Development

The future of Darrick Wood

On 1^st March the planning application for 26 new rented homes and landscaping at Darrick Wood went live on the Bromley Council website. Residents were invited to comment on the formal consultation. This has now closed, and we await the results.

Overview of plans

We have proposed to provide 26 new homes at the top of Isabella Drive. These will be a mixture of one and two bedroom flats – all for rent, with rents set using the same approach as for everyone else at Darrick Wood. We have worked on the design to take into account the feedback from the different consultation events we have run, and this has included reducing the size of the new building and moving it further from the existing homes.

Our application also sets out the plans to improve landscaping across the estate worked up by our landscape architects with the help of interested residents – many thanks to those who contributed to this.

The new homes will be made available to local people who need them, in line with our partnership with Bromley Council. There are well over 3,000 households on the Council’s Housing Register, and each year some 2,000 new homeless applicants. We know how important it is to be able to live in a good quality, affordable, secure rented home and we aim to play a small part in helping Bromley achieve their aims of 1,000 new affordable homes each year. At the same time we know that building new homes on land that is currently open space is not going to be welcome to everyone. In making this application, Keniston has carefully weighed up the pros and cons of the project, and we firmly believe that the proposed flats can be absorbed within the estate, and that the new residents will become part of the community of Darrick Wood.

We also recognise that there are residents who are concerned about the disruption that the construction stage will cause. We can’t pretend that there will be no impact while the builders are on site, but we can say that we will manage this in a way that minimises how it affects existing residents. We aim to liaise closely with the builders on this, and will look to involve interested residents to work with us to make this as smooth as possible for everyone. This will include controls on the levels of noise, traffic and working hours.

Some residents may be concerned about pressure on local services – such as school places – from an influx of new people into the neighbourhood. This is a consideration for Bromley Council as they consider the planning application. As part of the planning process, we will be required to contribute towards local investment in education and health services.

Contacting us

You are welcome to contact us by using the dedicated email and phone line below:

futureofdarrickwood@kenistonha.co.uk

Leave a comment on: 01689 664514

Bickley site

We are working with our architects BPTW on plans for the redevelopment of new housing on the site of Robert Whyte House. The details are being worked up, but over the coming years we are aiming to replace the existing building with two new blocks providing a total of 39 new homes. These will be a mixture of general needs and housing for older people, all to be let at social rent to local people.