Greenwich document lays out future borough-wide developments

A new document guiding future development across Greenwich borough is set to be consulted upon.

The Local Plan determines future land use and a draft is going before the council’s cabinet next week. The last such plan was adopted back in 2014.

Much of the new draft lists development sites already many years in the making, with some having secured planning approval.

Yet many other sites are new in terms of proposed changes. In fact there’s so many they can’t all be listed here and will be worth posts in themselves in days to come.

Examples include new homes beside Greenwich station alongside new homes on the creek and not in areas already earmarked.

Future demand

It’s all about determining where future housing, industry, schools and much else can be located. As the forward makes clear, the borough’s population has risen by more than 13 per cent over the past decade to 280,000 but building generally hasn’t kept pace, with housing targets going unmet.

As things stand Greenwich like most boroughs cannot show a five year housing supply which means if they reject plans, any appeal is more likely to succeed. It doesn’t help that many sites in Greenwich have long been approved and progress glacial, with the peninsula and Charlton riverside foremost amongst them.

See also Woolwich as well with sites such as Woolwich Exchange and the Island site. At Abbey Wood there’s big plots near the station on the Greenwich side of the boundary that have gone nowhere for years – much as seen over the road in Bexley borough.

The draft Local Plan of course isn’t yet final and contains a mix of sensible ideas and some that appear pretty baffling (building on the Woolwich ferry waiting area?).

Some will be extremely controversial with estate regenerations on the cards. Many more public homes lost as seen in previous schemes?

If you fancy a read of all 482 pages click here to view. Now time for a deeper look in upcoming posts.