81 Black Prince road appeal

I mentioned the attempt by a developer to gain planning permission to place a very tall building (23 storeys) in SE1 on the site of 81 Black Prince Road here back in January this year (2009). Interested parties can look up reference 08/04454/FUL on the Lambeth planning database. It is of interest to lurkers about SE11 as it is very close to the postcode boundary, and most Kennington (and some Vauxhall) residents will over look it.

At one point, I thought I might have a vested interest in seeing this application fail, but that is no longer the case. I do, however, continue to object on the basis that the building will not enhance the local area, and will set a precedent for building higher on the Albert Embankment. (You can see from the image below that Salamanca Tower is quite high enough). The building would dominate the landscape, looking from South London towards North London, and it would begin to close off the river for everybody that lives south of the Albert Embankment. It has been argued that there are taller developments in Vauxhall, but I think they're significantly far away that they should not count as a precedent for the 81 Black Prince Road site.

I failed to mention that the first attempt at planning permission was denied on 11/2/2009. The minutes to the planning meeting can be found here.

If you consult the minutes, you'll see that it was a close call. The permission was only, eventually, rejected on grounds of:

1. The harm that would be caused to the setting of the World Heritage Site,
2. Impact on the setting of listed buildings and adjoining conservation areas;
3. Poor quantity and quality of the proposed amenity space.
4. Overbearing impact of the proposed development and the creation of a sense of enclosure.

Unfortunately, the developers are appealing the decision made not to grant permission.

An appeal was lodged on 6/4/2009 and can also be found in the Lambeth Planning Database under reference 09/00048/FULREF.

Unfortunately, the appeal papers don't appear to have been uploaded to the database in this instance, so I've written to the Town Planning Advice Centre to request them.

I've been informed that any submissions from the public (which I believe have to refer to the conditions for refusal) (items 1 to 4) have to be submitted by 18/5/2009.

Submissions have to be sent to the Planning Appeals inspectorate in Bristol in triplicate to the following address:

The Planning Inspectorate, PO Box 326, Bristol, BS99 7XF.

Also, they have an online appeal process that can be accessed here.


I found an image from skyscrapercity.com alt="81 Black Prince Road outline"which I've pasted below, so that you can get a view of scale and some idea about how the external structure would look: