John Lewis to pursue appeal over council refusal of 428-home scheme
The home building arm of retailer John Lewis Partnership is to launch a planning appeal after the London Borough of Ealing failed to determine an application to redevelop the site of a Waitrose supermarket with residential towers.
The council deplored the appeal, saying it believed the retailer had wished to continue discussions.
John Lewis said the application was still being reviewed by Ealing more than a year after being lodged.
It wants to build 428 homes - 83 of them for affordable rent - which it said would over the next decade generate more than £8m in council tax and bring in £45m a year of extra spending to the local economy. There would also be some 36,500 sq ft of green space.
The retailer said its plans had evolved through community engagement against a backdrop of clear policy support for brownfield development, urban greening and regeneration close to transport links, in this case West Ealing station.
Policy in mayor Sadiq Khan’s London Plan promotes higher density mixed-use residential intensification…[on] for example comprehensive redevelopment of low-density supermarket sites”, John Lewis noted.
Katherine Russell, its director of build-to-rent said: “An appeal is not something we take lightly, however, we believe we have strong grounds to be successful given the opportunity to transform an under-used brownfield site close to the publicly-funded Crossrail station with new homes and investment that will benefit the wider community.”
James Dunne, head of operational real estate at abrdn, which is part of a £500m joint venture with John Lewis to develop homes for rent, said: “We remain fully committed to our strategy of creating thousands of critically needed quality rental homes alongside John Lewis Partnership and look forward to the outcome of the ongoing due process in West Ealing.”
An Ealing spokesperson said: “The council has consistently raised a number of concerns with this application and the applicant has previously been keen to extend time for determination while dialogue continued to see if those concerns could be addressed.
“It is extremely disappointing that they now seem to have decided to appeal non-determination rather than wait for a local decision. Up until [now] our understanding was that they were considering amendments to address our concerns.”
A local campaign group opposed to the John Lewis project, named Stop the Towers, said this would involve tower blocks up to 20 storeys when Ealing’s site specific guidance allowed for only 7-13 storeys for this area.
The 20% affordable housing planned fell short of the 50% sought by the Greater London Authority, the group noted.
Mark Smulian
