Yoga studio plan rejected (wtf?!)

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I’ve just sent an email to the three councillors (see below for their addresses and my message) and tweeted at them. I suggest people who support the studio and am as angry/befuddled by this do the same.

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The last two pics (the email) are in the wrong order ooops

Seems a shame the council couldn’t just ask them to provide the necessary bit of paperwork, as opposed to rejecting the whole application.

It’s all in the Application Form on page 2.

http://planning.lewisham.gov.uk/online-applications/files/8A2298BB40649758FFC1D1513AB48A5D/pdf/DC_17_105093-APPLICATION_FORM-637988.pdf

“- Noise - Yoga has minimal noise”

and

“Transport - The location is served by multiple busses and {indecipherable} line services.”

To be a perfect Impact assessment the officers could have invited the applicant to append the phrase “No Impact” to each statement.

The corner site is sitting on one of the busiest junctions in Sydenham and neither impact statements in any other form would have informed or improved debate around this decision.

Are members and officers really so inflexible as to reject this on the selected grounds ?

Sounds exactly like “Computer says No!” If the officers can’t even interpret such a straightforward statement without the exact wording they are check listing appearing verbatim then why not save us all a great deal of money and automate the process? It is laughable. BTW, I and 3 others I know wrote in favour of the application and the demise of the blight of the bookies.

GOOD NEWS!

I emailed moreyoga just on the offchance they received a bog standard rejection letter rather than the explanation as offered by the council on twitter/other.

They responded very positively appearing to cite there were errors on both sides during the application and steps are already in place to re-apply with all necessary documentation and they are “pushing forward” to be in Sydenham as soon as possible.

Good news! Thinking about it, if I lived or worked next door i would want a fairly comprehensive review of all potential noise issues, including from people traipsing in and out, people hanging around chatting, people walking on floor boards en masse and so on, was it certain there would be no music for additional classes etc so I probably judged the council process unfairly
It is also clear on reflection that they would be unwise to second -guess intention in any submission. It would perhaps help not to antagonise people if they could adopt more user freindly/less draconian language- eg "we need more information before this can proceed to panel " rather than “application rejected”

Yep yoga - it’s gonna be deafening hey guys. Insane

Insane … Situations like these prevent the area improving for everyone. Hope it gets sorted quickly.