Councillors refused planning permission last year but have been overruled
By Victoria Munro
Two seven-storey flat blocks near Highams Park Station will now go ahead, despite being rejected by Waltham Forest councillors last year.
In March last year, the council’s planning committee voted to refuse Morris Nourani permission to build 68 flats on a plot of land off Larkshall Road, in defiance of the advice of council officers.
Opposed residents had argued the scheme would threaten the area’s “village-like” character, while councillors questioned the lack of affordable housing.
However, the developer appealed the decision to the government’s planning inspectorate and, on 31st January, won planning permission anyway.
Planning inspector Katie McDonald wrote that a taller development like the planned flat blocks “would be suitable” for the area, “providing an opportunity to create a distinctive and prominent focal building at the centre of Highams Park”.
She noted that the site is “central to the district centre and a ‘gateway’ site in the borough”, due to its proximity to a station, and pointed out that there are already “other larger scale buildings in the locality”, such as a 13-storey flat block and the Regal Cinema.
She wrote: “For these reasons, I consider that the area around the site itself has evolved to form a suburban, mixed use character of varying architectural styles and heights.
“In terms of the design, the elevations would be well detailed and attractive. The materials would be high quality, creating a distinctive top, middle and bottom to the building, which successfully breaks up the scale and height to ameliorate the overall massing.
“Locally significant views in and out of the district centre would change as a result of the proposal, some considerably, and I acknowledge it would create a contrasting development at a greater height than other existing lower level buildings.
“Yet, change does not necessarily equate to harm and the proposal would respect these views, introducing a high quality, taller building in a suitable location.”
Speaking at the planning committee meeting last March, Gordon Turpin, chair of the Highams Park Planning Group, insisted the flats would “decimate” the area.
He said: “The main feature of the area is the railway station and that is what Highams Park was developed around… The station will be totally overwhelmed by a seven storey building over it.”
He added that more than two thirds of consulted residents objected to the scheme, claiming: “They thought over-urbanisation is not a price worth paying.”
Councillors also heard the developer proposed either selling just seven of the flats through the shared ownership scheme or paying the council £850,000 to help build affordable homes elsewhere.
Then-committee member and former councillor Alan Siggers said he was “gob smacked” by this offer, arguing the developer shouldn’t have bought the land if it could not afford to build affordable homes on it.
He said: “With the lack of affordable housing, we’re getting shafted again. The Highams Park Development Plan requires good quality developments – this isn’t it.”
In her written decision, the planning inspector revealed that the council chose not to try to use other reasons for refusal, such as the lack of affordable housing, to defend its decision.
She added: “This was owing to the drafting of the planning obligations and the Council reviewing the evidence relating to viability.”
Overall, she concluded that the benefits of the scheme, which include a new entrance for Highams Park Station, outweighed any “limited harm”.
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