Dickens Yard
Plans still await approval

Ealing Council has withdrawn its application to the London Mayor Boris Johnson to approve the plans passed by the Planning Committee on 5 November last year.

A decision on whether to approve the scheme from developer St. George has to be made by the Mayor before it can go ahead. The application was originally referred to him in December, and would normally have been made within 21 days.

However, the approval was delayed because of concerns at the GLA Planning Decisions Unit about its environmental sustainability. It was sent back to Ealing Council with a request for this element to be looked at again.

SEC understands that the GLA was unhappy about the level of provision for renewal energy and other "sustainability" elements. This could involve some significant changes in the design, which have to be agreed with St. George. No details have yet been made public, but SEC understands that Ealing withdrew the application from the Mayor to avoid a direction to refuse permission.

A major scheme of this size in the town centre sponsored by the Council should, in its own words, be a "flagship for sustainability". In this as in other respects it has fallen short, and SEC hopes that even at this late stage wiser counsel will prevail.

30 April 2009