Car dealership plan for former Abbey Wood garden centre
Plans have been submitted to turn an Abbey Wood garden centre into a “car sales yard”.
The garden centre site on Basildon Road has been there for many a year until closing recently. A sad moment for yours truly. Not that I ever went in, granted!
As a private renter there’s sod all I can do with outside space (I’m not spending big money on plants only to be turfed out in weeks. Insecurity of tenure no matter if you’ve never missed a rent payment in your life is a joy of private renting) but still, it was one of those sites when passing on the bus that always warmed the heart that it survived.
If you click on the main pic, there’s an image in the window stating “shop local”. Perhaps not enough did.
It was always a bit of a relic from a bygone age. So when it closed I snapped a pic from the bus, as seen above.
Anyway the proposal seems a bit strange. The site is very small. A car sales yard?
They’d get about four cars in there max. Possibly an online only dealership with an office on site? Who knows. Anyway the application states “display and storage of up to five vehicles within the site at any time”. Even five motors seems a tight squeeze.
If approved let’s hope it doesn’t become a site of cars parked all over the pavements and blocking the street. Abbey Wood has enough of that as it is, and Greenwich Council’s parking department are forever useless at sorting it out. Main roads aren’t immune. Eynsham Drive parking can block busy bus routes.
As for the former garden business it appears they have other sites still going. So not completely gone then if the website is correct.
Click here to view the application.
So sad to hear the Garden Centre has closed after all these years. It had been on this site for as long as I can remember..I am always pleased to see empty sites being brought back in to use as i knowxa lot of other people are too. However, I did not think this site would have been larger enough to hold five cars especially with office space. I agree with J Smith that we do not want to see cars parked all over the street and pavements if not enough space on site. As many of the neighbouring properties are residential.
Hallo
While it is sad to see the garden centre close after being there for so long, I think it’s important to also look at the positives of bringing new life back to an empty site. A new business can create jobs, attract more people to the area and contribute to the local economy in Greenwich, which benefits the wider community.
If managed properly, redevelopment can also lead to improvements in infrastructure, such as better transport links and safer access, especially if the council works closely with the business. Leaving sites unused for years can often lead to neglect, so redevelopment is generally a better option. As long as parking and traffic are sensibly managed to avoid disruption for nearby residents which I hope they do so , I believe this change could be a positive step forward for the area.