news category Music Industry created 14 December 2018
URGENT: Despite all the objections and the technical assessments, Hackney council have STILL recommended that the planning committee grant consent to the application. You need to act now!
Strongroom Studiosin East London is in need of your help, threatened by a planning application for building works next door. The noise created will seriously affect their operation as a commercial studio.
Please read the appeal (below) from Emma Townsend, Studio Manager at Strongroom.
Click hereto download a .pdf template letter, to add your voice to the planning objection.
Dear MPG Members,
I’m writing to you regarding the planning application which puts the future of Strongroom recording studios in jeopardy.
The planning application for 118 Curtain rd is to redevelop a small warehouse space into a 6 storey office block. The building in question shares a party wall with Strongroom recording studio. As you may know, earlier this year we petitioned for Hackney Council to freeze the planning application in order to consider the implications it would have on Strongroom. We argued the importance of, and requested a time allowance for, the undertaking of technical noise & vibration measurements before the proposal reached Hackney’s planning committee. We won that first battle, and the planning committee date was pushed back. Both Strongroom and the applicant employed acoustic experts to assess the noise implication, who in turn agreed that the works would be detrimental to our business, as we predicted.
This application is now going to the planning committee on 12th December, so the window for objection closes on 11th December, despite no changes having been made to the applicant’s building plan.
So I’m writing to request your help. The best way you can help to save Strongroom is by writing an objection letter to Hackney Council, imploring them to reject the application outright. Attached is a pro forma drafted by our lawyer, you’re welcome to use this as a template for your objection. The planning committee will see all objections, along with both ours and the applicant’s sound tests. So the more support we have from producers and engineers who work in London studios, and who can can emphasise the need to protect them, the greater our chances of this application being denied.
Please write (or write again if you have already!) to Barry Coughlan and the planning committee to object this application (use case number: 2018/0363): planning@hackney.gov.uk
In the meantime, we are not closed, nor are we closing. Bulldozers will not be moving in anytime soon. But if this application is approved, our future becomes uncertain.
As I’m sure you know, Strongroom is a five-time nominated MPG Studio of The Year and we have long worked closely with and fully support the work of the MPG. By backing us in this battle you help us to keep our doors open for all your future projects across the spectrum that we are proud to accommodate, from the unsigned, up and coming rising talent, to major chart-topping artists of all genres.
I would like to thank you all for your unwavering support during this time.
Best regards,
Emma Townsend, Strongroom Studio Manager
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