News Flash – Secretary of State Rt Hon Robert Jenrick REFUSES PLANNING PERMISSION
Yesterday at 3pm on 23rd June 2021 the Secretary of State the Rt Hon Robert Jenrick issued the following decision notice on the planning application by U+I and the London Fire Brigade, for a development at the Brigade’s historic HQ at 8 Albert Embankment.
The Secretary of State has agreed with his planning inspectorate report and has REFUSED planning permission.
Christopher Woodward of the Garden Museum whose Lambeth Green plans would have been affected by shadowing from the proposal – which included 5 towers in total, 2 of which would overshadow Old Paradise Gardens and residents of the Whitgift Council Estate said:
‘We are thrilled that we can continue with our plans to make a new park for central London without it being overshadowed by the dead glass of skyscrapers of luxury flats.
‘But the greatest relief is for our neighbours in social housing, who would have lost over 40 per cent of the sunshine at their windows if U+I had been able to build its towers.’
‘This is the second public inquiry the GLA has lost for the site, which has been left derelict for over a decade. We all want the site to be developed. Can the GLA please invite ideas for other uses, which does not deprive a community of one of the most basic of human needs – sunshine.’
See today’s article in Architects Journal:
Michael Ball from Waterloo Community Development Group, who represented Lambeth Village at the public inquiry says:
‘Fantastic community effort, from every political party and none; businesses, residents & many stakeholders. We won all the main points: threat to daylight, heritage, the democratically agreed Plan. Lambeth Council needs to take more care protecting us.’
‘The LFB has left these sites largely vacant for nearly 20 years, benefiting no one other than speculators. Two madcap proposals have wasted millions of pounds of public money, and have terrorised the local community for the past decade.’
‘It’s time that Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, called a halt. He needs to instruct the LFB to bring these sites back into use immediately for ‘meanwhile’ uses, then work with the local community to develop a scheme which will benefit everybody.’
Helen Perrault-Newby from the Whitgift Estate TRA says:
Community at Public Inquiry – January 2021
Thanks to the generous donations of all sizes from members of the Lambeth Village community and it’s supporters the community was represented at the Public Inquiry into 8 Albert Embankment by:
- Michael Ball from Waterloo Community Development Group (WCDG) acting as our advocate
- Paul Velluet expert witness on heritage issues (M.Litt., RIBA, IHBC, Chartered Architect)
- Dr Paul Littlefair expert witness on daylight (and author of the BRE guide to assessing sun and daylight impacts)
- Dr Jess Ferm expert witness on industrial land uses in London (UCL College)
- Christopher Woodward the Director of the Garden Museum
- David Crawforth one of the co-Directors at Beaconsfield Gallery
The inquiry started on Tuesday 1st December and ended on Friday 18th December 2020. It looked at the proposed design, heritage impacts on the London Fire Brigade art deco HQ complex, the other local heritage assets including Lambeth Palace, the impacts on the Westminster World Heritage Site, the sun and daylight of local residents, the impacts on amenities and issues such as transport, provision of affordable housing and the use of industrial land.
You can watch the final day of summing up here
You can watch all of the sessions here
You can see and hear member of the community speaking on Thursday 10th December here
You can see all of the ‘core documents’ via the Lambeth web page for the inquiry here
It will be several weeks possibly longer before we know the recommendation of the Planning Inspector and the decision of the Secretary of State. Ultimately this is a decision for the Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP to take and will depend on the weight given to the perceived benefits and harms that would result from the proposed development.
Want more information? …contact lambethvillage@gmail.com
Donate Now!
Lambeth Village, Beaconsfield Gallery and the Garden Museum all have Rule 6 Status at the public inquiry into the planning application for 8 Albert Embankment.
We are acting together to win against both the developer U+I and Lambeth Council. Both are engaging their own Queen’s Counsel (QC) Barristers and between them 13 expert witnesses to argue for this development and against the community campaign.
Fight for what is right – please donate to our fund here
Write to Sadiq Khan! ….Call in the 8 Albert Embankment Planning Committee Decision NOW
The decision by Lambeth Council’s Planning Committee to approve the U+I/LFB planning application (19/01304/FUL) for 8 Albert Embankment is hugely disappointing.
It can still be STOPPED as the application can now be called in by the Mayor of London to REFUSE .
Please write to Sadiq Khan IMMEDIATELY as he will need to make a decision SOON and ask him to ‘call in’ the application and refuse it. (Email address and details to include in your message given below).
A couple of important London Plan reasons why he might REFUSE:
Loss of the KIBA (Key Industrial Business Area) sites which despite having the highest Lambeth Plan protection are being lost to corporate office space.
Lambeth had no Strategic Industrial Land (SIL) whatsoever
- KIBA is the only land that Lambeth has for industry and this KIBA is very successful, but the 8 Albert Embankment sites have been deliberately kept empty, with no marketing.
- The LFB has behaved like the worst kind of private sector developer to get a change of use and build residential towers in a conservation area.
- Lambeth has lost more than 25% of all it’s KIBA in a decade
- Lambeth has only one 1/3 of the average amount of industrial land of any London borough
Underprovision of Affordable Housing on land the LFB have owned since 1937………. this site should be able to support 50% if the LFB where not greedily taking so many benefits out of it, including a capital receipt of @£42m as well as profit for their developer partner @£96m.
