Norwood Action Group and Norwood Forum have jointly objected to the current planning appeal by GNK on Norwood High Street. GNK is currently operating in contravention of their own plan to manage their own and customer's traffic and instead have chosen to use their yard for other purposes. The parking and movement of vehicles on Norwood High Street is continuing to cause congestion that impacts buses, general traffic, pedestrians and cyclists. As stated in our conclusion:

'GNK need to take ownership of the traffic chaos and highway safety problems they are creating and comply with the conditions that have been set and the plans they themselves submitted rather than seek to change them to formalise their established business practice of using more or less the entire yard for storage, display and trading rather than keeping clear the Lambeth approved designated areas for vehicle parking, loading and unloading, turning and access intended to remove unauthorised activity with its attendant safety and traffic impacts from the public highway.'

 

If this appeal is dismissed, which we sincerely hope it will be, and then GNK continues to act in breach of the planning conditions, we expect the Council to pursue, enforce and prosecute under planning regulations and to use other powers to stop this dangerous activity which penalises other local businesses which operate within the rules, and delays bus passengers, cyclists, pedestrians and general traffic. We also expect the police to use their powers if this proves necessary.

 

The appeal case details can be accessed on the Planning Inspectorate website - the reference number is: APP/N5660/W/20/3258370 (use the last seven digits).