by Eleanor Veness

An incentive to stop a build plan on a carpark by North Sheen station in Richmond has gained traction across political parties, organisations and residents.

The original motion to refuse the build by Richmond Council, on the grounds of a building with 453 flats in an eleven-storey tower block being deemed too 'oppressive', was overturned by Sadiq Khan at a public hearing in January 2021.

Cllr. Gareth Roberts told Nub News: "The mayor of London and the secretary of state had reached the wrong decision. It did not meet acceptable standards, which moved it further still away from locally-accepted standards.

"He's just turned his back on the people of Richmond. And we are left with this very large development, which is not in keeping with local surroundings."

Local MPs and residents have since made claims for the plans' refusal on similar grounds, believing the proposed location and allocation of the building to be insufficient and intrusive on the privacy and 'right to light' of local residents.

The existing buildings, including a Homebase and Pets at Home, will be demolished and replaced with new residential buildings designed by Assael architecture.

Planning regulation states that residential developments of 150 units or more, or those that will be over 30 metres in height, must be referred to the Mayor of London after the Council has made the decision.

Cllr. Roberts said: "It's always difficult in planning because no matter how much you advertise to people that there is a development which is bound to happen on their doorstep, they don't necessarily always notice. And there's been such a lot of discussion regarding this particular development in recent months, that some people have noticed.

"The protests start small, but they gather force and impetus. That's why it's been picked up by so many people, because the excellent team of Lib Dem councillors in North Richmond, South Richmond and Kew have been drawing people's attention to this to this matter."

After overturning the hearing, Khan has put plans forward for an even larger development than originally intended, a move which the Lib Dems condemn for failing to deliver a reasonable amount of affordable housing, at poor quality, with a structure and design that will be 'visually intrusive, dominant and overwhelming'.

Cllr. Roberts said: "We always had a concern about the size of the development in its original form. Increasing the scale and development was always out of keeping to this particular area. He's moved it from 395 flats to 453, and he's changed it from a 4-9 story development to a 4-11 storey development.

"Ideally, what we would like to see is that every new development has a minimum of 50% affordable housing on site. And this doesn't meet those standards.

"The way it is when a new development is mooted by a private developer, they always rely on the viability aspect. But we have a lot of housing in the local area and we have a lot of it coming down the pipeline. We don't have sufficient quantities of affordable housing."

The proposed building has also raised concerns for its potential strain on local transport and resources. Situated next to North Sheen station, three local bus routes are also due to be scrapped for the purposes of making way for the development.

Cllr. Roberts said: "There's a small railway station that does not seem to have access, particularly for those people in wheelchairs. It's just going to place additional weight on what is already a very straining system.

"That's why we were concerned about the size and scale of the development.

"Unless you were in the position that you could possibly completely revamp North Sheen station, or if they were going to put in additional public transport services, then we find this is not an ideal place to build a very, very large development."

Clare Delmar, from the organisation Listen to Locals, said occurrences such as the build plan on Manor Road Homebase carpark, are "just the tip of the iceberg", with an "evolving" rise in community groups to address the problem.

She said: "We work in addressal of issues such as modern developers overseeing the legal 'right to light' and health impact assessments."

Anna*, a Richmond resident local to Manor Road, described herself as being "detrimentally affected" by the development.

She said: "The local group of people understand that we need development, we need more housing. We just would like it to be done sensitively at a scale that's appropriate for that site."

Cllr. Roberts said: "We are not against development as an administration, but it has to be appropriate. It has to meet certain standards and it has to fit in with the local area.

"This is effectively as though someone just found a plot of land, and said, 'let's see how much we can wring out of this as we possibly can'. The impact on local residences is not being taken into consideration.

"If they were to come back to us with a better scheme, which was not so aggressive and which was not so intensive, then I don't think that local residents would have a problem with that.

"They're not being nimbys. They just want to make sure that any development which is being imposed upon them is suitable for the area."

Richmond Park MP Sarah Olney previously wrote to Robert Jenrick MP, secretary of state for Housing, Communities and Local Government, to support Richmond council's decision to refuse planning permission on grounds of the site and surrounding area.

Olney pressed for the case to be re-opened, calling for Khan to re-intervene.

The Twickenham and Richmond Liberal Democrats have challenged the build-plan with a public petition, with 1,875 out of a proposed 2,000 signatures thus far.

In response to the momentum against the build plan, the London Mayor's office said: "The decision is one the government has made, so it's up to them to comment."

*Some names have been changed for confidentiality.