It's been a long time since I posted here - and I wasn't regularly doing so anyway - and no doubt the server reset my join date a while back. This thread has drifted into a CVs-at-dawn territory which I can't play. My legal knowledge, although I have some, isn't comparable to that of Flying Lawyer. I, like many others here, am aware who he his and defer to his professional knowledge. I don't have a PPL and the extent of my flying knowledge is a student job at UA to pay my way through college. I suppose I could count a bit of pratting about on the South Downs paragliding. The point is my technical knowledge is certainly not on a par with many professionals here and I'm not going to comment of any aspects of flying in this area. However, I live by Vauxhall and I see the tower when I step out of my front door - and I hope I can comment of the area I live in without being shouted down.
The current state of play is this: there are red lights approx every 15 floors. They're hardly Batman lights. There is one red light on the top of the crane. It's not visible from ground level, but it is from the elevated platforms of the train station and from the other side of Vauxhall Bridge. Whether that means it's visible to helicopter pilots - that is for you to assess based on the conditions you know in the air. The building has all the internal lights on every time I see it and has had as long as it's been there. It is not uncommon for the top to be totally obscured by fog or cloud. There have been times I haven't seen the top, and that includes at night when there are lights on. However, I could say the same about the Shard. Oddly enough, all these buildings seem clearer from a distance than close up. Again, I make no judgment but I will say that as someone who lives close to these developments, anything that can be done to improve safety in general is most welcome. None of the lighting that is currently there seems any different/an improvement on what was there before the accident. If it is, it's not noticeable on the ground.
The local community is irritated by the noise of helicopters - right or wrong, there is a perception that the number of flights is increasing. Personally, they don't bother me but I suspect this is something that will be talked about here as this, and other, developments continue to spring up next to the river. Keep in mind there are people who don't want the US Embassy here and don't want the flats being built - they will use anything they can to bolster their argument. That whole Nine Elms area is due to have work continue until 2024, and there is already a new crane up on a different development at Vauxhall Station, although it's much smaller and most definitely has lights on.
A poster mentioned the distance of the tower to the river - it's right next to it. The only space is what will be the Thames Path. That seems to be the case along the south bank.
I asked a friend who was at Vauxhall station that morning about the conditions. She couldn't see the top of the building because it was very foggy.
Regarding property development - whether £1.25m for a 5th floor 2 bedroom flat in that tower is worth it...again that's not for me to say.