23 November (Part 2) - The Black Horse has bolted
The Black Horse is historically important to Sidcup as it was a staging post in the days of horse drawn carriages. Its reputation as an important destination for coaches made the name Sidcup well known and persuaded the railway company to retain the name of Sidcup when it built its station in Lamorbey. Now the listed Black Horse Inn is no more.
Planning permission had been granted for an 84 bedroom Travelodge and a Waitrose supermarket
with the retention of the historic facade. Hillingdon Developments started work, hitching
their scaffold to the facade without seeing any need to secure it at ground level as the
photograph reveals. Then they asked Bexley council to vary the planning permission to revert
to the original idea. The total destruction of the building.
In typical Bexley style the council did not bother to publicise the new proposal widely. The
revised plan limped on to its website just a few hours before the Planning Committee met to
consider it on 3rd November. Even now only the old plan is available in Sidcup Library. The
new planning application was supported only by the developer’s claim that the facade was
unstable. Not so unstable that they felt unable to use it as the support for their scaffold
but too unstable for it to be incorporated into a new building.
Bexley council decided against getting a second opinion from an independent
consultant and further consultation with the conservationists who had been so
strongly against the loss of the facade in the first place. Bexley council promptly
keeled over before the developers 11th hour request. David Bryce-Smith,
Bexley’s Deputy Director (Development, Housing and Community Safety) has admitted in a letter that
the public were effectively excluded from the decision due to the lack of notice, which he
blames on the developer.
An extract from the plan - the Waitrose store to be built on the site of the
Black Horse -
is available here. The Travelodge is to be built between Waitrose and St. John’s
Road to the east.
No one knows what the new facade will look like which is of great concern to the
Sidcup Community Group and others who have watched Bexley council’s maneuverings
over this issue. A member has said “I am truly very concerned about the conduct
of the planning officers in both this application and others. 15 Market Parade,
(the old Job Centre) Sidcup High Street, has been redeveloped. There have been
failures, particularly by the planning department, to ensure that the
redevelopment complies with the submitted plans.
At the September meeting of the Planning Committee Mr. Ron Gee pointed
out to councillors that the Sidcup Morrisons’ delivery yard was conditioned to
close at 10:30 pm and not 11:30 pm as shown in the revised planning conditions.
Bexley’s Head of Development Control told councillors that Mr. Gee was wrong.
Subsequently the Planning Department had to apologise both to him and all the
Planning Councillors and amend that condition. This is reported in the Minutes
of the 3 November planning meeting.”
Morrisons
shareholder on Bexley’s Planning Committee.