Woolwich tower blocks can remain rules Planning Inspector
A Woolwich tower block threatened with demolition after developer Comer Homes ignored a number of conditions can remain standing for now according to the Planning Inspector.
After a public enquiry Comer Homes have been given three years to comply with changes and pay £4.4 million for affordable housing in the borough.
A £2.3m Community Infrastructure Levy will also be paid to Greenwich Council.
Other changes include making certain flats accessible to wheelchair users which should have been undertaken when built and improvements to public areas at street level surrounding blocks.
In addition fire safety work will also need to be carried out. Orange cladding will need to be removed.
Public space at street level differed from previous plans, with a car-dominated appearance and the absence of an open spaces.
Greenwich Council stated that Comer Homes had failed “to provide enough underground car parking so that car parking dominates at ground level replacing what should have been a landscaped garden area with trees and plant”.
Greenwich also stated a promised children’s play area was absent. Comer Homes state they submitted a revised landscaping strategy in August 2023, which was over a year after resident’s started to move in according to the developer themselves.
A win for Comer?
As seen designs were changed substantially between approval and construction without submission or approval for many deviations in plans.
The blocks as built contain small windows and a mass of cheap, drab cladding. Removing the areas of orange can be seen as a loss given how dreary the rest of the grey cladding and exterior is. It’s one of the few thing to break up such a drab, bargain basement exterior.
The inspector also highlighted that residents lived in flats lacking natural light.
This does appear to suggest a precedent where numerous elements of an approved design can be ignored, and if called to task blame the housing crises.
Greenwich Council were also criticised for not acting sooner given it was apparent some years ago what was being built deviated substantially from approved plans.
For some time before Greenwich Council took action and issued the enforcement notice this website was highlighting a gulf between approved plans and what was actually rising while noting no submissions for such changes had been made.
Designs often evolve post-planning approval and this site regularly covers them (there’s a number submitted just this week in Greenwich borough) but they do not normally arrive post-approval – or at a time when a structure is almost complete – as the case here.
Residents will breath a sigh of relief though will now see various works undertaken. They moved in despite Greenwich telling the developer to cease.
Adverts around the time of completion showed potential residents the original approved design rather than what was actually built. The Comer Homes website is also still showing what was approved and not what was built – see the last two images here.
Greenwich admitted back in March last year (Construction Enquirer) that it lacked the funds required to check on planning applications. The likelihood is that they’ve been lax in policing applications for far longer and the Comer affair finally laid bare the inadequacies of the Council. Certainly, the hardline position to tear the block down would be for public display only, and likely Comer will weasel out of the fines for the price of a few tickets at the O2. Meanwhile as Heinlein would say, it is the poor jerk who is shy a half slug that must tighten his belt.
I totally agree with you Charles Calthrop. Well said.
It’s not a complete loss for Greenwich. Comer has to pay £6.7 million to the council, £4.4 million of which SHOULD go towards affordable housing. I wonder if anyone is going to hold Greenwich accountable for this?
This is truly appalling. What on earth is the point of having a planning department? They’ve let Cromer get away with it, Cromer knew exactly what they were doing. That building will be a blight on the community for 50 years, these things really matter.