Hundreds flock to support Crescent Hardware store after Haringey Council back plan to build flats next-door
Crescent Hardware. Picture: Google Maps - Credit: Archant
Hundreds of people have rallied in support of hardware shop near Alexandra Palace that is threatened by a neighbouring development.
On Monday night Haringey Council approved the planning application to build a three-storey residential block next to Crescent Hardware in Crescent Road.
Currently there is an access road to a yard at the back of the shop, which the owner uses. The site had previously been subject to a series of failed planning applications, with the most recent one in 2014.
The application was met by flurry of 232 objections; from residents, councillors, and from Hornsey and Wood Green MP, Catherine West. She said she had been contacted by a concerned resident.
She said it would “upend not only David’s Hardware Shop, but the mainstay and beacon of Crescent Road”.
The Hornsey Historical Society’s conservation officer David Frith joined in calls for it to denied.
He admitted that it was “unusual” for the group to weigh in on planning applications, however: “[The objections] are an indication of the importance that the local area attach to this particular business.
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“As has been pointed out there is no demand for additional shop space in this street but the facilities provided by the existing use are of great value to the area.”
The bid was made by Buckthorne Investment Ltd, which is registered to an address in North End Road, Golders Green.
Responding to concerns, a report to the planning committee said the issues weren’t material planning considerations, and the council was unable to step in to “protect the private interests of one person against another”.
The application was called in by Liberal Democrat councillor for Alexandra Nick da Costa, who also wrote in urging committee members to throw out the proposal.
He said: “That 232 people took the time to object to this planning application shows just how much the community values Crescent Hardware and how worried they are about its future.
“It is very disappointing that the planning committee did not heed their concerns.”
