Lewisham skyscraper district to get even bigger with new towers approved

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

A huge new skyscraper district will get even bigger despite residents’ fears developers are trying to recreate Canary Wharf without the Underground station.

Lewisham councillors waved through plans for 405 extra homes and 382 student rooms on a redevelopment site in Deptford at a planning meeting on June 12.

The decision means the total number of new homes and student rooms on the 4.54 hectares Deptford Landings site – larger than eight football pitches – will increase from 1,132 to 1,919.

The student flats will be accommodated in a new purpose built 22-storey tower and more than half the extra homes will be built in a 29-storey tower.

The tallest building on the Deptford Landings site will now reach 35-storeys after councillors gave the green light to separate but linked plans to add 11 storeys to a previously approved tower block.

A resident living in recently completed flats in Deptford Landings, Cathy Squelch, spoke against the proposals to increase the number of homes and size of buildings on the site at the meeting.

She said: “You are building a site which is bigger than the village I grew up in and there seems to be no facilities or allocation for more doctors, dentists, nurseries, especially when it is being advertised as being family friendly and there’s a large number of small children living in the existing site.”

Council planning officer Geoff Whitington said officials were in the process of negotiating a Community Infrastructure Levy [CIL] payment of around £4million to support facilities in the area, in addition to a separate payment for transport.

David Robinson, the council’s major and strategic projects manager, added that £10million in CIL had been secured for the wider Deptford Landings site, which would be used to build new infrastructure to support the additional residents.

Simon Slatford from Lichfields, developer Lendlease’s agent, said he was “proud” of the plans brought forward to the committee.

Addressing councillors, he said: “The Deptford Landings site is allocated in your emerging local plan with an indicative capacity of 1,940 homes compared to the 1,132 that’s currently permitted. Lendlease is proud of what has been achieved to date and are keen to build out high quality homes and employment space.”

Pictured top: CGI of planned Deptford Landings development with approve student tower block, centre right (Picture: Lewisham Council planning documents)