Public Inquiry

Updated 9th January 2021

The public inquiry into the planning application of U+I and London Fire Brigade at 8 Albert Embankment finished on 18th December 2020.

You can watch the final day of summing up here

You can watch all of the sessions here

You can see all of the ‘core documents’ via the Lambeth web page on the inquiry here 

The background:

The Secretary of State Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP  called in the planning application for 8 Albert Embankment, a hyper dense development in historic Lambeth village, for a public inquiry.

He did this first by serving an ‘article 31’ on Lambeth, following it’s recommendation of the application at Planning Committee on 3rd December 2019, and then by issuing a ‘call in’ letter on 11th June 2020.

Lambeth no longer has responsibility for this planning application and the decision as to whether it will be approved rests with the Secretary of State.  In order to come to a ministerial decision the planning inspectorate is holding a public inquiry which started on 1st December 2020.

The inquiry was held virtually and was live streamed on YouTube.

At the inquiry the developer U+I  presented their scheme and argued that it was worthy of a planning permission and Lambeth  also appeared in support of the developer and against the community campaign to refuse permission.

Both the developer and the council were represented by expensive Queen Counsel barristers and between them 13 expert witnesses, the majority of which are private sector consultants.  The community had an experienced advocate Michael Ball of WCDG and several proofs of evidence against this departure from policy application.

The community campaign is and has been funded by donations of all sizes from some extraordinarily generous people in the local community and beyond.

You can continue to support us in taking a stand against this greedy development by donating here

The public inquiry was our the last chance to:

• Save the unique heritage of Lambeth village, including loss of the Fire Brigade HQ silhouette, damage by the double height extension on the roof and the 200 bed wrap around hotel at the rear
• Save the daylight of the local community including losses of between 40 to 75% on numerous windows, in surrounding residential blocks including 9 Albert Embankment, Black Prince Road, Newport Street and Whitgift Street.
• Stop the unworkable proposals for hyper dense hotel operations, traffic circulation, servicing bays and impacts on local amenities like Old Paradise Gardens.
• Stop the impacts on local cultural and heritage institutions – The Garden Museum and Beaconsfield Gallery, preventing greening projects and causing daylight robbery

If you want more information on the community campaign contact lambethvillage@gmail.com.