People power
has stopped another unwanted self-storage centre opening in Acre
Lane. The old Fulham
Timber site was put up for sale by its owners and bought by the Big
Yellow Self-Storage company (BYSS) – even though the site is barely
100 paces from an Access self-storage centre further along the same
road. Local people
feared Acre Lane would turn into a dead zone and would rather see
new shops or other useful community facilities in the
area.
Local
resident Sally-Anne Lloyd went door to door collecting signatures
for a petition and asked me and my colleague Cllr Paul McGlone for
help. Paul and I
represent wards on either side of Acre Lane and were delighted to
throw our weight behind the campaign. We urged people to sign the
petition and offered to hold a meeting with senior managers from
BYSS to raise people’s concerns with them
directly.
To be fair
to BYSS - who run several well used self-storage centres in
Lambeth - their representatives were keen to engage right from
the very start. When
we met with their director and made clear the strength of local
feeling he offered to go away and review the company’s proposals
for the site. After
further discussion with Lambeth’s planning officers, BYSS withdrew
their proposals and have now made clear they won’t try and build a
self-storage centre since there’s no public demand for
it.
The existing
Access self-storage facility on Acre Lane was only built after Lib
Dems, who ran the council at the time, refused to buy the land when
it was offered to the council at a knock-down price just weeks
before they were voted out of power. Their decision was all the more
tragic as the site could have been used for a much-needed new
school. The Lib Dems also left the
council with a set of planning rules that meant Labour had no
powers to stop the Access development going ahead when we were
elected to run the council just weeks later.
It’s good to
see people power making a difference in Acre Lane. With the support of local Labour
councillors it’s possible for local people to exercise more control
over what happens in their area. Now we need to make sure future
proposals for the site – likely to involve housing – enhance the
area and are acceptable to the existing community.
Big Yellow Self Storage Company have
withdrawn plans for a new centre in Acre Lane after residents
objected
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