Anger after Chiswick House car park proposal submitted by mistake (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Anger after Chiswick House car park proposal submitted by mistake

12:43pm Friday 11th November 2005 in Search

A PLANNING document showing designs for a 120-space car park on the site of Chiswick House's historic kitchen gardens has been submitted to the council by mistake'.

The car park is one of many controversial changes feared if a successful bid for heritage lottery funding by the Chiswick House and Garden's Trust comes to fruition.

Residents reviewing plans submitted by English Heritage to carry out repairs to the Burlington gate and obelisk, on show in Chiswick library, were amazed to find an architectural drawing for a proposed car park in among the forms.

The proposal shows that over the third of the walled kitchen garden could be paved over to create more spaces for visitors' cars.

The kitchen gardens were first laid out in 1683, predating Chiswick house itself.

They have played host to a range of exotic plants and flowers, were used as a backdrop for The Beatles' Paperback Writer video, served as the council's nursery during the 1980s and have more recently been taken over by a group from Chiswick Horticultural Society, who have been teaching 300 local school children about growing their own fruit and vegetables.

Yet most of the gardens remain overgrown and neglected.

It has been suggested that the proposal had been sneaked into the document in order to get planning permission without residents being able to put across their views on the car park.

However, a spokesperson for Hounslow Council said: "We believe the drawing had been included in the forms by mistake.

"For such a project to be considered a full application would need to be submitted, complete with full details about what was being proposed. Any such application, especially as this would involve work in a conservation area, would have to go before the area committee and the sustainable development committee, allowing residents to have their say. We have not received any planning application for a car park at Chiswick House."

Chiswick resident Joseph Mirwitch, who has been campaigning for a full disclosure of the trust's plans for Chiswick House, is not convinced the plans had been submitted by error.

He said: "The construction of a 120-vehicle car park in the historic walled kitchen garden would be an act of vandalism. People are appalled at the proposal to spoil a historic garden and public asset to pander to corporate entertainment guests. Detailed layout plans and construction details don't get produced by mistake."

English Heritage also confirmed the plan had been submitted in error, but that it was part of possible plans being considered for the site.