I live in Flat A 121 Myddleton Road.

A proposal has been sent to the Planning Permission regarding opening a nursery in the flat below me. I am gutted. I have lived and have loved living in Myddleton Road the last three years. Now my future has suddenly been pulled away under me.

I know a lot about soundproofing, having been involved in building 5-6 proffesional recording studios. There is NO WAY you can sound proof a tiny little place like that effectively without loosing a considerable part of the internal space....

I strongly object to the proposal.I think it is a seriously bad idea.

My flat is situated directly above the part of the premises which the application suggests being used for keeping the children in. (The non office part).

REG. DENSITY:

-There is a shop space and furthermore five flats in this three story property. In the surrounding houses there as many and in some instances more flats per building. With so many people living so close, furthermore adding a nursery will simply be too dense.

-In the proposal it is consistently claimed that Palmerston Nursery is 7 minutes away. I must object to this. There is only approximately 100 yards to Palmerston Nursery.....

and as other have mentioned here, there is another (Montessori) nursery opening within these 100 yards during the next few months.

Montessori or not, having three nurseries within 100 yards seems completely disproportionate to the rest of the area.

IN DOOR NOISE:

According to to Paragraph 21 in the application the space suggested is 155 square meters. This must include the outdoor area and the office in the front building, as my flat is 40 square meters and covers approximately two thirds of the current back building below me, so unless furthermore new buildings are suggested being built, the current building below must be approximately maximum 60 square meters,

Putting 20 children into an approximately 60 square meter space creates a lot of noise, a noise level that it physically would be near impossible to insulate yourself from, and any opening of windows in the nursery would then reverse the effect of the insulation considerably.

OUTDOOR AREA/YARD:

The external premises, the yard, is furthermore being proposed to be used as a play area. This would again create a lot of noise which would be amplified by the hard surfaces in the yard (the concrete floor and the brick walls) and create a lot of noise for the surrounding residents and commercial properties.

I currently keep my windows open six to eight months a year.

I suffer from asthma and house mite allergy and keeping windows open helps.

In order to keep the noise from the yard and/or from open windows in the proposed nursery I would be forced to keep my windows shut during the entire day. Apart from it affecting my allergy and asthma negatively this would also create an unbearable build up of heat in the summer period. My flat has a tar mat roof, is fairly small and is exposed to direct sunlight about 14 hours per day. An extra layer of windows + professional air condition would have to be installed, at a cost and with an excessive increase of the electricity bill to follow.

But at the end of the day, have I really no right to be able to open my own windows without being exposed to extensive noise ?

I also work partly from home and partly outside my home. I work nights and therefor come home in the early hours on several days during the week and the following day I have to sleep during the day. This would be impossible if this plan goes through. I would not be able to either work or sleep during the day in my own home. I would have to leave the area....which because of the high house prices would mean move out of London, which again would jeopardise my work and seriously affect my private and social life.

Generally the noise will be a serious nuisance to me. It will affect my quality of life negatively and it will be a breach of my quiet enjoyments.

ACCESS

In the proposed plan, access to the nursery would be through the communal hall.

This would be both very noisy and a constant and serious disturbance for everybody living in the building. Twenty parents plus, twice a day rolling buggies in and out, stopping for a chat or trying to pass each other, in a hallway that is so narrow that two buggies cant pass each other, or even give space at the widest point (70cm), while residents in the building will be coming in and out of the building some with children, or carrying groceries etc.

If buggies or bicycles instead was then left outside, on the fairly narrow pavement, it would soon create chaos and be a serious nuisance for both residents in the house, residents in the street, shoppers and shop keepers in the neighbouring shops. Possibly there could even be a danger element here, involving pedestrians being forced to walk out onto the street when the pavement is filled up with prams and bikes.

PARKING (Cars/Bicycles)

One of Myddleton Roads big challenges is the serious lack of parking spaces in the street.

Adding even more cars, bicycles, and buggies to this will further escalate the problems.

EXTRA RUBBISH ON THE STREET:

In paragraph 16 in the planning application, (called Trade Effluent), the question goes “Does your proposal involve the need to dispose off trade effluents or waste ?”.

This question has been answered with a NO.

-This surprises, as surely 20 children in nappy stage will create extra rubbish.....

Myddleton Road is currently dealing with a serious challenge as many buildings in the street (including number 121) does not have any outdoor space for bins.

The result is that all rubbish is left in a pile of bin bags and collected around 9-10PM, which means that around 6PM every night foxes starts straying up and down the street ripping open any bag they see, including the bin bags of nappies and food waste from the nursery....

CHANGE OF USE:

According to paragraph 14 in the planning application the current use is B1 Office space.

-However this is only true for the shop part.The 121B part of the space is currently inhabited by a family of four. I assume this family will be forced to move if the Planning Permission gets approved.

In paragraph 16 in the planning application, called Residential Units.

The question goes “Does your proposal include the gain or loss of residential units?”

-This question has been answered with a NO.

Again in paragraph 18, the question goes: Does your proposal involve the loss, gain or change of use of non-residential floorspace? This question has also been answered with a NO.

This is incorrect, as a family live in the ground floor flat at rear of property.

-Surely there must be a gain of non-residential floorspace here, as somebody is currently living in the space....

......

Andreas Jensen