Anger at Approval for High Rise Student Accommodation Block

Tide Tower will be on the former Majestic Wines site in West Ealing

A visualisation of the proposed West Ealing scheme submitted by the developer with the application

May 1, 2024

There has been anger and disappointment expressed following the decision to approve the controversial Tide Tower development in West Ealing with a local campaign group already considering asking for a Judicial Review.

Ealing Council’s planning committee approved the construction of 412 student rooms in a 17-storey building on the former Majestic Wines site at a meeting on Thursday 25 April. The planning application received over 550 objections from residents’ associations, businesses and campaigners due to its height and other issues.

The council recently released its new ’emerging’ local plan which is yet to be fully implemented, however, it does contain guidance within it that places storey limits on certain developments. According to this new local plan, the tower would be in violation of its 13-storey limit.

Originally set to house 448 units and be 21 storeys tall, the planning application drew the ire of many in the area who say that residents’ privacy and access to sunlight will be affected. The approved scheme, to be built by Tide Construction, will see existing structures on the site demolished, including a Majestic Wines warehouse and the erection of one central 17-storey building alongside two shoulder towers which are 14 storeys and 5 storeys.

While presenting the plan to the planning committee, officer Gregory Gray stressed that although the buildings were listed as certain storeys they must be looked at from the perspective of their overall height. However, even with this taken into account the council’s own mock-ups showed that the main building fair exceeded the new local plans’ height limitations.

This was pointed out by Caroline Evans who represented objectors at the meeting. She said, “This development makes a complete mockery of Ealing’s new development plan which the council and thousands of local people spent several years working on.

“The plan says that developments should not be more than 13 storeys or 45 metres. This proposal is nearly 55 metres and breaches that.

“If the council caves to the first developer to challenge their plan it will mean Ealing’s plan can be ignored by all developers.”

Ms Evans continued to argue that the site should be reserved for building more housing for residents rather than students and that the outsized scale of the development would overshadow the surrounding 2-3-storey houses.

Designs for the building submitted with the application

A representative of the construction company also spoke reminding the committee of the project’s delivery of 35 per cent affordable student accommodation, the scheme’s environmental credentials which include green landscaping, payment of £1m for various public works and the economic value of having students in the area.

When it was finally time for the committee to address the application, it was clear that the level of opposition from locals had swayed some councillors into rejecting the proposal. Several councillors expressed their concerns over the height, with Cllr Anthony Young going so far as to say he had ‘serious concerns’ with the plan.

He added, “If we agree to this, we will be breaking our own plan,” before saying he would reject it. Others were more on the fence including Cllr Driscoll who raised concerns around the height and said he was ’50/50′ about the project.

The project would mean that some students would no longer be in the rental market taking pressure off the private rented sector, he added. Recently, a planning application (241397FUL) has been submitted to Ealing Council to build a 20-storey development on a vacant plot on Uxbridge Road which would include over 500 additional student rooms.

In response to councillors’ concerns about sunlight and privacy, Mr Gray said that relevant tests had been conducted and officers had decided that the distance of neighbouring properties was sufficient to not be unduly affected.

Geoffrey Payne of the Royal Town Planning Institute who attended the meeting said, "I am increasingly concerned at the way urban planning in the UK is failing to meet local needs. In some cases, planning officers are actually recommending proposals that do not comply with their own plans. The result is massive overdevelopment of sites that are rapidly reducing the quality of life in places like Ealing."

At the same meeting, the council approved a 16-storey development on St James Avenue, West Ealing.

The application was approved by a majority vote with eight approving, three rejecting and one Liberal Democrat abstaining.

The Stop the Towers (STT) campaign group said it was ‘flabbergasted’ by the decision adding, “ We also now feel that Ealing Labour's pre-election promise that Peter Mason's Labour council would ‘clamp down on tall towers’ is a little hollow. No one seems to have told Ealing's planning department or the Labour councillors on the planning committee that they're meant to be ‘clamping down on tall towers’. Feels more like they're ramping up the approvals.”

The approval of the plan will now be reviewed by the Greater London Assembly (GLA) planning team which previously expressed reservations about the height of a scheme proposed for the site. STT says it will be lobbying the GLA as well as the Secretary of State and, given what it describes as the unreasonableness of the decision, it is taking advice on the possibility of a Judicial Review.

Written with contributions from Rory Bennett - Local Democracy Reporter