Bexley Council’s Planning Committee approved the proposal to redevelop the former Bexley Maternity Hospital building on Erith Road by Bursted Woods and build several new buildings on the site at a meeting on July 31.
The 121-home development—which was put forward by the council’s own residential developer BexleyCo Homes—will be contained within the refurbished hospital building as well as three new six-storey tower blocks and eight two-storey terraced houses.
The contentious plans garnered 90 objections from local residents.
One objector who spoke at the meeting felt the development was a “missed opportunity on various fronts” as they believed there was a distinct lack of social housing included.
They said: “I think we should make the most of the green space that we have and not overbuild.
“I totally understand and most residents understand that housing is imperative, but you’ve missed the opportunity for social housing here and that’s where the lack is in the council.”
One of the committee members, Cllr Larry Ferguson “totally agreed” with the objector’s point about the scheme’s lack of affordable housing. He said: “Yet again we have a major planning application that’s come before this committee and it fails to meet affordable housing targets.
“This is a repeated pattern. We’ve spoken about this, or certainly on this [Labour] side of the committee, have spoken about this many, many times on previous applications. We’ve even spoken about this in full council about how all of this works.
“I think it illustrates a bit of a flaw in our planning system that this can keep happening. Developers of whatever kind can keep coming forward with applications which fail to meet what’s in our local plan, what’s in the London Plan, and so on.”
He said that only 18 affordable units being included within the 121-home scheme (about 15 per cent) was “very concerning”.
Fellow Labour Cllr Nicola Taylor was sceptical of the viability assessments that had been carried out to determine that the scheme could only provide 18 affordable units.
She said: “We’re being asked to take that viability assessment, pass this application at a time when tonight’s application has had an unprecedented amount of representations raising over 200 issues, many of which are material planning positions, and we’re expected to pass this as a time when Bexley residents are struggling for housing, many in temporary accommodation, many for long periods, and temporary accommodation for the cost of which is picked up by the very council taxpayers who are representing against this application tonight.
“I do think that actually there is a dark art in terms of the viability assessment, and BexleyCo have manipulated it for their gain.”
The political jabs continued when Conservative Cllr Howard Jackson came to BexleyCo’s defence. He said: “The fact is that BexleyCo is building affordable housing on this site, even though it’s not viable. Social housing has come up again and again.
“Well, if it’s not viable at 15 per cent, how many extra units would we have to build on this site to make it viable and hit that 50 per cent that the mayor wants us to make?
“Because, let’s be honest, the only way that we’re going to get more social housing at the 50 per cent level that we say we want and that’s in the London Plan, is to slap some tower blocks on there, some very tall ones. We’re talking 10, 15, 20 storeys.
“I’m not joking, and the Labour Party knows that which is why they will now vote against this proposal because what they’ll hope is that we’ll reject this proposal, BexleyCo won’t be able to bring this back within nine months, and when the election rolls around, we’ll no longer be in control.
“They’ll control BexleyCo and they will do it as one unit, and it will go to the mayor who will insist that we slap more and more housing on there. I’m not particularly keen on any of that.”
Cllr Rags Sandhu spoke on the behalf of several Bexleyheath residents at the meeting and he said that despite the proposal adhering to the capital’s and the council’s planning policies, it was still different to the “lived experiences” of those living nearby.
He wished for the council to impose further conditions on the developers to improve road safety around the new homes, with suggestions such as enhanced street lighting. He also wanted greater protections put in to safeguard the biodiversity of the surrounding areas.
Parking was the main concern for residents, with many feeling that the 96 parking spaces provided for the 121 dwellings would not be sufficient, causing motorists to park in adjacent residential streets.
Cllr John Davey acknowledged that the scheme’s parking provision did comply with the relevant planning policies, but said: “We always complain that there’s not enough parking because it’s a one-size-fits-all thing for London and we need cars more than they do in central London, but there’s nothing we can do about that.”
Cllr Cameron Smith picked up on this point as well after acknowledging that the “lion’s share” of the 90 objections were to do with parking.
He said: “Residents are going to be very frustrated to hear that it is an area where we have very little power because the number of car parking spaces is set by the London Plan which we can’t overrule and we don’t get to write the London Plan.
“That is written by the Mayor of London and it does not necessarily reflect the reality of life in Bexley and the requirement to drive.”
Highways officers confirmed that the council would be monitoring the parking situation during the development’s construction and past completion and it would be able to impose restrictions if issues arose.
When it came to voting on the application, the number of committee members voting for and against the proposal were tied which meant the casting vote was offered to chairman Cllr Kurtin Christoforides. The proposal was approved with his vote.
