Greenwich Council has ordered a developer to demolish two riverside towers next to the Woolwich Ferry after breaches of planning permission
Be very interested to hear @Airman Brown take on this. I know zip about this subject but could Greenwich Council have their decision overturned by The DoE ? Lots of homes lost there and perhaps a few “names” losing their shirts ?
Greenwich Council has ordered a developer to demolish two riverside towers next to the Woolwich Ferry after breaches of planning permission
Be very interested to hear @Airman Brown take on this. I know zip about this subject but could Greenwich Council have their decision overturned by The DoE ? Lots of homes lost there and perhaps a few “names” losing their shirts ?
The developer can appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, who will decide if the Enforcement Notice from Greenwich was correct. Any enforcement action is put on hold whilst the Inspector carries out this work, which seems to take around 6 to 9 months at the moment from what I understand. My guess is the Inspector will suggest that various changes can make the building acceptable, but who knows.
They not going to make them knock it down - we have a housing crisis in London.
presume Greenwich have taken a tough line to 1. Get some nice PR out of it 2. ensure the developer coughs up to make the required changes with the minimum of fuss
I assume some of the flats have been sold, so demolition would be even the more difficult? I suspect common sense will prevail and changes made without the need to demolish.
I assume some of the flats have been sold, so demolition would be even the more difficult? I suspect common sense will prevail and changes made without the need to demolish.
In normal circumstances yes, but this is Greenwich!
I assume some of the flats have been sold, so demolition would be even the more difficult? I suspect common sense will prevail and changes made without the need to demolish.
It was a build to rent scheme funded by Investec with £36M of debt so almost certainly the developer still owns the lot and rents them out.
As others have said I am sure there will end up a compromise where it is not demolished though.
Really poor form from the developer to ignore and carry on, and woeful monitoring by the bank who should have been monitoring the development and stopped drawdowns months or years ago.
I assume some of the flats have been sold, so demolition would be even the more difficult? I suspect common sense will prevail and changes made without the need to demolish.
In normal circumstances yes, but this is Greenwich!
Perhaps the residents could start a political party.
Basically got planning permission 10 years ago, didn't start building for 3 or 4 years, then built them and essentially said sod what we planned, we've done all of this differently. Only asked for retrospective planning permission when they got found out, and some of the things they've done sound properly messed up like accessible flats not having step free access to their own balcony, tarmac-ing over a big space that was meant to be the gardens, and completely changing the facade of the building.
May seem drastic to order them to pull them down but what's the difference between that and someone being ordered to tear down an extension to their house if they build without planning permission?
Might act as a deterrent to other cowboy building companies
The difference is that this would make all of the residents homeless.
Council already said they'd provide for the affected households though, and I'm fairly sure a resident that's moved into a flat that isn't then actually accessible for them would want to see something done about it, drastic as it may be
I work as a banker funding property, incl residential development - how on earth Investec and their monitoring surveyor have funded this when clearly the developer is not building to the agreed planning permission is unbelievable - that said, the planning system in this country is broken, it’s a complete mess - I have seen schemes where the local authority has told my client ‘thanks for submitting paperwork to show that you have attended to all the pre-commencement conditions, but you won’t get them signed off, we don’t have the staff to do that’ - we had to make a judgement call whether to lend or not (we did after our monitoring surveyor assured us all was well) - another client of mine has been waiting for over a year for their application to put up an electronic advertising board, the planning dept haven’t even assigned a planning officer to the case yet !!
Not sure that Greenwich will be under a statutory duty to find homes for the tenants who will have to leave if the enforcement is upheld. Though I'm still betting that the building won't be coming down.
The first UK McDonalds opened in Powis Street, Woolwich this week in 1974.
Quite an amusing article below from employee Ian.
"One day the manager came up to me and said: 'Have you considered a career at McDonald's?' I casually said 'no' and he responded: 'You should. I earn £11,000 and I drive a Datsun Sunny!'
The first UK McDonalds opened in Powis Street, Woolwich this week in 1974.
Quite an amusing article below from employee Ian.
"One day the manager came up to me and said: 'Have you considered a career at McDonald's?' I casually said 'no' and he responded: 'You should. I earn £11,000 and I drive a Datsun Sunny!'
Comments
Yes lads
OPEN LINES
25 August | 7pm | General Gordon Square, Woolwich, SE18 6AB
Duration: 45mins
Free
One woman. One high wire. High above you.
https://www.enjoyroyalgreenwich.org.uk/whats-on/gdif-2023-opening-night-open-lines-p1962911
https://festival.org/gdif/whats-on/open-lines/
(I'm sure nothing will this time and good luck to her)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iA9yP-hLAw
Greenwich Council has ordered a developer to demolish two riverside towers next to the Woolwich Ferry after breaches of planning permission
https://www.fromthemurkydepths.co.uk/2023/09/26/woolwich-tower-development-ordered-to-be-demolished/
Woolwich: Developers ordered to demolish 'mutant' apartment blocks
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-669342962. ensure the developer coughs up to make the required changes with the minimum of fuss
It was a build to rent scheme funded by Investec with £36M of debt so almost certainly the developer still owns the lot and rents them out.
https://www.developmentfinancetoday.co.uk/article-desc-8238_Investec completes £36m loan for Comer Homes residential development in London
As others have said I am sure there will end up a compromise where it is not demolished though.
Really poor form from the developer to ignore and carry on, and woeful monitoring by the bank who should have been monitoring the development and stopped drawdowns months or years ago.
May seem drastic to order them to pull them down but what's the difference between that and someone being ordered to tear down an extension to their house if they build without planning permission?
Might act as a deterrent to other cowboy building companies
Quite an amusing article below from employee Ian.
"One day the manager came up to me and said: 'Have you considered a career at McDonald's?' I casually said 'no' and he responded: 'You should. I earn £11,000 and I drive a Datsun Sunny!'
https://www.mylondon.news/whats-on/food-drink-news/inside-londons-first-mcdonalds-50p-21511565