Council approves hundreds of controversial homes after failing to meet housing targets

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

A council has been left with little other choice than to approve hundreds of controversial homes on a former gasworks site after it failed to meet its housing targets.

Councillors sitting on Lewisham’s planning committee received legal advice that they would have ‘zero per cent success’ in defending a decision to block hundreds of homes on the Bell Green gas works site in Sydenham, if an appeal was lodged.

Melanie Dawson, head of legal services at the local authority, gave the guidance to councillors in private after she said she’d prefer that members of the public were excluded from the meeting on Tuesday evening while she relaid legal advice.

Councillors were due to vote on a motion to refuse planning permission for the proposals brought by cllr Liam Curran, Labour member for Sydneham and a voting member of the planning committee, when Ms Dawson made the intervention.

Councillors then agreed to sit in private while they heard her advice. When members of the public were readmitted to the meeting at the council’s town hall in Catford, councillors voted against Cllr Curran’s motion.

Cllr Edison Huynh, Labour member for Lewisham Central and a voting member of the planning committee, said: “We’ve failed our housing delivery test. We must grant planning permission, unless any adverse impact of doing so would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits. 

“We were told that on appeal it would literally be zero per cent success. We haven’t heard anything that would be defensible.”

Cllr Huynh, who is also cabinet member for communities and culture, was at this point interrupted by hecklers from the audience, before continuing: “Okay, I retract that then. We were told that in their legal opinion there would be zero per cent success. 

“Given that this is a brownfield site which can meet 16 per cent of the borough’s annual housing target and given the legal advice that we’ve been given, we’re in this position because we have repeatedly failed housing targets.

“And I speak that as a member of a generation which has been locked out from the housing ladder and a generation that still lives with their parents and can’t get on housing. I can’t see a defensible position and so I’m going to move to approve given our legal advice.”

Councillors subsequently waved through by majority vote the plans brought by developer Barratt London for 262 flats in blocks up to 14 storeys high on the former gas works site.

The amount of homes being completed in Lewisham is running at half of targets, according to the Housing Delivery Test, an annual measure of the number of homes being finished. Where delivery is below 75 per cent, as in Lewisham’s case, a presumption in favour of granting planning permission applies to councils.

Julia Webb, a resident who spoke against the plans at the meeting, said she was worried about how close one of the planned apartment blocks was to the Grade II listed Livesey Hall, which backs onto the site.

She said: “The 50 bedrooms immediately overlooking it would be subject to persistent noise nuisance during evening events.”

Cllr Chris Best, Labour member for Sydenham who was not on the planning committee, said: “Like many objectors I think the 14 storey block is too high. I have got concerns with the poor quality of the homes. The space offered in the smart starter homes. It’s very small. It’s very cramped.”

Out of the 262 homes in the plans, just 71 are classed as ‘affordable.’ Of those, 37 would be available at London Affordable Rents – which is designed for people on low incomes, while 34 would be shared ownership homes – where a person buys a share of a property and pays rent on the remaining portion.

Tom Oxley, senior development manager for Barratt London, said the plans were ‘high quality’ and would deliver much needed new homes and public spaces.

He said: “Our proposals will make the best use of the site, taking into account site constraints and being mindful of the sensitive and adjacent Livesey Memorial Hall and important listed building and community asset alongside the listed war memorial.”

Pictured top: Residents who oppose Barratt London’s plans for the Bell Green gasworks site in Sydenham, South East London at Catford town hall on Tuesday (Picture: LDRS)