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Join the campaign to save the Battersea Power Station!
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Brian Barnes, Chairman of Battersea Power Station Community Group, has asked us to pass along this message to you.
OVERVIEW:
Wandsworth Council are deciding the fate of the Power Station at a committee meeting at the Town Hall at 7.30pm on Thursday 13th October 2005. They are going to approve a plan by Parkview to demolish the 4 chimneys which we are convinced is a prelude to complete demolition so that Victor Hwang can build luxury flats all along the river frontage. Our suspicions are founded on the refusal of the council and Parkview to even consider an alternative report by a team of three companies of concrete experts brought together by the 20th Century Society and World Monuments Fund who have revealed that the chimneys can be repaired for half the cost of demolition and rebuilding. Parkview are desperate to demolish which continues their actions to date - demolition and no construction over the past 12 years Take your photos soon as this is probably your last chance and come to listen to the justification the council give for this destruction on Thursday.
TAKE ACTION:
We need as many people to object to this as soon as possible. We have asked the government to hold a public inquiry to get a wider debate than is happening at present.
Relay your fears to Bob Leuty, planning officer at Wandsworth Council: bleuty@wandsworth.gov.uk
Get the Latest News at:
http://www.batterseapowerstation.org.ukBATTERSEA POWER STATION COMMUNITY GROUP
PRESS RELEASE
Battersea Power Station Demolition of Chimneys
September 2005
The chimneys are made of reinforced concrete with a dense double helix of steel mesh with horizontal hoops and vertical rods and each chimney weighs 500 tonnes They are very strong and have stood from 72 years to 50 years as they were all built at different dates.
Parkview have applied to Wandsworth Council for permission to demolish all four chimneys at Battersea Power Station and to rebuild them.
We became suspicious that there was a different agenda to their stated intensions of conservation when there was no announcement locally of this planning application in the usual way, ie no notices around the site.
This seemed peculiar for such a serious change to the famous London land mark
The 20th Century Society and World Monuments Fund (WMF) were also not consulted over these issues at any time.
We came to the conclusion that an independent report should be commissioned and joined with 20th C Soc and WMF to commission civil engineer Stuart Tappin ( Cameron Taylor ) and George Ballard ( G B Geotechnics ) concrete specialist. They were appointed by us to look into this issue
They met with the Parkview team at Buro Happolds office, reviewed the reports from Taylor Woodrow and others and had a site visit to the building.
They conclude that:
"On the basis of the information available we do not consider that there is no alternative to demolition and rebuilding of the four chimneys.
There is no sign of structural distress in the chimneys
There is no evidence produced of general severe (>1%) levels of chloride throughout the structure, rather there is evidence of carbon marginally above acceptable
There is no evidence of sufficient deep carbonation to warrant concern
There is no evidence of general, distributed, expansive corrosion
There is no evidence to support the contention that only by introduction of an ICCP system will the structure be rendered safe
Many cracks date from the construction process.
There is little evidence of spalling concrete to the majority of the shafts.
There are no signs of significant cracks due to the levels of carbonation or chlorides that have been recorded.
There are also alternative methods of discovering the location of the steel which were not explored.
There therefore seems to be sound environmental reasons, as well as listed buildings/PPG 15 benefits, in repairing the chimneys"
Stuart Tappin
Brian Barnes Chairman of Battersea Power Station Community Group says:
" Parkview have done nothing in 12 years except to demolish everything in sight, to enter ever more fanciful planning applications and make every excuse there is for not keeping to deadlines, one famously " we will open in 2000"
We do not think the chimneys will ever be rebuilt and then more problems will be found so that the rest of the building needs to be demolished for spurious H&S reasons.
Mr Hwang told me at a meeting at the Power Station in 1996 'Let me knock the F***ing thing down and build 3 towers of 40 stories, one can be for affordable housing and I will still make plenty of profits'
Victor Hwangs long held plan will soon be accomplished, (except there will never be any affordable housing)
We are furious at people at English Heritage who have promised us all along that they have inspected the building every 6 months and instructed Parkview to make necessary repairs but now find this not to have been true and they are agreeing to this penultimate act of destruction before complete demolition."
http://www.pinkfloydchat.net/battersea.html
