Residents object to Brethren hall plan

4:07pm Monday 1st October 2001

A PLANNING application for a new meeting hall in Bickley has moved to the next stage.

The Plymouth Brethren submitted an application in February for a 950-capacity hall and a 150-space car park.

It wants to build on a green belt site opposite Bickley Manor Hotel and Bromley High School in Thornet Wood Road.

Now it has given Bromley Council an assessment on the impact the hall would have on traffic flow in the area.

But residents have queried the sect's claim extra traffic will have “minimal impact.”

Bickley Residents Action Group member Kim Amato said the assessment was carried out between May 16 and June 2, when Bromley High School, in Thornet Wood Road, was slowing down for the summer.

She said: “It was half-term then and study leave for GCSE students started on May 11 while A-level students started study leave a week later.”

In April she found more than 100 cars used the cul-de-sac in the morning and 60 more in the evening than stated in the report.

She said: “We have enough to deal with what with the hotel and the school without slipping the extra traffic in quieter periods. It's just going to be hell when it clashes, and it will.”

Another group member, who preferred not to be named, questioned the council's logic for looking at the application separately from the Aquila site next door which might be developed.

“How can they consider the Brethren site,” he said, “without taking into consideration the volume of traffic which will come with the possible development of the Aquila housing site?”

The sect, which has worshipped in the area for more than 100 years, says it wants a place where it can gather in peace.

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