By Peter Eaton, chairman of the Mortlake Brewery Community Group

We are once again facing a round of public consultation on the Mortlake brewery development and call on all local residents in Mortlake, Barnes, East Sheen and Kew to have their say. 

The applicant, Reselton Properties, has made two planning submissions to Richmond Council to develop the 22 acre riverside site. One is for mixed use for housing and commercial space, while the second is for a new secondary school. 

These are the third set of plans since the developers first drew up a scheme in 2018 and residents have lived under a cloud of uncertainty ever since.

Mortlake Brewery Community Group (MBCG) urged the Council to turn down the original scheme in January 2020 on the grounds that the scheme was too dense and a secondary school was not needed. We were also concerned about the impact on traffic and air pollution, as well as the low level of affordable housing proposed.

The Council approved the scheme at a long and chaotic Planning Committee just before start of the pandemic despite huge community opposition.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, decided to review the decision by the Council because he was unhappy with the lack of affordable housing.

Subsequently, after a year of considerable negotiation with GLA officers, the developers came up with a second scheme. This proposed an even more dense and inappropriate development with blocks up to 10 storeys tall and 1,250 homes.

This would have devastated the heritage and environment of the historic area of Mortlake and riverside. Thankfully, the Mayor of London saw sense and turned down the scheme in July 2021.

Now the developers have come up with a new proposal – their third. This has slightly revised down the numbers to 1,085 residential units, but building heights of eight and nine storeys along the river still remain a major concern.

Significantly, the old brewery sports fields will disappear to make way for a secondary school for 1,150 pupils which is not needed. This means that space for affordable housing, already at a premium, is further reduced and only provides 19per cent of the overall total of units.

Richmond Council has a waiting list of thousands of people who need low cost housing in the borough.

We will urge the Council to push up the percentage of affordable housing. Otherwise, this could lead to the Mayor intervening yet again - bringing us full circle after years of planning blight.

MBCG is not opposed to a substantial development on the site but it needs to be sustainable and in tune with the needs of the community.

The plans can be viewed on LBRuT's website and we hope that residents will make their voices heard during the consultation process. We expect the decision to be made by Richmond Council in July.

In the meantime, we will be urging all candidates in the May local council elections to back MBCG's concerns and stand up for their community.

For more information about the brewery development and the work of MBCG, please take a look at our website - www.mbcg.org.uk