[ Post New Message | Post Reply to this One | Send Private Email to Cathy | Help ]

Response to [CLICK HERE to read or add to Kennington News]

from Cathy (kenningtonassn@aol.com)

Car zone homes may fall by 16%

by David Williams Motoring Editor

Homes along the boundary of Ken Livingstone's congestion-charging zone could plunge in value by 20 per cent, an authoritative report says.

A flat examined by a leading chartered surveyor is expected to fall in value by 16 per cent, from £160,000 to just £124,000, when the road in which it stands becomes part of the perimeter route encircling the scheme.

Houses on Kennington Lane in south London will experience even sharper falls as traffic begins to pound the residential road, the report from chartered surveyor Cluttons warns. It says house values will drop by 20 per cent as buyers are put off by the rise in traffic, noise and pollution.

Congestion charging is expected to force thousands of extra vehicles onto the perimeter road as drivers divert away from the centre to avoid the £5-a-day charge.

According to an official report by chartered surveyor David MacLean-Watt, this will see the value of a typical two-or three- bedroom house on Kennington Lane fall from around £277,500 to just £222,000, leaving homeowners seriously out of pocket.

He says there will be similar effects in other areas near the perimeter zone.

The report was commissioned by the Kennington Association which is fighting congestion-charging plans through a judicial review at the High Court.

Members are bitterly opposed to the scheme which, they say, will cut their community in half with a "virtual motorway".

They say Kennington Lane is unsuitable as a boundary road, being largely residential with a single lane in each direction.

Campaigners, who are today holding a demonstration at Kennington Cross, say they will be forced to pay the £5 charge to get to nurseries, schools and shops - even to visit friends and neighbours. Protesters aimed to close part of the road to traffic.

They say the closure will give motorists a foretaste of congestion charging, by blocking entry into what will become the charging zone. They want the boundary road moved or the scheme scrapped.

In a High Court hearing last week, barristers for the Mayor's office applied to have the Cluttons report ruled inadmissable - on the grounds that it became part of the association's legal attack too late and was based on opinion not fact.

However, the judge ruled that the association should be able to refer to the report in the next High Court hearing.

Kennington Association spokesman, Gordon McDougall, said: "We knew that house values on the boundary route would fall, but not by that much. Everyone with a home on the road will suffer financially."

He said Kennington Lane was the most residential section of the proposed congestion-charging boundary - but that other areas would suffer similar falls in value.

Mr David MacLean-Watt said: "In my opinion properties on Kennington Lane will fall in value by between 16 per cent and 20 per cent. It will also be harder for people in this area to cross the river unless they pay the £5 charge."

Transport for London said that if the Kennington Association used the Cluttons report as evidence it would produce its own evidence to refute the claims.

© Associated Newspapers Ltd., 08 July 2002

(posted 7935 days ago)

[ Previous | Next ]