI to Baggers

Dear Jacqueline

All noted.   

Regards

Mark Lowman

Corporate Projects Director