Representation by Totteridge Estates Limited (Totteridge Estates Limited)
- Date submitted
- 24 March 2021
- Submitted by
- Non-statutory organisations
My commercial involvement with the Northfleet Ind Estate dates back to 1987 when I acted as Commercial property agent for Clients, and over the years have acted for other Landlords down on the estate which now includes Manorway Business Park. More recently my involvement has been as a direct investor and landowner , through Northfleet Estates but also Totteridge Estates Limited where I own commercial land which is leased out to third parties I was involved with negotiations and Union Railways when the estates were split in half for the HS1 railway line and then in helping to rebuild the estates afterwards. I have been involved with these theme park proposals and LRCH since the inception and know most of their development team. I was a founder member of business group PMG (Peninsular Management Group), My summary of objections are that LRCH have never properly liaised with businesses in any meaningful way as they are required to do in order to obtain the grant of compulsory purchase powers over them. They know it is not the case despite their DCO application claims to have done so. This is the result of an absolutely shambolic lack of direction of any kind of from the top, no money to do anything or tie up any deals and no intention of ever doing other than trying to get a blanket compulsory order to save effort and kick these businesses out at rock bottom prices. They have absolutely no intention of offering rehoming elsewhere and in the application confirm that is their position. POINTS FOR CONSIDERATION • This NSIP application should never have been granted due to mis representation. They never stated that the Estates extending to 40 Acres and the associated 120 businesses were in the way nor that there would be thousands of job losses on the Northfleet Estates. The applicant should be made to reapply for an NSIP under the prevailing conditions. • There is no established ‘need’ for a theme park as part of the DCO acceptance, only attempts to justify a job creation scheme based on highly doubtful business projections, whilst not taking into account the loss of existing jobs many of which will be extinguished if development is approved and replaced with ZERO HOUR season jobs • We were informed by the Planning Inspectorate that a DCO application would not be accepted unless there were suitable guarantees that the project could be financed. Accounts files with Companies house have shown late filing across all of the DCO promoters companies • Contrary to the statements made in the DCO application, the applicant has never meaningfully engaged with any of the businesses on the estates in the manner required under the DCO rules and still is not doing so. No contact has been received specific to Land owned by Totteridge Estates Limited, and other than a circular from Savills to Northfleet Estates Limited nothing dialogue has developed • The applicant has grossly misrepresented their contacts with PMG in the DCO application. Last meeting that took place was in the spring of 2018, and any subsequent updates have been channelled through via news and social media. How can this be considered as engagement with landowners, after all we are the ones affected! • The applicant has misrepresented claims to have made offers of enhanced compensation to businesses on the Northfleet Estates. To my knowledge, there is not a single offer that has been made to any business • Prior to selling some of my land interests in the open market , (x2 sales now completed) these were offered to LRCH, and they chose not to buy the Estates Infrastructure Roads and the affected Kent Kraft Estate comprising 15 tenanted incoming producing industrial units • This applicant has never had any money. Despite the fact that it would have significantly helped their case for a CPO if they had been seen to be purchasing property on these estates as it has become available over the last eight years, they have never invested in a single property on these estates at any time, despite having had the opportunity to do so and at attractive rates of financial return. • Nothing this applicant says or promises can been substantiated nor delivered. There have been four previously publicly announced DCO application dates, they have never purchased any property here, they made a manifest omission to notify the SOS and planning inspectorate at NSIP stage that the scheme involved any job losses or about 40 acres of industrial estates were in the way. • Permitted CPO powers should NOT be given