Work now underway on homes at Greenwich Saxon Wharf development

Construction work is now underway on a development beside Deptford creek in Greenwich.

The site on Norman Road includes a creekside path which is supposed to join a previously constructed path next door which never opened to the public.

I looked at it almost five years ago to the day in this post. Even then, it’d been nearly a decade since plans were unveiled to open a path along the creek.

So what will Saxon Wharf bring? There’s 145 homes set to arrive and a small open space on Norman Road.

This being Greenwich Council there isn’t much related income for local improvements due a very low Community Infrastructure Levy rate chosen by the authority in 2015.

In terms of Section 106 income the authority decided not to fund public realm improvements and in turn not to encourage walking and cycling along Norman Road.

There is the creekside path though given next door’s never opened, who knows if this one will.

We can chalk all these decisions up up as another failure to benefit the local area from Greenwich planners and departments.

Nearby

The creek area is a hotbed of development. This is just one of many developments on the Greenwich borough side of the border.

Just to the north a student tower with 414 rooms was recently approved.

Again, due to Greenwich Council decisions they’ll be far less income to benefit the borough due to very low CIL rates on student housing compared to much of London.

It may be zone 2 near a DLR and railway station but the rate is far below borough even outer London (Bromley’s student housing CIL rate is 50 per cent higher than Greenwich borough) as well as just over the Thames (Tower Hamlets is five times higher). That’s millions lost.

Another student block has been submitted on the Creek but as Greenwich are not revising those very low rates levied on developers due to spurious reasons contradicted in other boroughs, more income squandered there.

That is set to see 700 student rooms.

There’s also the Thames Tideway worksite and we await to see what happens there.

Work is set to wind down in the near future. Thames Water have had a presence in the area for decades of course but the worksite saw a substantial expansion.

The other side of the creek sees a number of plans on the Lewisham side but few have progressed. One approved plot is Sun Wharf.

And the biggest of all which has gone nowhere for years is beside Trinity Laban.

That is to see around 400 flats though it’s now so long since plans were submitted a revision wouldn’t surprise.

Have I missed some? Probably.

Anyway, while others wait to start Saxon Wharf certainly has and barring any hold ups should start to make an appearance on the skyline later this year and next.