KICC REPLY TO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
The transport assessment indicates that based on evidence from similar churches (with similar levels of accessibility) the majority of the congregation will travel to the site by sustainable means; we forecast that approximately 40 per cent of the congregation will arrive by public transport, eight pc by foot and 15 pc by minibuses provided by the church.
Of the remaining 38 pc arriving by car, the overwhelming majority will be passengers (i.e. car sharing) which is to be expected, given that the church is family and group orientated.
Consequently we expect that parking demand generated by the proposals would not be significantly different (if not better) than the existing lawful use of the site.
Furthermore, The Open Door has also developed a sustainable travel plan, that will further actively promote sustainable travel to the site and therefore reducing parking demand further; a measure that otherwise would not be employed without the development proposals.
The transport assessment has also considered existing parking availability during times of the day when church services will be held, through a number of parking surveys.
The surveys found that within acceptable walking distance of the site there would always be a significant number of spare parking spaces available for residents and shoppers when church services were being held (i.e. between 140 and 196 spaces on Sundays and Tuesday evenings respectively).
By utilising available parking spaces at Crystal Palace Park, the church will actively deter parking on residential streets, as well as districts centre spaces that would more typically be used by local shoppers.
Footfall
With regard to footfall, due the fact that there is no on-site parking provided, all of the visitors to the site will be pedestrians when arriving at the building itself and could be considered to be additional footfall within the local area.
It appears that the assertion that the congregation are less likely to be consumers than cinema-goers is conjecture.
Conversely, it may be expected that congregation members who leave the site after services finishes at 11:30am on a Sunday morning are more likely to undertake shopping trips etc. in the local area than cinema-goers undertaking shopping trips prior to an evening film showing
Regeneration
We believe that our renovation of the building and our plans to bring the venue back into use as a cultural community hub will act as a catalyst for wider regeneration in our neighbourhood.
We….will always work with our neighbours to make our neighbourhood an attractive and safe place for all the community.
I would also like to point out that our application, although called a “change of use” in planning terms, is actually to ADD ON “worship” D1 to the already established use of “assembly and leisure” D2 which we want to retain.
