New Sainsbury’s development plans for Stoke Newington

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The revised plans showing the lower height of the proposed Sainsburys development

Eastlondonlines can now reveal the new plans for of the proposed Sainsburys development in Stoke Newington.

The plans to build a new Sainsbury’s in Stoke Newington have been revised for a second time after a long campaign from local activists.

Stoke Newington residents expressed  concerns over the development when it was first announced in June 2011. They  launched a campaign fronted by the Stokey Local blog. At that stage the plans were considerably changed and scaled down, to remove the car park and reduce the floor size of the store, but keep the plan for up to 50 residential units.

However, as reported by Eastlondonlines last year, the development in Wilmer Place was still  likely to tower over Abney Park Cemetery’s Grade II listed gates and cast a permanent shadow over the wild cemetery gardens.  This new application is a response to those concerns.

 

Stoke Newington Sainsburys before consultation

The plans as they looked before the consultation.

 A spokesperson for Newmark Properties said: “After approximately three years of consultation with the local planning, design and conservation officers, local stakeholders, ward councillors and the public, we’ve made further changes to the scheme to meet some of the concerns about height and the relationship with the cemetery which we have heard.”

Newmark Properties told ELL that the new development would include one less floor than previously planned, with a seven metre-high second floor removed from the side nearest to the cemetery.

This decrease in size will mean that there will be 15 fewer residential units within the building, though this has been reduced proportionally between the affordable housing and market housing.

The Stokey Local campaign said in a statement: “While this application does not seem to have any intention of ‘quietly going away’ we should be pleased that whatever happens, we have already won two sets of concessions from the developer.”

Once the developers release updated plans, there is a 21 day consultation period and the campaign organisers will call another meeting to assess the revisions.

Despite these changes, there is still concern in regard to the actual height of the building. Officers have requested CGI views as well as a model of the structure. They have also suggested scaffolding be built to properly assess the scale of the building.

An enhanced ecology study and a study into the bat population will be carried out around the cemetery.

The application is unlikely to go before committee until April 3. The scheme will be deferred if the consultees are still unconvinced by the height amendments.

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