Local councillor , Jackie Meldrum, outside 210 Knights Hill
The London Fire Brigade’s proposal to move West Norwood’s fire station to a new site at 210 Knights Hill was thrown at by councillors on Lambeth’s Planning committee on Tuesday night. Objectors argued the fire station would create too much extra noise & nuisance in quiet residential streets. For details of the meeting see this section on Lambeth’s website.
Local councillor Jane Pickard backed objectors who said the Fire Brigade was wrong to think they could not modernise the existing fire station at 445 Norwood Road after it was listed as a building of historical and special interest in 2006. During discussions with the Fire Brigade over the last few months it became clear that fire fighter training could be very noisy for residents living close by to the new station.
The Planning committee agreed with objectors and fire chiefs said they would now look again at converting the station at 445 Norwood Road rather than moving elsewhere.
Jane said “ This is really the best result for everyone. The fire fighters can get a better working conditions inside the existing building, the attractive front of the building could be preserved, West Norwood will not suffer a derelict listed building which may be hard to convert to flats and residents of Knights Hill neighbourhood will be left in peace & quiet.”
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This is a sad case of NIMBYism. Norwood Road is a particularly unsuitable place for a fire station. It’s in a residential area and the building could much better be used for other things.
I agree. It is NIMBYish – it’s the middle class house-price protection. Who cares what happens in the centre of down-at-heel West Norwood high street.
Knights Hill is a noisy street, with a lot of traffic, buses, speeding cars, etc. I don’t see how you could class Knights Hill as a quiet residential area. I know I live on it.
And the ironic reward is that 210 is now full of squatters.
“Residents of Knights Hill neighbourhood will be left in peace & quiet”???
should you be so naive to expect that from the residents of this Crack House???
I love that the fire station is staying in such a prominent location; its a wonderful building and it gives Norwood High Street some importance.