Is The Planning Tide Finally Turning?
UPDATES ON MANOR ROAD, GURNELL, PERCEVAL HOUSE AND MORE!
MANOR ROAD – appeal to the Planning Inspectorate
The developers of the Manor Road Towers – Southern Grove- have appealed against the Planning Committee’s decision to reject the application and there will now be a planning enquiry.
Southern Grove have hired heavyweight barristers and experts to try and win just by throwing money at it and forcing us to withdraw. But we won’t give up that easily.
Since receiving the first letter from the council, Stop The Towers have:
- Spoken with the Planning Inspectorate
- Pointed out the errors in Ealing’s original letter
- Met with local councillors and constituency MP.
- Instructed legal counsel to represent us.
- Offered to work with the Council to defend the Planning Committee decision.
- Re-doubled our fund-raising efforts so Southern Grove can’t buy victory over our community
BUT we urgently need your financial help so please click here to donate
Updated Letter from Ealing Council received yesterday
Many of you may received a letter from Ealing’s Planning department this week asking you to disregard last week’s letter which advised the appeal would be determined on basis of written representations
The appeal will be now be determined on the basis of an inquiry in person with witnesses.
This inquiry will be held in July, either live or virtually. It is Ealing Council’s role to defend the Planning Committee’s decision to refuse permission for the development BUT Stop The Towers have requested permission to present their case too.
In order to do this as well as possible, STT have felt it important to get good legal advice from Landmark Chambers. This will cost well over £10,000 so we will need to ask you for financial support. Please donate now click here
HOW YOU CAN HELP?
The most important thing right now is to help out with our funding. This way we know how much we have to budget for the best legal advice.
There will be other ways you can help us and we will be sending you another newsletter next week with details of what else you can do to help.
Perceval House and Gurnell
STOP PRESS: We’ve just heard that Ealing Council’s Monitoring Officer has advised the Chair of the Planning Committee that the decision taken about Perceval House at the Planning Committee on 10th March cannot stand. We will update you with further details as soon as we have some .
https://www.ealing.gov.uk/news/article/2080/ealing_council_statement_on_issues_with_planning_committee_meeting_held_10_march_2021
And, in a stunning victory for local objections, the inappropriate Gurnell redevelopment scheme was overwhelmingly rejected by the Planning Committee, in a landslide rejection 10-1, with one member even questioning how such a scheme had got so far. Are independently minded Ealing Councillors starting to listen to residents’ concerns? We hope so!
The key reasons for the refusal were as follows:
- Inappropriate development on Metropolitan Open Land (MOL) with no justifiable circumstance to allow it to proceed
- Development was too big, tall, dense, and poorly designed
- Not enough affordable housing and not tenure blind i.e. no “pepper-potting”
- Flood risk
Many thanks for your continuing support.
Stop The Towers
www.stopthetowers.org