CoLP Eastern Base (Middlesex Street Estate)
Client: City of London (CoL) Surveyors
Borough: City of London
Date: 2022-present
Comm Comm has been appointed to work on the City of London Police’s new Eastern Base project, being built in the car parks beneath the Middlesex Street Estate, since 2022. This project has been sensitively handled, as it results in a change of car parking facilities for residents, the development of an expanded police base within the car parks and refurbishment of the private podium garden at the centre of the estate. Several shop units on Gravel Lane were also acquired for use of the police base, with tenants being relocated locally where possible.
In 2022, we undertook a S105 consultation, surveying residence on whether the basement and ground floor car parks (and disused first floor car park) were surplus to housing need. This outreach included public meetings, door-knocking to survey residents and the production of a report to share our findings. In January 2023, the spaces were found to be surplus to housing need (by the DCCS committee) and the consultation on the planning application for the police base began.
The process has been made smoother with the formation of a Community Steering Group, enabling residents to have a seat at the table and have their opinions and concerns heard. This group is chaired by a CoL councillor and attended by representatives from the project team, the City of London Police, CoL Housing team, chairs of the residents’ and leaseholders’ associations and ward councillors. These meetings are held monthly and the input from residents has resulted in many changes being made to the scheme to the benefit of the estate community. This includes the securing of a community garden room, residents’ gym, new planting, improvements to the MUGA, increased security and CCTV. During the consultation and beyond, we have held workshops on podium design options, liaised with the gardening club on planting options and met with various groups to discuss lighting, CCTV and the consultation for new interactive window displays on Gravel Lane.
A full public consultation event was held in May 2023, to show the designs to the MSE community. Planning was granted at committee in January 2024, with the planning committee praising the success of the Community Steering Group and consultation that had been undertaken.
Comm Comm continues to work on the project to support the contractor (Neilcott) with construction comms, as well as continued liaison with stakeholders to keep them informed of ongoing project-related issues. We produce a monthly construction newsletter and continue to host and update the project website and organisation of the CSG. Construction of the base is expected to be finished in early 2026.