High Court Backs Minister Over Chiswick Curve Refusal
The Chiswick Curve from Strand on the Green
The High Court has backed a decision by a housing minister to refuse permission for a 32-storey skyscraper to be built near Chiswick Roundabout.
The so-called Chiswick Curve had been rejected by Hounslow Council but a planning inspector overruled this decision and recommended that the scheme proceed. Paul Griffiths held a 15 day inquiry in June 2018 at which he concluded that the proposals complied with the development plan for the area. He said, ‘the Chiswick Curve is a quite brilliant response to the difficult problems presented by the immediate context of this site.” He said that the protection of Kew Gardens from tall buildings in the area was ‘a battle that has been fought and lost’.
However, this decision was in turn overruled by James Brokenshire, the then Minister of Housing.
Starbones, the company behind the development claimed that the Secretary of State’s decision was unlawful because he “failed to have regard to the relative impact on heritage assets of either the implementation of an existing planning permission, or the development of the Site in accordance with the Second Defendant’s (Hounslow Council) emerging policy for the area”. They claimed that the Minister did not give due reasoning for rejecting the Inspector’s recommendation on this matter. In addition they argued that the Minister failed to give weight to the requirement in the plan for increased provision of housing and affordable housing
The judge, Mrs Justice Lang, agreed with Mr Brokenshire’s assessment last July that the tower would have caused unacceptable damage to local heritage assets such as Kew Gardens, Strand-on-the-Green and Gunnersbury Park.
The development Chiswick Curve would have been a mixed use building of two towers, one 32-storeys and one 25-storeys, that would have contained up to 327 flats.
At the time of the enquiry it was also noted that ‘implementable planning permission’ was in place at the site for the Citadel tower which was 60 metres tall and this might be viewed as a fall back option. Originally it was deemed to be non-viable but it was proposed that it could be made viable by the addition of advertising hoardings. No payments would be need to be made to the local authority or the Mayor’s Community Infrastructure Levy is this scheme was revived.
Local councillor Jo Biddolph said that she believes it is highly likely that another application will be made for the site and the question will become how tall is acceptable. She added, "Chiswick infrastructure is already under pressure. The current obsession with tall blocks of flats, to meet a target set by Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan, is changing the way people live as well as the character and charm of Chiswick forever.
"Residents in blocks are often isolated from the local community beyond their block's entry door. And, as everyone knows, what people want is to live in houses with front doors that open at ground level. With this site, the neighbouring B&Q site (possibly to be the Fourth Mile development), the site opposite that at 250 Gunnersbury Avenue and the so-called opportunity area of Power Road and land near Gunnersbury tube station, the assault on Chiswick continues and its effect will be significant."
Reportedly after the dismissal of their challenge Starbones were ordered to pay substantial legal costs.
A view from the A4 of rejected scheme
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March 11, 2020
