Building collapse at Welling demolition site
A building undergoing demolition has collapsed in Welling this afternoon.
Emergency services are on scene at the site at Wickham Street with a large amount of debris on the pavement and road. The building had closed some years ago.
Bus route 51 passes the site and is liable to disruption.
Plans were approved for seven flats in 2018.
An application containing a demolition plan was rejected in May 2021, however Bexley Council did state: “The submitted Demolition and Construction Management Plan has been reviewed by
both the Councils Environmental Health Officers and the Local Highways Authority and is considered to be acceptable for a development of this scale”.
While that part of the plan was deemed ok, the overall application was rejected, which raises questions on why demolition was underway.
Bexley planners did state two months ago that the entire materials and demolition plan needed to be resubmitted.
Picture courtesy Lisa Adkins
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The latter was a discharge of conditions app and whilst the decision notice clearly states refusal at the end, Bexley do appear to have confused matters by stating the documents submitted to discharge condition 5 are adequate. But to discharge condition 5 the applicant would have just needed to resubmit the same documents, but this time only seek to discharge condition 5.The decision notice should have actually said they are only partially discharging conditions, i.e. condition 5 which would have made more sense.
It’ll be a matter for the Health and Safety Executive + Building Control now in terms of the collapse, with enforcement at Bexley picking up on the applicant not having had the relevant condition discharged.
At first glance the article title seemed a bit obvious