The Planning Inspectorate has granted retrospective planning permission to Comer Homes Group for their Mast Quay Phase II development in Woolwich, which was built unlawfully after deviating significantly from the approved planning permission given to the site’s original owners in 2012.
However, the Planning Inspectorate has ordered Comer Homes Group to pay the Royal Borough of Greenwich £7.8 million, including £4.4 million for affordable housing in other areas of the borough, £318,970 for carbon offsetting, and £3.4 million for improvements in the local area.
(Image: The Royal Borough of Greenwich)
The developer has also been ordered to provide a children’s play area, make the development accessible to people in wheelchairs, and remove the intrusive orange cladding.
The Planning Inspectorate has given Comer Homes Group 36 months to carry out these improvements, otherwise, an enforcement notice can be issued again requiring total demolition.
The Royal Borough of Greenwich has said this forms a “huge package of planning obligations and funding” to offset some of the harm that Mast Quay Phase II has caused.
The council said it stands by the decision it took to serve a planning enforcement notice last September against Comer Homes Group.
The council said it was “disappointing” that the inspector was not satisfied it constituted “intentional” unauthorised development, but, during the appeal Comer Homes Group accepted it had built unlawfully.
The council said it is “relieved” that the inspector’s decision imposes strict planning conditions to improve the standard of the development.
Council leader Councillor Anthony Okereke said: “We love our borough, and we have little sympathy for multi-millionaire property developers who don’t think the English planning rules apply to them, or that they can build what they feel like in Greenwich.
“You don’t get to use the housing crisis to justify shoddy development because delivering what was originally given planning consent would have inconveniently cost you more money and reduced your profit.
“Everyone in our borough deserves access to a safe and secure home that meets their needs.
“New development can be high quality and deliver sufficient levels of affordable housing: Comer Homes Group’s Mast Quay Phase II did neither.
“The inspector’s decision means that Comer Homes Group will at least have to pay the council a total of £7.82m to offset Mast Quay Phase II’s impact on the local area, provide affordable housing, and improve the look and safety of the building.
“These are real improvements that have only been won from taking tough action.
“If action had not been taken, we would not have secured any of this mitigation, funding or the conditions that require changes to be made.”
Councillor Majid Rahman, cabinet member for planning, estate renewal and development, said: “Mast Quay Phase II, even with some external alterations, will remain a poor quality development that resembles stacked shipping containers and blights the landscape, local conservation area and protected views.
“It is simply not acceptable for Woolwich.
“When Comer Homes Group bought the site, it had the potential to deliver hundreds of beautiful riverside apartments in an exciting area of London with a rich maritime past.
“If a scheme matching what has been built at Mast Quay Phase II was submitted for planning permission today, it would be refused, and that is why we could not let what the Comer Homes Group had delivered at Mast Quay Phase II go unchallenged.”
Councillor Rachel Taggart-Ryan, cabinet member for community safety and enforcement, said: “Thanks to our tough action we’re pleased the inspector is forcing Comer Homes Group to make a huge number of modifications so that children will have a place to play, flats will be accessible for wheelchair users and the outside area will no longer be dominated by tarmac and cars instead of trees, grass and plants.”
