Townsend Yard success
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It looks like emergency access is being provided to the rear of 36A Highgate High Street, which has been part of our long running campaign. If so, it will be thanks to your donations, the petition and the massive amounts of time and effort put in by the Society planning team and others. Thank you.

 

In more detail:

 

The image shows the wall being built at the the High Street end of the Townsend Yard development, which will eventually become the side wall of the penultimate house, as there is still one to be slotted in on the right hand side of the photo. Look carefully and you will see that it is being built with facing bricks – these are not used for internal or party walls that no one will see. So we think it will form one side of a passageway through to the rear of the new terrace. The builders on site have confirmed they are indeed building a passageway 1.2 metres wide to provide access to 36A Highgate High Street seen at the rear on the right of the photo. 

 

We’ve seen nothing official but this will be an important and critical achievement as it  will give the 36A resident a means of escape and allow the fire brigade to get a hose to the house if the houses on the high street are on fire.  

 

We will now lobby to get the passageway open to the public so they can view the cottage, rather than gated from Townsend Yard, and for a gate to be provided in the garden wall of 36A to make escape, and access, easier. 

 

Putting in place a passageway is welcome but is not in line with the planning permission granted. It is also not a non-material amendment to that faulty original permission and so the conditions for the new passageway can be agreed as part of a new planning application. We need to make sure this is not rubber stamped with no consultation as a non material amendment.