Rachel Johnson’s row with neighbours over plans for ‘wildly unsuitable’ basement

Basement dispute: Rachel Johnson
Dave Benett

Author and journalist Rachel Johnson is locked in a third battle with neighbours over “wildly unsuitable” and “potentially hazardous” plans to dig a basement near her Notting Hill home.

The London Mayor’s sister has joined forces with neighbours to fight plans for the build in Elgin Crescent she claims will “cause major disruption”.

Residents say it is the third application Igor and Christina Kryca have submitted to Kensington and Chelsea borough council for an underground expansion to their £7 million three-storey home.

The previous two were rejected because of a list of concerns including structural stability and flooding.

The latest plans include the construction of a single-storey rear extension to their four-bedroom home, with a roof terrace and a basement to house a gym and media room.

In a letter signed by Ms Johnson, 50, and her husband Ivo Dawnay, London director of the National Trust, she said: “The council has rejected the last two applications and this third one should also be thrown out.

Dispute: Elgin Crescent in London’s Notting Hill, where Victorian terrace houses are worth up to £10 million
Alex Lentati

“This terrace section of the street is wildly unsuitable to the digging out of what would in effect be a double basement. These are small, delicate, jerry-built Victorian houses, not Kensington mansions.

“They are quite unsuitable for deep subterranean excavations and all the attendant noise, traffic movements, disruption, structural damage and environmental impacts they cause for up to years at a time.

“This continues to be the wrong plan, in the wrong place, and at the wrong time. It is long, long past time to call a halt to this madness.”

Producer Stephen Lambert, who won Baftas for his shows Gogglebox, The Secret Millionaire and Faking It, is also fighting the plans. He said in his objection to the council: “The applicants have appealed the council’s decision [to reject the previous plan] and we are awaiting the Inspectorate’s ruling on the appeal.

“In the meantime, our neighbours’ need for a basement media room and gym is obviously desperate as, rather than wait for the Inspector’s decision, they have now submitted this third application which their architects describe as ‘almost identical’.

“The planning statement claims that the new application addresses the five reasons the council gave for rejecting the last application. We do not believe the new application adequately addresses the reasons for rejection.”

Another neighbour, Justin Abbott, said: “Given that RBKC has recently finished an excellent gym two minutes’ walk away and the fact there are several local cinemas I can’t really see the point of either.”

Developers describe the latest proposal as “similar” to its predecessor but said a number of alterations had been made including amendments to their flood risk assessment. The council is set to make a decision on the plans at a meeting next week.

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