A 6-year by campaign by Aylesham Community Action (ACA) has beaten one of the most successful wealth extractive machines in the country.
On Tuesday a government Inspector refused to allow the destruction of central Peckham by Berkeley Homes, who wanted to demolish the Aylesham Centre and construct towers of unaffordable housing.
The Inspector was called in by Berkeley Homes when Southwark Council failed to approve their plans to tear down the 1980s shops at the very heart of Peckham and build 790 unaffordable homes (along with a niggardly 77 ‘affordable homes’ – just 12%) in a phalanx of towers with fewer shops.
The developers had been in closed discussion with the Council for several years, giving time for the ACA to build a campaign which raised £55,000 – essential to fund full participation as a ‘Rule 6 party’ at the planning inquiry last autumn. They were supplemented by Southwark Council, who got off the fence and opposed the scheme, as did thousands of petitioners and local MP Miatta Fahnbulleh.
The campaign was powered by local people who were determined to stop Berkeley Homes and their plan to destroy Peckham with “gentrification on steroids by displacing communities and local traders, thereby wrecking Peckham’s heritage, economy and heart.”
The planning Inspector agreed that Berkeley Homes’s plans breached the site allocation and policies around design, heritage, tall buildings, and protection of small businesses, and was damning in his condemnation. The proposals would
“rise cliff-like in the townscape… would tower over its setting, dwarfing Purdon House and would forcefully preside over the open bus station… its elevational articulation would be monolithic and unrelenting. The height and massing of the building would be damaging to the townscape from public vantages… I attribute high levels of harm to the Conservation Area, the locally listed Clocktower, 86-88 Peckham High Street and 98-104 Peckham High Street”
The Inspector acknowledged that the affordable housing would be a benefit, but in a stinging conclusion he said
“The circumstances of the case do not lead me to accept new housing and other associated betterments at all costs. [There is] a generational opportunity for Peckham which should be carefully managed to ensure a more optimally designed scheme for future generations.
“For clarity, even with 35% affordable housing as initially proposed in the planning application process and accepting a worsening housing land supply position of less than 5 years… I would still have found that the level of harm in this case would not be overridden.”
The Inspector noted that the site allocation “entails a generational opportunity for Peckham which should be carefully managed to ensure a more optimally designed scheme for future generations”. He noted the how ACA position around affordable housing was “well-intended” and “with residents welfare in mind”.
This decision will be a blow to those who hoped the Secretary of State’s pro-developer pronouncements to just “build, baby, build” and the government’s attempted neutering of planning would lead to a developer’s free-for-all. It shows that local councils can still refuse terrible schemes – but in this case they only seemed to find the will to do so after the local community had mounted massive protests. Without this, unfortunately, councils from Ealing to Barking and Croydon to Enfield will go on approving thousands of badly designed buildings offering little to the local community.
ACA were very fortunate to have legal and professional support from Jed Holloway at Southwark Law Centre, and Barrister Hashi Mohamed, along with a fantastic team of locals who acted as witnesses covering Planning, Heritage, Viability and S106. They also had support from Southwark Housing and Planning Emergency (SHAPE), Peckham Vision, Peckham Heritage, Latin Elephant, Plush SE15, The 35% Campaign, No price on Culture, Southwark Defend Council Housing and many others.
Ann Lalic, Aylesham Community Action said ‘This is a great victory, and we need it to push for changes in a planning system that doesn’t work for anyone but greedy and voracious developers!’
Siobhan McCarthy, Aylesham Community Action said ‘The inspector, puts it in black and white: this a generational opportunity for Peckham. So there now must be real, comprehensive, lasting, grassroots input from the community on any future plan for the Aylesham site.’
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