Housing secretary rejects planning inspector’s recommendation to approve 32-storey scheme before being sacked from government
James Brokenshire, who was yesterday sacked as housing secretary, has refused another London scheme planning – his second high-profile rejection in recent weeks.
Brokenshire told retailer Sainsbury’s last month that it would have to ditch its plans to build nearly 500 homes on the site of a supermarket in Whitechapel.
Now he has pulled the plug on plans by architect Studio Egret West for a 327-home scheme at Chiswick in west London.
His decision means he has flown in the face of a planning inspector who recommended the Chiswick Tower scheme be approved after developer Starbones, a subsidiary of Galliard Homes, appealed a decision by Hounslow council to turn it down two years ago.
The Studio Egret West scheme proposed a mixed-use scheme of 25 and 32 storeys.
But Brokenshire said the proposal’s effect on the Kew Gardens World Heritage Site, and the Strand-on-the-Green, Kew Green and Gunnersbury Park conservation areas needed to be given “great weight”.
Historic England regional director Emily Gee welcomed the decision, and added: “This building would have had a serious impact on areas in west London whose historic character has remained largely untouched for centuries.”
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