Last submissions to Woolwich tower appeal this morning
The public inquiry into plans for a tower in front of Woolwich Tesco and blocks to the rear will hear the last public submissions today.
If you wish to speak, get there to speak around 12.15-12.30.
Written statements from developer Meyer Homes, the Council’s QCs and Speak Out Woolwich will sent to the Secretary of State with the Inspector’s recommendation – which he will make after also hearing from the public.
An overlooked element of this plan are vast slabs to the rear of Tesco.
How this will go remains up in the air. Greenwich Council rejected the scheme and an appeal to the Mayor was upheld. Meyer Homes then pursued an appeal to the inspector, and argue Greenwich approved an outline plan for tower on site a decade ago, which the developer applied to extend that in 2015 with Greenwich failing to decide.
The authority is also running far short of housing targets – and those targets are being revised higher.
If developers do win, the authority will have some big questions to answer. Why did it:
- Initially approve a tower in 2009
- Failed to decide on an extension for over three years after 2015
- Why it ditched a masterplan covering this site after spending £124,054 – which was to limit heights before being scrapped around 2016
- Why has it encouraged solely retail parks in areas such as Charlton hampering house building through mixed-use schemes – and thus failing to reach housing targets.
- Why it has severely underused sites it owns to provide homes – and used income from land sales for the forthcoming Creative District rather than housing
Many of these questions will arise in future applications, whether this appeal succeeds or not.
How did anyone ever think that monstrosity would be acceptable? It would positively tower over the entire town centre. Greenwich Council got something right for once.
Which is very rare for Greenwich Council. The current and previous administrations on Greenwich Council however, have proved time and time again that they are not really interested in providing homes solely for social housing at London affordable rents, But their party bang on about the housing crisis daily.
We have an ever growing housing waiting list in Greenwich with many of those on the waiting list are from outside the Borough or from overseas. Priority for social rented housing should go to those born and bred in the Borough and ex- Armed Forces Personnel as the highest priority
Agreed the council do seem pretty incompetent, but in fairness whatever the Labour party say doesn’t matter because the Conservatives are in power. They don’t prioritise building it, and they’ve cut funding drastically for the public sector. Greenwich council are reliant on the private sector to build it, and the private sector will fight to limit it as much as possible. So it’s a bit tough. Am I right in my understanding, or what else would you recommend they do, as keen to hear thoughts? I haven’t lived in Woolwich that long, but social housing seems a very tricky and complex issue here.