Hounslow Planning has approved a detailed proposal for the restoration of Hanworth Park House, which had been derelict for nearly 25 years, including an outline approval for 300 new homes.
The councillors felt they were faced with a decision to “let the house fall down or save it.”
The detailed component includes the restoration of Hanworth Park House, which is a Grade II listed building that introduces a mixture of community uses (including a local museum, educational spaces, artists’ studios and an events space, amongst others), commercial floorspace and a single home for an on-site manager and associated highways improvements linking the development to Forest Road to the west. The community uses would be secured in perpetuity and offered at a peppercorn rent.
The outline component is for the erection of nine buildings to provide up to 300 homes and associated works.
The proposed homes incorporate 40 per cent affordable (up to 120 homes), all at social rent tenure. The private market sale homes (up to 180 homes) would fund the restoration of the House.
The proposal would achieve a 105 per cent reduction in carbon emissions over Building Regulations Part L compliant baseline. In contrast, the House (i.e. non-residential elements) would achieve an ‘Excellent’ BREEAM rating.
The proposal incorporates car and cycle parking, landscaping, and an enhanced public realm. The proposal would improve local public transport by extending the No.90 bus route.
Councillors felt that the development would be an incursion into “green belt land.”
The planning document states that; “The proposal would result in harm to the openness of the Green Belt and would also result in less than substantial harm to the setting of the House and to the character and appearance of the Hanworth Park Conservation Area. While the proposal would result in the loss of 314 trees, including Category A and B trees, the proposal incorporates replacement tree planting both within the site and the wider park at a 2:1 basis, totalling 628 new trees.”
Hanworth Park House is a former hunting lodge belonging to Henry VIII.
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