The following Resolution was passed unanimously by the LRNF at its General Meeting on 21st February 2024:
The Lots Road Neighbourhood Forum believes that RBKC officers in their Report S20 ENF/23/05465 are wrong in matters of fact and judgement. Among the most egregious errors:
Officers base their evaluation (Section 8) on their repeated assertion that the three boats in question are ‘not excessively large’ or out of character with other vessels on the mooring. Yet it is admitted that these boats are several metres longer than the next largest boats. They are also wider than the next largest boats, twice the volume of most of the boats on the mooring and each split into two apartments unlike the other boats on the mooring. These facts, along with the views of residents on the unacceptable intrusion into the visual amenity of the Conservation Area, do not support the officers’ evaluation.
Officers argue that intensification created by these new apartment boats, with the addition of up to 24 new car parking permits and 24 new motorcycle permits, is unlikely to have a significant impact on traffic congestion and on street parking. The officers offer no traffic study to support this conclusion, a claim which runs contrary to the clear views of residents that such intensification would add significantly to the congestion of a highly constrained part of the borough.
Lastly, at Section 5.6 officers claim to have considered the views expressed by residents in their assessment of whether enforcement action should be taken, yet they show no evidence of how these views have been addressed and their judgements at every point contradict the views and concerns of the local community.
In light of the above, the Lots Road Neighbourhood Forum calls on members of the RBKC Planning Applications Committee (PAC) to reject the views of RBKC officers and to order immediate enforcement to remedy the breach of planning control unanimously resolved by the PAC at its meeting held on 19th December 2023 and supported unanimously by the Full Council at its meeting held on 31st January 2024 when it resolved urgently to complete work on the River Thames Conservation Area Management Plan to protect Chelsea Riverside Ward further from overdevelopment along the Chelsea foreshore.