Plans for 113 homes for Thomas Lane, Catford agreed, but community music venue fears complaints
Lewisham council approved the development on the site of the Thomas Lane car park. But Sister Midnight raised concerns that noise complaints could shut down the fledgling live music venue.
The council's plans to build two residential towers at Thomas Lane car park were approved by the Strategic Planning Committee on 29th April. The development will provide 100% affordable homes, and forms part of the first phase of the Catford Town Centre Framework for regeneration.
The new homes will be a mix of one-, two- and three- bedroom units, with 10% meeting the M4(3) standard for wheelchair accessible dwellings. 44 units will be social housing and 69 units will be "shared ownership" properties offered for part-ownership and part private rent.
The development includes over 1,000 square metres of commercial and office space, a shared courtyard and a play area.
"Level of noise typical of a town centre location"
The site lies between Thomas Lane and Catford Broadway, next to both the (currently unoccupied) Catford Constitutional Club and the Brookdale Club.
Councillors were advised that the development would "experience the level of noise typical of a town centre location" from heavy traffic on the nearby South Circular (A205) and the two venues.
But Sister Midnight requested stronger protections from the council, to reduce the risk of noise complaints from future residents of Thomas Lane Yard.
Lewisham's first community-owned music venue
Sister Midnight is a not-for-profit Community Benefit Society and co-op, that began with a vision of, "a music venue that is owned and democratically controlled by the community; a space that champions local creative talent and prioritises people over profit."
Its founders had been seeking premises for Lewisham's first community-owned music venue since 2021, before being offered the disused Brookdale Working Men's Club by the council, on a temporary "meanwhile site" basis.
The council offered them a 10-year lease, with permission to continue the club's use as a live music venue.
The building requires extensive refurbishment. Sister Midnight relaunched its community share offer, raising more than £300,000 from its members.
The Brookdale Club. Image: Sister Midnight
The council's planning consultant confirmed its support, in principle:
"In addition to the overriding priority to provide housing, the council wants to see a thriving mixed uses in the town centre and an improved night time offer is part of the ambition."
Balconies 5 metres from event space roof
Lenny Watson, co-founder of Sister Midnight, raised concerns pointing out that the residential tower on the east side of the Thomas Lane Yard site will have opening windows and balconies overlooking the Brookdale club, "some as close as 5 metres away from the event space roof".
"I’ve had first-hand experience that Environmental Health Officers can uphold complaints because music 'sounded loud', without measuring the decibels to see if it breaches statutory limits," she said.
"If people can hear noise and they are bothered by it, they will complain."
Noise mitigation measures built in to the design
The planning officer assured councillors that "noise mitigation measures" have been built in to the new units.
These include acoustic glazing and a mechanical ventilation system with cooling units in most (but not all) of the units, which means that residents do not need to open the windows in warm weather.
They confirmed they were satisfied that "in planning terms" these conditions were sufficient, but added: "Environmental health is a separate department and we can't say how they would behave".
Sister Midnight "wouldn't be able to weather that storm"
Watson highlighted the financial and operational risks to the venue, to the members' investments and the potential loss to the wider community.
"We’re approaching this matter with real world experience of running music venues," she said.
"I have seen venues in the borough decimated by noise complaints being upheld, and then abatements being put in place and they can’t operate and it impacts them severely financially.
"We are not a commercial business, we are a community organisation and we wouldn’t be able to weather a storm like that."
Sister Midnight's architect had developed a number of suggestions for potential mitigations, but these were considered to be outside the scope of the Strategic Planning Committee meeting.
Councillors approved the development unanimously.
