Chiswick Residents Say 'Push Off Porsche....Again'

Oppose the revised design to extension of luxury A4 car showroom

“Push Off Porsche!” have condemned Porsche’s newest application for the Sales site on the A4 near their homes in Barrowgate Road.

Local residents from the households of 22-34 Barrowgate launched the campaign last February to oppose the two new major Porsche developments. The company's plan for a new After Sales site was granted planning permission, but plans to extend the existing Sales Site building over the present car parking area were not.

The application was refused because “the proposed development, by reason of size, scale, design and materials would not preserve the setting of the Wellesley Road Conservation Area and would adversely impact on the amenity of neighbouring properties through a loss of outlook and oppressive impact.”

Local resident Fintan Coyle said; “Sadly, Porsche have chosen not to engage with us since their last failed application. This resubmission remains just as unacceptable, as they have only minimally changed the design. The extension is exactly the same height and length as before. In fact, initially we couldn’t even work out what the changes were! It will still block off light and dominate and overshadow all our homes from 22 to 34 Barrowgate Road, homes that are all within the Wellesley Road Conservation Area. The impact of this development on the boundary of a Conservation Area and the neighbouring properties, are both serious concerns which Porsche have still failed to address.”

Residents contend that the two -storey design is all about presenting "the largest and most impressive corporate façade" to the A4 at the expense of local residents who will have to live, they say, in its shadow. The two-storey Wing Extension will have 13 visitor car parking spaces on the ground floor and a showroom upstairs. Removing the 13 spaces, they argue, would allow the showroom to be housed on the ground floor negating the need for the second storey.

Chris Marsland who lives at 24 Barrowgate Road says he would be severely affected by the proposed second storey. “From my living area and garden I will have a view of a 13.05 metres high so-called ‘green wall’ which will extend for around 30 metres along the rear of all our gardens in this part of the road. Porsche cannot believe they can just hide such a massive, impactful structure behind a few blades of grass stuck on the rear elevation”

Residents still have concerns regarding traffic around the site, especially Porsche’s proposed “hotel reception” model which actively encourages visitors to drive into the Sales site from off the A4.

Chris Marsland comments; “We are also fed up with all the articulated lorries and delivery trucks that currently serve the site and dread even more of these coming to our area. Its time to put residents first, not cars and vans!”

The group has asked for concerned residents to email Hounslow Planning to raise their objections to it as soon as possible. The deadline is Tuesday October 15th.

We have contacted Porsche for comment on the matter.

October 4, 2013