John Prescott’s plans to erect hundreds of thousands of new homes on – I’m going to use that disgusting word – ‘brownfield’ sites has not, so far as I know, caused a further outbreak of nimbyism in my neighbourhood. In Notting Hill, there is an embarras of new building already. Aubrey Square in W8, by St James Homes, is one of several ‘high-end’ developments nearing completion.
I’ve wanted to snoop round this for ages. One, it forced the closure of my old tennis club, Campden Hill (that didn’t bother me, though I did resent being told off for not wearing ‘regulation tennis socks’ by a spotty male member of the committee – you know who you are).
Two, I knew that, since plans were submitted to the unutterably venal Tory Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, more than 400 objections were lodged on the grounds that the area did not include enough affordable housing for ‘locals’.
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