News Walthamstow

Skyscraper plans opposed

Opponents of plans to build a 27-storey skyscraper in the centre of Walthamstow have submitted a petition to the council signed by more than 2,000 people. […]By Waltham Forest Echo

Campaigners gather on the steps of Waltham Forest Town Hall prior to handing in their petition to the council’s planning department

Opponents of plans to build a 27-storey skyscraper in the centre of Walthamstow have submitted a petition to the council signed by more than 2,000 people.

The petition signatories claim the scheme proposed by developer Capital & Regional for 500 new homes at The Mall shopping centre “represents a serious degradation of a public amenity” and that the tallest of the planned towers is “out of keeping” with Walthamstow’s character.

No planning application for the scheme has yet been submitted but Capital & Regional announced in April its intention to include a 27-storey building as part of a £120million investment in the town centre that would create “hundreds of new jobs”. If a tower this high is built, it would be the tallest building in Waltham Forest and be nearly double the height of the Travelodge hotel that is Walthamstow town centre’s current highest tower.

David Gardner and Jean Duggleby have led the campaign against such a large-scale development in the town centre, describing it in a previous Echo article as “a complete eyesore”.

Now that the petition has been submitted, David urged any people concerned about the scheme to write to the council: “What would help now is individual representations to the town hall planning department and maybe even to Capital & Regional in the hope that we can convince the people making decisions that this is a highly unpopular proposal.”

Capital & Regional describes its plans as “transformational”.


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