The South London Press have run a story about Blackheath Hospital that Gavin Moore and I are quoted on:

An enforcement notice was issued on Thursday last week and if the hospital does not act on it, the battle could go to court and result in a £20,000 fine.

Blackheath ward councillor Andrew Brown said: "The noise is driving residents up the wall."

On reflection "up the wall" may not quite do justice to the situation. 

I wrote to the regional director for BMI (the company that own and run Blackheath Hospital) over three weeks ago, I said:

I'm writing on behalf of my constituents who live near Blackheath Hospital in the hope that you will be able to help. The hospital has recently been granted planning permission for some work by Lewisham Council and a number of conditions were attached including around noise levels and working times.

The following comes from an email I received from residents this morning:

* Blackheath Hospital (BH) applied for various permissions around installing a new MRI scanner - this included an air conditioning unit, industrial sized, ~12ft away from residential premises in Hatcliffe Close

* BH built and installed the a/c unit by 1500 on the day of the planning committee hearing, as well as starting other works. Although the committee was angry that work had started before grant of permission, it didn't refuse, but did impose strict conditions

* these included - no work outside 0800-1700, no work on Sundays. These have been ignored every day so far. Work took place this Sunday, and started at 0720 this (Monday) morning.

* another condition was that the a/c unit should not be commissioned without being evaluated by independent acoustic engineers, and that it should be 5dB below street level noise.

* the a/c unit was commissioned about 10 days ago anyway (without any assessment), and makes a noise like a jet aircraft parked in our back gardens

I'm told by planning officers that Breach of Condition Notices will have been served on the hospital and that Environmental Health officers have been called on a number of occasions.

I would be grateful, as I'm sure would residents of Hatcliffe Close, if you could ask some questions as to why the hospital and its contractors are breaching the conditions set down by the planning committee and work to stop this happening in future.

To date I've not heard back from BMI.  However, they did get a chance to explain themselves in front of the planning committee who weren't that impressed and legal action has been authorised with the hospital and BMI facing a potential fine of £20,000.