ANGRY residents have slammed the council's decision to approve a controversial development which they say will put a blight on their lives.
Councillors at a regulatory committee meeting at Ilford Town Hall this evening (November 30) granted permission for the construction of a three-storey 'live-work' building on the site of several garages between High Road and St Albans Crescent in Woodford Green.
Residents living in St Albans Road and St Albans Crescent have fought for nearly ten years to prevent a development which they say will invade their privacy and stand out too much from the surrounding architecture.
Vince Reveglia, who lives in St Albans Crescent, said: “It's so annoying, we've been fighting against this for years.
“The incline of the hill means that anyone in the middle level of the building could be effectively looking into our bedrooms. There's no real consideration for people living nearby.
“It's incredibly frustrating that property developers are just interested in making money, while giving no consideration to people living here. They were garages, so why should they change?
“The logic seems to be that you find a bit of land and just build on it, it's very annoying. It seems to be the culture of the modern day - to build literally anywhere and anything. Some sort of common sense has to in place.”
The application is subject to two conditions. Firstly, the commercial space cannot be used for industrial purposes and, secondly, the main means of access must be the alley leading from the High Road to the front of the premises, rather than the one from St Albans Road to the rear.
But another St Albans Crescent resident, Steve Harris, said he could not understand what had changed about the building itself in this latest set of plans, and why the council had approved it after several previous rejections.
Mr Harris said: “The strongest thing for me is the lack of consistency. If the scheme is materially not very different this time, why suddenly has it been reinterpreted? That clearly is down to the interpretation of the council, and I no idea why that should be the case
“From our point of view, we'll be looking for council to monitor the build itself in rather more detail in order to ensure what is built fits the dimensions and the characters of the plans, as they have been submitted.
“We're exhausted and the local authority is probably exhausted, because this takes up a lot of time.”
The latest application was the fourth in the last five years, with each attempt being rejected by council, along with each subsequent appeal.
However, developer Nelson Ide, who has owned the site for around the last five years, said he was pleased to have finally won the right build on the site.
Mr Ide said: “I'm really happy with the result. The kind of thing I had in mind was an artist living there and working in their own studio.
”In fact, one guy I have that is interested in the site makes models for animated films, so that is the sort of thing that I'm interested in.”
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