West Ealing Skyscraper Plan Blocked By Council

Permission refused after over 2,000 objections received to Manor Road scheme

Visualisation of Manor Road scheme from the developer

A proposal to build a tower block in Manor Road West Ealing has been refused permission at a virtual meeting of the Ealing Council planning committee this Wednesday (28 October).

The controversial proposal to build a 19 storey high tower in a predominantly low rise residential area met with huge opposition with over 2,600 objections being submitted.

Officers had recommended that the plan should be approved by the committee, and did not believe it would negatively impact the area.

Members of the council’s planning committee voted down a plan to build ‘55 West’ by six votes to five.

This is despite the scheme being a revision of the original plan by Southern Grove and Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing to build what they described as ''the UK's tallest fully-affordable tower''. The rejected proposal was 19 storeys high compared to 26 storeys which the developer originally wanted.

The plan involved building 144 ‘affordable’ homes next to West Ealing’s crossrail station, on Manor Road and Drayton Green Road, targeting key worker-type households on “modest incomes”.

But councillors feared the height and scale of the building would dominate the local area and that the ‘affordable homes’ would not be available to those who need them the most.

While councillors supported the prospect of development for the site, a majority disagreed this particular plan was best to fill the need. Some believed it was out of keeping and would change the character of the area.

The tallest surrounding buildings were 13 storeys, and 10 storeys, while typical residential roads are of two to four-storey Victorian-style houses.

The homes were to be made up of 50 at London living rent, and 94 shared ownership flats in the plan submitted by developer Southern Grove West Ealing Limited and housing association Metropolitan Thames Valley.

Councillor Linda Burke, who spoke at the meeting calling for councillors to reject the plan, said, “There is no social rent provision. The council’s own processes say every large development must have social rent…we could set a really poor precedent if particularly in areas of high value like this we say it’s ok to have no social rent which is the greatest need for our residents.

“Intermediate is too expensive for many of our residents, you need to earn between £44,000 and £67,000. As a nurse I know that many key workers can’t afford that.

“The average income in Ealing is £31,000 so this will really only suit a very small percentage of our residents.”

Social rented houses are subsidised to a greater extent than London living rent homes. But councillors heard from officers that there is “not a significant difference” between the two, with a one-bedroom flat being around £70-80 a month difference.

The application also faced objections from groups such as Stop the Towers, and all three Ealing MPs, Rupq Huq, Virendra Sharma and James Murray within the 2,627 objections to the scheme. Meanwhile 55 comments in favour were received.

Mr Murray, Ealing North MP, and former London deputy mayor for housing also spoke at the meeting against the scheme, over the height, and design of the building, and lack of social rented housing.

Mr Murray said, “I very much welcome the council planning committee’s decision to reject this application at Manor Road. The committee members took time to discuss the application in detail after hearing objections from local residents, Councillor Linda Burke on behalf of the local councillors, and myself. In the time I had to address the committee, I set out why I considered the lack of social rented housing to be unacceptable, and why I believe the height of the tower would be wrong for the local context.

“I was very glad that, after hearing the arguments and discussing the scheme, the committee voted to reject it. This application will now be referred to the Greater London Authority, and the applicant may ultimately decide to appeal the council’s decision to reject the application, but there is no doubt that the committee’s decision this week is very good news.”

But some members who voted in favour of the scheme did so because they felt there was not enough planning grounds to reject the proposal.

Cllr Josh Blacker, who voted for the scheme, said, “I totally understand the points about shared ownership, it is not an affordable product in the sense most people would agree…

“We can’t say it’s not [affordable] because it technically and legally is…

“I don’t think we have valid planning reasons to reject this now and successfully defend that rejection given what the GLA [Greater London Authority] have said, given the affordable offer.”

Cllr Gary Busuttil added that he believed regardless of how the borough’s planning committee voted it will be “decided ultimately” by the GLA.

“I and all the councillors here have received a huge number of emails and through the post about rejecting this app and I’d like to say to these people…you need to take your fire to the GLA,” he said.

Some councillors also expressed that some correspondence from members of the public was “seriously offensive” and “intimidatory”.

In reminding members to vote along planning policy grounds, chair Shital Manro added, “Some of the emails have been downright rude, intimidatory, not actually understanding the role of the planning committee.

“We are not free agents to do whatever they want us to do, we have to follow planning policy.”

Commenting on the planning committee decision, Justine Sullivan, Co-Chair of Stop The Towers said, “"e are really pleased at the outcome, but it has taken an extraordinary amount of effort to stop a proposal that should never really have been made. The proposal was contrary to the London plan, the revision of the London plan, the neighbourhood plan, Ealing’s own site guidance and Ealing own policies on ‘affordable’ housing and the environment.

"It's our hope that Ealing have heard us and will work with us to develop this site and the adjacent Hastings road site in way that’s environmentally and socially sustainable. Ideally we would like to see true social housing for Ealing residents on low incomes and developments that boost the local economy. We also hope that the GLA will not attempt to stamp out local democracy and over-rule this common sense and legally sound decision.”

Addressing claims by some planning committee members of intimidating emails, a spokesperson for Stop the Towers advised that it has no knowledge of what these were, but stated that any intimidating comments towards the planning committee members were totally unacceptable and Stop the Towers would not condone any such behaviour.

The scheme would have seen the demolition of existing buildings at 51-56 Manor Road and 53-55 Drayton Green Road and the construction of a new structure over a basement with part 12 and part 19 storeys. The scheme would have been directly above West Ealing train station which is due to receive the Crossrail service when launched.

Written with contributions from Anahita Hossein-Pour - Local Democracy Reporter

November 4, 2020