The appeal by Adini on the refused planning application for the block of flats has been upheld, which means the block of flats can go ahead, but with certain conditions (e.g. the applicant/developer would have to pay a £400,000 contribution for affordable housing elsewhere as there was no provision for affordable housing in the proposed block).   You can read the report by going to https://acp.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/myportal/default.aspx and inputting the reference 3217838.

[Just a reminder that Adini only lodged an appeal against the decision to refuse planning application for the block of flats, they did not appeal the decision against the refusal to grant planning permission for the office/warehouse development.]

The Planning Inspector was not convinced by the Council’s arguments, and although we/OWGRA submitted robust arguments for the appeal to be dismissed, it is the Council’s representation which the Inspector would take most notice of.

What happens now?  Will the 15 flats actually be built?  The applicant stated that the profit from selling the land to build the flats would fund the Adini office/warehouse redevelopment.  But Adini did not appeal the refusal for the office/warehouse development within the permitted 6 months, so they are out of time to appeal now.  We now wait to see what Adini will do next and whether they will submit a second application for the commercial development.

The Access Storage development at Gillette Corner was approved by the Planning Committee at the meeting on Thursday 2 May.  Many of our comments on this application were addressed by the applicant to mitigate the impact of this development on the surrounding area and allow it to fit in as much as possible. In addition the applicant has made some additional concessions:
– the premises would not operate 24/7, but Mon-Sat 7.00-23.00, Sun & Bank Holidays 10.00-18.00,
– no alcohol or food can be sold from the premises.

This development (a 4- to 6-storey storage facility) is a huge improvement on the original proposal for a 14 storey tower-block and we thank Access Storage for working with OWGRA and the local community to reach this position.

OSTERLEY STATION CAR PARK DEVELOPMENT

Quite a few local residents attended the exhibition at the end of 2018 on the proposed development of a 10-storey block of flats over the car park at Osterley station, with further information available here

http://www.brentfordtw8.com/default.asp?section=info&page=planning050.htm. These are the comments that were made to the developer:

·         Height. Far too tall for an area where the prevailing height is 2-3 storeys – 10 storeys is wholly out of scale for the area.

·         Station. Completely fails to respect, reflect, harmonise or support the Grade II-listed station next to it which is a local landmark and should remain as such.

·         Sight Lines. Stands out like a sore thumb when looking along the Great West Road. with all other buildings stepped back by 7-10 metres from the pavement whereas this is right on the edge of the pavement.

·         Style. No attempt to reflect and mirror the prevailing 1930s red brick style of the area.

·         Parking. Loss of almost 40% of car parking spaces in a car park that is already full 6 days a week by 8.30 am.

In general it is fair to say that the developer received largely (if not completely) negative feedback on their proposals. Following that exhibition the developer held a number of meetings with the council regarding their proposals. Whilst we were not party to those meetings, we understand that the council were also less than supportive of the proposals. We have not heard anything further; hopefully this is due to the developer working on proposals more in keeping with the area.

HUDSON SQUARE/B&Q

Yet more tower blocks are being proposed for Brentford. The latest of these consist of plans to redevelop the current B&Q site at Chiswick roundabout into a complex of 6 tower blocks, ranging in height from 8 storeys up to 16 storeys. (The new development would not include a B&Q store – which would close and not be replaced in the area). This will include a “Hub for Automobile Technology, Collaboration and Research”, retail units associated with the Automobile Technology theme, a hotel, residential units (rental only) in 4 towers and a central square. The proximity of this site to the heavily congested Chiswick roundabout and the very busy M4, Great West Road and North Circular Road on 2 sides of the site represents something of a challenge to the developers regarding pollution levels and access (by foot or by car). We have also heard rumours that TfL are concerned that the development could cause the Chiswick roundabout to become even more congested. The developer held a public exhibition of their plans at the Musical Museum in Brentford on 20/21 March. We will be watching for further news on this.

Details are still scarce about this proposed development. Indeed the only “official” response we have received was the following from Tesco :
“We are pleased to announce that we have entered into an agreement with Berkeley Homes (St Edward) with the intention of moving to a brand new Tesco Extra store to be developed on the nearby Homebase site at Gillette Corner.
Under the plans, our existing Osterley Tesco Extra store will continue to serve customers as normal for a number of years, until the new store is built and ready to open. Once we have moved, Berkeley Homes will undertake a mixed-use redevelopment of the site.
These plans will be subject to a full planning application process by St Edward, including consultation with the local community, and will take a number of years to develop. We will be sure to keep the local community updated on our plans going forward.”
We understand that a booth will appear in the Tesco car park shortly and will display information on these plans.
We had been aware that there were long term plans to use part of the current Tesco car park for flats (and that the Homebase site was also likely to be redeveloped) but this combined proposal was a surprise to us and will have major implications for residents in the area, in areas such as transport and health care provision.  We assume that school provision will be adequate though.  Presumably Gillette Corner will be redeveloped (a bit like the A4/Boston Manor Road junction when GSK was built).

What we do know is that the development will take at least 4 years and will proceed in a series of phases. First the Homebase store will be closed and the building demolished (we tried to get this building locally listed to protect it, but were not successful). (Note this will mean that, combined with the Hudson Square development (above), that we will lose BOTH the Homebase and B&Q DIY stores). Then a new multi-storey building will be constructed on the site consisting of a new Tesco store,  parking and flats, allowing Tesco to move from their current Syon Lane site to this new location. Then the existing Tesco store will be demolished and the site redeveloped for housing (hopefully a mix of houses and flats, and not just monolithic blocks of flats). No planning applications have yet been submitted for these developments. Whatever is proposed we will be pushing hard for any such development to respect the important Grade II-listed Gillette building, to be in keeping with the style and height of buildings along Syon Lane, to include appropriate actions to mitigate any traffic associated with these developments, to include community and other facilities that local residents can use, and for the developments to represent a welcome addition to the facilities, architecture and appeal of this area. Rumours of the first thoughts of the developers are more than a little different from this.