Last October, a resident contacted us concerned about external cladding falling off the front of Millais House, a residential block on Bridge Road by Chessington North station. We contacted PA Housing, the housing association who owns the flats, to raise the issue, alerting Kingston Council’s building control at the same time.
Six months on and there is a new event of cladding falling off the balconies. CDRA once again contacted PA Housing and alerted the council. We were desperately concerned about the safety of residents using the balconies and the pedestrians walking below. The balconies overhang a busy pedestrian route to and from the train station and North Parade.
As of 7th March 2025, we are pleased to report that there is now safety scaffolding erected.
CDRA raised concerns during the planning process for the Millais House development. We felt that the design of the building was incongruous in character with its surroundings and over developed for the compact size of the plot. Having to have balconies to meet the building regulations about adequate amenity space, Kingston Council granted the developer a Section 177 Licence. This allowed the developer to create the amenity space required as balconies overhanging the public pavement.
Why would our council’s planning and building control team agree to this potentially dangerous situation?
It is reassuring to see the scaffolding erected for the latest cladding issue. We hope it gets fixed soon. However, the problem of balconies overhanging a busy public footpath remains, with the potential danger of items falling from some considerable height. There is an approximate gap of 50mm between the balcony floor and the glass screens.