- Only 8 social housing units will be built and more social housing will be blighted through losses of daylight than delivered
- Profit of 6% is being taken on the affordable housing by the developer
- Social housing tenants, will be paying the price for the LFB greed with levels of light that are so inadequate they are BRE ‘major adverse’, at only 15-17% VSC
Write in your own words and include the other issues that matter to you.
Contact details: mayor@london.gov.uk Greater London Authority, City Hall, The Queen’s Walk, London SE1 2AA
CC the Assembly Members:
tony.arbour@london.gov.uk; jennette.arnold@london.gov.uk; andrew.boff@london.gov.uk; gareth.bacon@london.gov.uk; shaun.bailey@london.gov.uk; sian.berry@london.gov.uk; tom.copley@london.gov.uk; unmesh.desai@london.gov.uk; tony.devenish@london.gov.uk; andrew.dismore@london.gov.uk; len.duvall@london.gov.uk; nicky.gavron@london.gov.uk; susan.hall@london.gov.uk; david.kurten@london.gov.uk; joanne.mccartney@london.gov.uk; steve.o’connell@london.gov.uk; caroline.pidgeon@london.gov.uk; keith.prince@london.gov.uk; caroline.russell@london.gov.uk; onkar.sahota@london.gov.uk; navin.shah@london.gov.uk; fiona.twycross@london.gov.uk; peter.whittle@london.gov.uk; leonie.cooper@london.gov.uk
Please write immediately (cc lambethvillage@gmail.com) as Sadiq will make a decision in SOON and he must REFUSE.
Save the date – 16th October 2019 to hand in the petition to Lambeth Council Meeting
Yes save the date we will be handing in our amazing petition of over 2000 signatures to a full meeting of Lambeth Councillors on 16th October 2019, 6.30pm at Brixton Town Hall.
Join us, meet on the steps of the Old Town Hall and make a splash – wear yellow!
Sign the Petition – June 2019
Please use the link below to go to our petition, which has further information laying out why we are objecting to this planning application:
Many thanks for your support and if you want more information explore the website or contact Lambethvillage@gmail.com
Crash! goes Lambeth Planning Portal – June 2019
Lots and lots of people were trying to use the Lambeth Planning Portal last weekend to get their objections on before the deadline of Monday 3rd June and we had reports that it was very slow, then on Tuesday 4th June the site crashed.
The site came back up at the end of the week but as of today Sunday 9th June many comments are not yet loaded on the website.
What to do if you can’t see your objection on the Lambeth Planning Portal:
Please email your objection to all of the following mcassidy@lambeth.gov.uk, RBristow@lambeth.gov.uk, mpbennett@lambeth.gov.uk
What to do if you didn’t get your objection on the Lambeth Planning Portal:
The site is back up and running now, so you can load your objection on, but it may take a while to appear in the comments list – check in a week.
The link is:
Remember the broad themes of the objections are:
- Object to the 24 & 26 storey towers, damaging historic area next to Lambeth Palace, removing the clear silhouette of the Fire Brigade HQwhich is protected by planning policy, and the green space Old Paradise Gardens (a gift from the Palace to the people of Lambeth since 1703)
- Object to the loss of sun and day light, from social housing neighbours (40%) on the Whitgift Estate, Old Paradise Gardens all the way to the Garden Museum
- Object to the excessively dense development, potentially 2500 people using the site, disruptive hotel use when there is already plenty on Albert Embankment, inadequate provision for deliveries, parking and traffic
- Object to developer ignoring planning use policy, loss of industrial employment land (KIBA), damage to conservation areas, damage to amenities, there is specific policy against towers on the site to protect the heritage
- Object to poor consultation exercise with the local community, a tick box exercise of exhibitions, no negotiation on the towers, no meaningful engagement with local community groups like the Whitgift Estate TRA
Now is the time to object! – May 2019
The 8 Albert Embankment planning application (19/01304/FUL & 19/01305/LB) is submitted and objections can now be lodged on the planning portal. Please support us by making objections on the link below:
Use your own words – in broad terms the objections are:
- Object to the 24 & 26 storey towers, damaging historic area next to Lambeth Palace, removing the clear silhouette of the Fire Brigade HQwhich is protected by planning policy, and the green space Old Paradise Gardens (a gift from the Palace to the people of Lambeth since 1703)
- Object to the loss of sun and day light, from social housing neighbours (40%) on the Whitgift Estate, Old Paradise Gardens all the way to the Garden Museum
- Object to the excessively dense development, potentially 2500 people using the site, disruptive hotel use when there is already plenty on Albert Embankment, inadequate provision for deliveries, parking and traffic
- Object to developer ignoring planning use policy, loss of industrial employment land (KIBA), damage to conservation areas, damage to amenities, there is specific policy against towers on the site to protect the heritage
- Object to poor consultation exercise with the local community, a tick box exercise of exhibitions, no negotiation on the towers, no meaningful engagement with local community groups like the Whitgift Estate TRA
Contact Your Local Councillors – April 2019
Your Local Councillors to contact are:
Cllr David Amos – DAmos@lambeth.gov.uk
Cllr Jon Davies – JDavies4@lambeth.gov.uk
You can speak directly to them at a Councillor Surgery and these are:
on the first Saturday of the month, 10-11am in the Carmalita Centre, 41 Vauxhall Walk, Lambeth, London SE11 5JT
on 3rd Wednesday of the month at Durning Library 6-7pm.
