Plans for a 15-storey tower in front of Woolwich’s Tesco store were approved at the second time of asking on Tuesday – as it emerged that a second major building project in the town centre would also need to be reworked to meet new fire safety rules.
The long-delayed final phase of the Woolwich Central development, which includes 590 homes in blocks behind the Tesco store and 134 in the tower in front, was first approved last September.
But the Meyer Homes development had to be reworked because the blocks did not have enough stairwells, and so would fail new building regulations brought in as a response to the Grenfell Tower disaster.
Greenwich councillors approved the new plans last night, but were unhappy that flats that will be made available for people on housing waiting lists had been downgraded to studios.
National rules to ban blocks of over 10 storeys from having a single stairwell are expected soon, and City Hall has already said it will not approve any in London – which meant Meyer had to go back to the drawing board.
It emerged the same day that four towers above the Elizabeth Line station, which were only approved last December, will also need to be approved again, according to a report to go before a council scrutiny committee next week. The Armourer’s Court blocks include a 26-storey tower which will be Woolwich’s tallest building.
“Likely changes to building regulations (not formalised by government) mean that the over-station east development will need to go back into the planning process,” the report says.
Councillors – and the developers – will now be hoping that the second approval of the Tesco tower will finally mark the beginning of a saga that began nearly two decades ago when plans for a new superstore, homes and council HQ were first unveiled. Plans for a 27-storey tower in front of the superstore, which opened in 2012, were thrown out by a planning inspector three years ago.
A plot of land off the South Circular Road that has been derelict for more than a decade will have blocks of up to 16 storeys built, while the tower in front of Tesco will replace the green space in front of the store.
Meyer representatives insisted that downgrading some of the affordable-rent flats to studios had more to do with the practicalities of inserting an extra staircase into the blocks without an expensive redesign of the whole building.
Councillors also raised concerns that one block had two stairwells close to each other. The architect, Tim Quick, said that the scheme had incorporated suggestions from the Health and Safety Executive and fire consultants, who had not raised concerns.
Councillors backed the scheme unanimously, although reluctantly, as the earlier version of the project had already been approved. Of losing space in “affordable” flats, Thamesmead West councillor Chris Lloyd said: “I want to record my displeasure. I don’t want to see any more applications come before this panel and for us to roll over and say it’s okay.”
David Gardner, a Greenwich Peninsula councillor, said he did not think there was “much scope” for a refusal.
“[The site] continues to be a void, a wasteland, and we need to get this development so we can improve the look and feel of Woolwich,” he said.
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