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This page has been very much superceded by the announcement that Benson Elliot sold the whole site to British Land (the owners of The Broadway Centre) one working day before the public inquiry was due to start. Everything is now very much in limbo until BL produce their ideas of what should now be done with the site and since there are bound to be considerable changes, a full further planning application will probably have to be made rather than amendments to the existing permissions. Meanwhile, SEC is keeping a close eye on the matter and will also be investigating some sort of financial recompense for its costs in employing barristers and involving representatives such as Historic England and The Victorian Society to speak on their behalf. It should also be possible to get recompense for costs of publicity and time spent by SEC members in preparing for the inquiry. In the meantime, all previous information, going back for a year or more, has been removed to our archive site HERE Some of this below may be a bit out of date but is agood background to the site!
This site
covers the area between
Ealing Broadway station and the refurbished block on Springbridge Road, now containg
Morrisons, TK Max and McDonalds. The saga goes
right back to 2009 when Irish deveolopers Glenkerrin wanted to
redevelop the whole area between Springbridge Road and the Carphone
Warehouse and right back to the railway, including a huge 26 or more story tower block built over the railway. The government
overthrew Ealing Council's planning approval because the bulk, massing
and design of the scheme would fail to preserve or enhance the
character of the area. Glenkerrin
subsequently went bust and new developers, Benson Elliot (BE) acquired the
site.
After refurbishing half of it BE submitted plans by architects Allied
and
Morrison to redevelop the other half. While less ambitious overall than
the
2009 plans, Benson Elliott’s scheme is still more
comprehensive in that it
would clear the entire site while Glenkerrin would at least have retained the
prominent
Carphone Warehouse site. These
plans were criticised by both local and national objectors because
their extensive
demolition included 8 buildings the Council’s Conservation
Area appraisal says
make a positive contribution to the character of the area. In their place an 18
storey residential
tower was proposed and other buildings rising up to 9 storeys in a part
of town
centre where no buildings rise above 4 storeys. Fast
forward to summer 2015 when plans were unveiled for complete demolition
of
commercial buildings in a major part of the Conservation Area (CA) and
inappropriate redevelopment for new flats with scant regard to the
character of
the CA. Historic
England the
Government’s advisors on the nation’s heritage were
highly critical of this
destruction of Ealing’s Victorian and Edwardian heritage. More
strongly still, Historic England told the Council that if it approved
the
scheme the loss of so many buildings that contribute to the special
historic
and architectural character of the town centre would justify
de-designation of
the conservation area. Heritage
assets are irreplaceable and any harm or loss requires clear and
convincing
justification. Nothing the developers have said to promote their scheme
justifies the loss of the remaining heart of one of London’s
earliest suburban
town centres. Last
December BE responded by saying it would retain one building and the
facades of
two others. They tweaked the application by retaining one of
the fine
Edwardian building and the facades of two others. These were to stay
incongruously plonked in front of high rise glass and steel, city
centre type
high-rise “modern” replacement blocks. Historic
England (HE) was not
impressed: In its 5th
February letter to the Council it said the scheme would still cause
substantial
harm to the conservation area and the Council should either seek
significant
amendments or else refuse planning permission outright. Locals
and Historic England were still not convinced.
HE wrote to Ealing Council to tell them
that if the plans were not
amended significantly it should refuse the application entirely. It
went on to
warn that should consent be granted and the development take place, the
Ealing
Town Centre Conservation Area ‘would no longer merit its
status’ and it would
recommend its de-designation. Local
amenity groups Ealing Civic Society, Save Ealing’s Centre,
and local
conservation panels are now urging the Council to take on board
Historic
England’s advice and secure some improvements from BE or else
refuse the
application. They
say HE’s advice is
very firmly rooted in Government planning policy which demands great
weight be
given to conservation of a heritage asset like Ealing Town Centre. Save
Ealing's Centre has now apealed to The Secretary of State who has now
'called-in' the planning application and there will be a public inquiry
in May 2017. Historic England will appear along with SEC to
object to the numerous ways the proposed scheme conflicts with
national, regional and local planning policies. SEC
is now appealing for funds to pay a barrister to fight their case,
whilst Ealing Council intends to spend an enormous amount of taxpayers'
money on hiring a top QC to justify why they have ignored local opinion
and their own policies in approving the scheme. There has now just been a pre-inquiry meeting and details of that can be found at the link above. We will update this page as things progress. 5th May 2017
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