Plans for a “last mile delivery” warehouse on part of a site in Charlton that was once earmarked for hundreds of new homes have been approved by Greenwich councillors.
The facility, off Anchor & Hope Lane, will serve online delivery services. It will be built on the south-western part of the VIP Trading Estate, which had been at the centre of a planning battle over proposals to build 771 new homes.
Greenwich planning officers had backed the 11-block scheme, hoping it would kickstart the council and City Hall’s plans to build thousands of new homes on the Charlton riverside.
But the plans were rejected by councillors in 2018, with the chair of planning at the time, Sarah Merrill, branding the scheme “reminiscent of Stalingrad”. London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan called in the project but also rejected it, as did the Westminster government after Rockwell appealed to a planning inspector. The site has since been sold on.
GLI says its plans will improve a dilapidated site with new trees and greenery. The plans are said to create up to 134 new jobs, with up to 80 coming from the borough of Greenwich.
There was little mention of the plans for new housing – which are currently being reworked – when Greenwich’s planning board met to discuss the scheme. The only objection to the plan came from a neighbouring businessman – but George Jackson, the chairman of Jackson Lifts and the majority shareholder in the Ropery Business Park, was won around by the fixing of a land issue and he came to speak in favour of the scheme.
“Historically, the Charlton Riverside area has been an industrial heartland in London, and we’ve been saddened by the decline in industrial land and businesses across the city and in Greenwich too,” he said.
“The proposed buildings will be a vast improvement on the current site. It will be easily able to coexist with any future new homes or any other commercial space.”
Jackson said the site was currently used by a parcels firm which had a “chaotic” operation with “dozens and dozens of small vehicles” picking up packages that had been delivered by HGVs during the day. “Their lack of control of the vehicles leaves a lot to be desired,” he said.
“We are absolutely confident that new development will be a huge improvement on what is there now.
“We feel that to have the improved industrial estate will increase the local jobs considerably, rather than high-rise blocks of flats where most of the people are commuting into Canary Wharf and not doing anything for Greenwich.”
GLI director Alex Hickman said his company had worked closely with local residents, and pledged that late-night and early-morning use of the site would be closely monitored.
His scheme was important, he said, because “industrial land in London has declined by almost 18 per cent between 2001 and 2020. Greenwich alone has lost 41 hectares between 2015 and 2020 with another 70 hectares at risk. And that trend threatens local jobs.”
Councillors unanimously approved the scheme last week, with one planning board member, David Gardner, saying the proposal would be “a vast improvement” on what was there already.
Planning chair Gary Dillon said: “It makes a change to see, um, job creation instead of seeing the demise of commercial space. I think that the extra jobs are going to be welcome in the borough.”
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