Westminster Labour urge Mayor of London to refuse Berkeley Homes scheme for Paddington Green

We’re urging the Mayor of London to use his powers to refuse permission for Berkeley Homes to build three mega blocks, including one of 32 stories, on the site of the former Paddington Green police station. These plans have already been turned down by Westminster Council but, due to the scale of the proposed development, the Mayor has the final say.

We are asking the Mayor to refuse permission on a number of grounds:

• Not enough on-site affordable housing – as this is site is former public land, 50% of the flats should be for affordable rent but Berkley is only providing 38% with the balance to be provided in Hendon.
• Wrong mix of intermediate housing – 60% of the affordable flats are for shared ownership. Property prices are too high for shared ownership to be in any sense “affordable” in Westminster so these flats should be for low-cost rental instead, with more social housing in the scheme
• Quality of the accommodation – many flats are single aspect and face North
• Reduction of daylight and sunlight into many flats in Berkeley’s neighbouring development of West End Gate
• Damage to views of and from the Paddington Green conservation area and Cosway Street, with views from St Mary’s Churchyard, Lisson Grove and the Royal Parks impacted – the 32-storey new building will overly dominate its surroundings
• Height of the main new building Tower – tall buildings are only acceptable as one-off “landmarks” but Berkeley has already built a 30 storey building (the Westmark Tower) right next door to this one.

Cllr Geoff Barraclough, shadow cabinet member for planning said:

“This is very high-profile site and deserves much better than Berkeley’s brazen attempt to shoehorn such a massive development into a narrow and restricted plot of land.”