planning report PDU/1100a/02 1 December 2011 Eileen House, Elephant & Castle in the London Borough of Southwark planning application no. 09/AP/0343 Strategic planning application stage II referral (new powers) Town & Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended); Greater London Authority Acts 1999 and 2007; Town & Country Planning (Mayor of London) Order 2008. The proposal The demolition of the existing office building and erection of a 41-storey mixed use building incorporating 335 flats, including 80 intermediate affordable flats, office and retail uses together with a separate 8 storey building incorporating office and retail uses, together with associated parking and servicing facilities within 2 basement levels, and public realm improvements. The applicant The applicant is Englewood Limited, and the architect is Allies and Morrison. Strategic issues Southwark Council has resolved to refuse permission for this application. The Mayor must consider whether the application warrants a direction to take over determination of the application under Article 7 of the Mayor of London Order 2008. Having regard to the details of the application, the matters set out in the committee report and the Council’s draft decision notice, the development has a significant impact on the implementation of the London Plan, and there are sound planning reasons for the Mayor to intervene in this particular case and issue a direction under Article 7 of the Order 2008. The Council’s decision In this instance Southwark Council has resolved to refuse permission. Recommendation The application meets the policy tests under Article 7 of the Mayor of London Order 2008 and should therefore be taken over by the Mayor for his own determination. Context 1 On 10 March 2009, the Mayor of London received documents from Southwark Council notifying him of a planning application of potential strategic importance to develop the above site for the above uses. This was referred to the Mayor under Categories 1A, 1B and 1C of the Schedule to the Order 2008: page 1 1A “Development which comprises or includes the provision of more than 150 houses, flats, or houses and flats”. 1B “Development (other than development which only comprises the provision of houses, flats, or houses and flats) which comprises or includes the erection of a building or buildings…in Central London (other than the City of London) and with a total floorspace of more than 20,000 square metres”. 1C ”Development which comprises or includes the erection of a building of one or more of the following descriptions…the building is more than 30 metres high and is outside the City of London”. 2 On 16 April 2009, the Mayor considered planning report PDU/1100a/01, and subsequently advised Southwark Council that the application did not comply with the London Plan, for the reasons set out in paragraph 104 of the above-mentioned report, but that the possible remedies set out in paragraph 106 of that report could address these deficiencies. 3 A copy of the above-mentioned report is attached. The essentials of the case with regard to the proposal, the site, case history, strategic planning issues and relevant policies and guidance are as set out therein, unless otherwise stated in this report. 4 In this case the description of development has been amended since the consultation stage to reflect changes to the scheme including a reduction in the height of the tower and changes to the proposed land uses. The description of development proposed is: Demolition of existing office building and erection of a 41 storey (128.7m AOD) mixed use building incorporating 255 private flats (16 x studio, 120 x 1-bed, 86 x 2-bed and 33 x 3-bed), 80 intermediate flats (23 x 1-bed, 50 x 2- bed and 7 x 3-bed), 4785sq.m of office/ educational/ health uses (Use Class B1) and 287sq.m retail use (Use Class A1- A5) together with a separate 8 storey (35.60m AOD) building incorporating office/educational (Use Class B1) and retail (Use Class A1-A5) uses, together with 34 disabled car parking spaces, 44 motorcycle spaces and 411 cycle spaces within 2 basement levels, plus associated servicing facilities (4626sqm) and public realm improvements including creation of a resident's garden and linear park (458sq.m) and University Square (2768sq.m). 5 It is noted that the description of development refers to education and health uses as part of the proposed mix but only applies for Use Class B1 floorspace, specially office B1(a) floorspace. The reference to Use Class D1 (non-residential institutions) floorspace was removed prior to the most recent re-consultation. For the avoidance of doubt the proposal is not considered to include scope for Use Class D1 uses, including health and education uses. 6 On 11 October 2011, Southwark Council resolved to refuse planning permission for the application. This was against the advice of its officers, whose report to the Planning Committee recommended approval. On 18 November 2011 the Council advised the Mayor of this decision. Under the provisions of Article 5 of the Town & Country Planning (Mayor of London) Order 2008 the Mayor may allow the draft decision to proceed unchanged, or issue a direction under Article 7 that he is to act as the local planning authority for the purpose of determining the application and any connected application. The Mayor has until 1 December 2011 to notify the Council of his decision and to issue any direction. 7 As noted above, the Council resolved to refuse this application against the advice of its officers. The following reasons for refusal were subsequently drafted and included in the Council’s draft decision notice: page 2 The proposed development would result in the unacceptable loss of business space contrary to strategic Policy 10 – Jobs and Businesses of the Southwark Core Strategy, Saved Policy 1.4 of the Southwark Plan. The proposal fails to provide sufficient affordable housing and in particular any social rented housing to meet the local housing needs of the borough contrary to saved policy 4.4 of the Southwark plan and strategic policy 6 of the Southwark Core Strategy, and Policies 3.11 and 3.12 of the London Plan. The proposal would fail to provide a satisfactory standard of amenity in terms of noise owing to the provision of openable windows which is likely to result in noise disturbance from the adjacent nightclub and potentially impact negatively on the operation of that business. The provision of sealed windows would be required to avoid this impact which itself would be contrary to the Council's sustainable design and construction SPD and residential design standards SPD. As such the proposal is contrary to saved policy 4.2 Quality of Residential accommodation of the Southwark Plan. The proposed development is not of sufficiently high quality design given the scale and prominence of the development and fails to provide a sufficiently high standard of living accommodation to justify the very high density and the height of the building This results in a building which fails to meet internal space standards and provides insufficient family sized (i.e. two beds or larger) accommodation. As such the proposal fails to comply with saved policies 3.20, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 of the Southwark Plan and the design standards as set out in policy 3.5 of the London Plan. 8 Since this application was referred to the Mayor at the consultation stage the Mayor has published the London Plan 2011, which became operative on 22 July 2011. The Council also adopted the Southwark Core Strategy (2011) on 6 April 2011 which operates together with the ‘saved’ policies of the Southwark Plan (2007). These are now the relevant documents for the purposes of the Statutory Development Plan. 9 The Council has recently prepared and endorsed for public consultation the Elephant and Castle Supplementary Planning Document (SPD). This is due to be consulted on between 27 December 2011 and 7 February 2012. Thereafter the Council anticipates adopting it in March 2012. This document sets out guidance for the Opportunity Area covering land use, urban design, public realm, transport, community infrastructure and planning obligations. 10 The environmental information for the purposes of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999 has been taken into account in the consideration of this case. 11 The Mayor’s decision on this case, and the reasons, will be made available on the GLA’s website www.london.gov.uk. Article 7: Direction that the Mayor is to be the local planning authority Policy test guidance GOL Circular 1/2008 12 The initial policy test regarding the Mayor’s power to take over and determine applications referred under categories 1 and 2 of the schedule to the Order is a decision about who should have jurisdiction over the application rather than whether planning permission should ultimately be granted or refused. page 3 13 The policy test consists of the following three parts, all of which must be met in order for the Mayor to take over the application, unless the application is referable under Category 1A of the Schedule of the Order 2008 in which case test (b) does not apply: a) significant impact on the implementation of the London Plan; b) significant effects on more than one borough; and c) sound planning reasons for his intervention. 14 Parts (a) and (b) of the test identify the impact an application would have on the Mayor’s policies and the geographical extent of the impact, whilst part (c) deals with the reasons for the Mayor’s intervention, having regard to the Council’s draft decision on the application.