The developer aiming to build a 27-storey tower block by Woolwich’s Tesco store has dropped a controversial plan to fence off green space in front of the supermarket.
Meyer Homes, which is behind a major redevelopment of the site around the store, has lost an appeal against a Greenwich Council decision to refuse it permission to fence off the entire plot of land.
The firm has also dropped a second application to the council to fence off a little less of the green, where it plans to build the block.
Councillors had been due to decide on the application on Monday evening, but officers had already taken the unusual step of recommending it be refused on the grounds of its size and the “excessive time” requested for the hoarding – nine months.
The original application, which would have seen the entire green fenced off for a year, was refused by planning inspector Rory MacLeod because the “loss of the open space for a period longer than necessary and a prolonged enclosure of the site by the hoarding would detract from the character and appearance of the area”. Meyer also has to pay the costs of the appeal.
Meyer, which bought the land from Tesco in 2015, wants to build the tower along with three other blocks of between nine and 16 storeys behind the store, providing 804 flats in total. But there is no social housing in the proposal and the 20% of “affordable” housing promised is at the higher end of the scale. The development is yet to go before councillors, and may not do for some time.
Meyer is also behind a scheme to build eight, 14 and 34-storey blocks on a car park in front of Lewisham’s Tesco store. A decision was deferred by Lewisham Council’s main planning committee when it met in December.
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