Plans to replace the former Greggs bakery in Twickenham with a new development including 116 new homes have been refused by Richmond Council.

Developers London Square said they were "disappointed" with the decision made at last night's planning committee (Wednesday, August 5).

They claimed it was an example of why the government's proposed changes to planning law are needed.

These new changes would allow developers to have automatic permission to build homes and schools on sites marked out for "growth", in a bid to speed-up housebuilding.

The plans for the Greggs bakery site would have provided 116 homes and 175sqm of commercial floorspace.

The redevelopment sought to create a new mews style residential street with access from the existing entrances on Edwin Road and the corner of Gould Road and Crane Road.

The homes would have been three storeys, and in total, 40 per cent of them would be affordable.

On the northern side of the site, there would be apartment style buildings ranging between three and five storeys.

But council officers recommended councillors to refuse the application due to the loss of employment space.

Although Greggs stopped operating as a bakery on the site in 2017 they still have an operational presence on the site, and it is listed as locally important industrial land.

London Square development director Mark Smith told the committee: "It can't be right that a time-expired industrial site, located in a densely populated residential area is afforded such over-zealous protection.

"It is exactly this kind of brownfields site that should be re-purposed to provide badly needed housing of all tenures and not left to rot for another five to 10 years.

"Anyone who knows the site will know that it is completely incompatible with an industrial use. You can't get to the site with anything larger than a transit van without destroying people's parked cars as Greggs and many of the local residents will testify."

Commenting on the proposals, a number of residents voiced their objection to the scheme due to the housing density proposed, loss of light and amount of car parking spaces.

During the first consultation on the proposals, the officer's report noted there were 101 objections, 13 letters of observation and just four in support.

After amendments there were a further 88 objections, four letters of observation and five in support.

However, despite the objections, many said they did not oppose the site being used for some sort of housing in the future.

Council officer Christopher Tankard recommended to councillors that they should refuse the application due to land use designations in the borough's local plan.

He said: "It is quite clear that employment sites with this designation should only be redeveloped for employment purposes and not for either a mixed use or a residential scheme, even one of the nature that is being proposed tonight."

Councillors unanimously agreed and voted unanimously to reject the application based on the local plan, but suggested a new proposal could be put before them in the future.

Committee chair cllr Jonathan Cardy concluded: "I think we are at the beginning of a chapter rather than the end of one. I suspect we will be coming back to this at some point."

Find us on social media

Join the conversation on our Facebook page