Tag: london square

London Square’s project director of the Leegate development told a packed public meeting at Lochaber Hall on Wednesday that the demolition phase is expected to be completed by the summer. He also confirmed to the Lee Manor Society that all asbestos on the site has now been removed.

Mr Pritchard explained that once the demolition is complete, London Square will need to pass “Gateway 2”. The three-stage Gateway system was brought in under Building Safety Act 2022  following the Grenfell fire. London Square will need approval for its management of safety critical fire and structural risks on the site, before it can start the construction phase.

Mr Pritchard told the meeting, attended by around 80 people, that Gateway 2 approval can take anything from 12 to 30 weeks.

As far as asbestos removal is concerned, Mr Pritchard explained it was carried out by certified experts. “They create an area only they can work in, which won’t impact anyone else . They also have dedicated routes around the site, so they can’t just come through to another area and spread it. They have to stay within the own area and clean themselves off before they leave.”

Leegate is now under wraps to contain any dust created during demolition.

Once Gateway 2 approval is achieved the construction team will be able to start “piling” – a process of driving or drilling vertical steel or concrete columns into the ground. These piles transfer he weight of the new buildings to deeper, more stable soil or rock layers below. London Square will tell residents when this is starting.

Mr Pritchard also explained that much of the material from the old buildings, once demolished, would be used for “crush” or hardcore as part of the foundations of the new development. All the debris from the demolition is sorted into different coloured bins. London Square has targets for the amount of material which is recycled.

Mr Pritchard told the meeting there was a full traffic management plan for the project. There are dedicated routes and timings for vehicles entering and leaving the site.

Several people asked about car-ownership and parking for residents in the development. Jim Mallory, Chair of the Lee Green Consortium, who co-chaired the meeting, said “The scheme has a no-car ownership policy, except for a number of disabled people. Now, you and I know that it will be impossible. I can’t believe that every single resident will not have a car.”

Mr Pritchard confirmed that eventually there would be no parking on the site for workers, expected to number up to 300. He thought most would use public transport to get to Lee but if any used their cars he couldn’t say where they would park. He thought the majority would have their tools delivered to the site and leave them there overnight. Residents in nearby streets where there is unrestricted parking will doubtless be alert to any extra vehicles being left there.

Lee Green Councillor James Rathbone said there had been a consultation on controlled parking zones last year, and on some roads residents wanted them and on others they didn’t . But he added ” Obviously, with the development being built and a large number of people in it, that may change people’s opinions, and closer to the time it would be sensible to have another consultation of the streets immediately adjacent to it.”

Aidan Pritchard agreed to follow up on several points raised by the audience:

• A loud humming noise coming from the site at night.
• The periphery hoarding which had reduced the size of a walkway on the edge of the site.
• “Snow-like” particles blowing about Eltham Road. Pritchard said he was confident that there had been no leakage of asbestos during the removal process.
• Will there by a lay-by for the bus stop on Burnt Ash Road?
•  Investigate complaints about a security dog which has been barking at night. Pritchard said they would be talking to the security contractor.
• Provide site contact numbers on the hoarding and ensure there is always a phone contact for residents to report any issues.

Mr Pritchard agreed to explore a suggestion from Caroline Mayow to put up a bulletin board on the corner of Burnt Ash and Eltham Roads, to provide up-to-date information about the development. This will also be published on the Lee Manor Society website along with photos and videos of the work as it progresses.

Residents thought it would be a good idea to hold a follow up meeting when the next stage of the development is underway, Relevant Council officers and Councillors would also be invited to speak.

Demolition of Leegate is well underway – there are piles of rubble where once there were shops. Frances Migniuolo snapped the pictures below from Sainsbury’s car park..

The Site Director Aidan Pritchard and some of his team will be speaking at the public meeting on January 21st, and will be taking questions. The meeting is at Lochaber Hall and it starts at 7 pm. Full details and a form to indicate if you are coming can be found here.

This article has been updated.

Victor Bellamy, the Senior Site Manager for London Square’s operations south of the river, is hugely enthusiastic about the Leegate development.  He says “It’s going to be absolutely stunning.”

A cynic might think ‘he would say that, wouldn’t he’?  And there are plenty of Lee residents who don’t agree and are appalled by the height of the main tower, and the overall design of the development.

Victor, however, is genuinely anxious to build good relations with the local community.  He and Aidan Pritchard, the Project Director, have offered to come to a public meeting in January so they can explain how the demolition and building phases of the development will be managed.

“I like to engage with local people, purely and simply because you find the lay of the land and you find out what’s going on,” Victor told the Lee Manor Society.  It was Victor who told his bosses the name Blackheath Gate would play badly in Lee. The firm is now reviewing it.  

Now that Lewisham planners have approved London Square’s new proposals for Leegate, Victor and his colleagues are working on the timeline for the development.

“Soft stripping” of easily removable items is already underway. Victor Bellamy expects scaffolding to start being erected in the next few days so the ‘hard demolition’ can get going. The existing buildings will be covered while the asbestos removal and demolition is carried out. He says there is actually very little asbestos in the site; mainly in the old toilets, but the site will be pressurised to ensure that asbestos can’t escape outside.

London Square is also in discussion with Transport for London about the fate of two trees which TfL planted and want preserved (as does the Lee Manor Society). We will aim to discover the outcome of those discussions.

The demolition team will start in the front corner at the Lee Green crossroads and work its way back. Victor expects demolition to be completed fairly quickly – by the spring – because the existing Leegate buildings are mostly single-skin and won’t put up much resistance. Much of the rubble will be crushed and kept for hardcore in the new development.

A major challenge is fears about water mains bursting once the buildings are demolished. “Obviously, if you’ve got a building site on top of a water pipe for 20 years, and you take it off, that’s going to expand and explode,” he says.  Thames Water are conducting tests at the moment to come up with solutions.

Electrical power to the site has already been diverted and BT are busy dealing with communications connections. There is already ground penetration drilling continuing, to confirm there is no WW2 ordnance remaining.

What about noise and disruption to local residents?  Working hours on the site will be 8 am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. If they work on Saturdays, they will finish by 1pm. Victor admits there will be noise, he is sorry but he can’t do anything about it.  There will be phone numbers on the gates for residents to call if there is an emergency.  

Lorries coming out of the site will have to go through wheel scrubs to reduce the amount of mud they take out onto the roads. 

At full tilt, there will be around 150 workers on the site. They will have parking inside the cordon so they don’t take up space on nearby roads (ironic when you consider that the residents of the finished development won’t get anywhere to park, apart from Blue Badge holders).

Once the demolition is underway London Square intends to erect a sales office on the corner at the Lee Green crossroads.