Fresh Judicial Review Application

A claim has been issued in the High Court seeking a SECOND Judicial Review of Lewisham Council’s handling of planning approval for the proposed monster Mais House redevelopment on Sydenham Hill. The community is again asking the Court to quash Lewisham’s approval of the Corporation of the City of London’s plans.

COMMUNITY WILL NOT LIE DOWN

LONG STRUGGLE TO SAVE SYDENHAM HILL RIDGE CONTINUES

COURT RULED COUNCIL ACTED ILLEGALLY – BUT LEWISHAM DETERMINED TO DRIVE MONSTER DEVELOPMENT THROUGH

The proposed development looms over existing housing

Residents and neighbours of a Sydenham social housing estate are gearing up for another legal battle, having been left reeling when, despite the community’s earlier successful High Court action, Lewisham Council ignored the Judge’s words and yet again approved a damaging and discredited proposal.

In a David v Goliath struggle, residents and neighbours of the City of London Corporation’s Sydenham Hill Estate have spent more than three years and £40,000 of their hard-earned money fighting their landlord’s plans for a massive development on one of the most cherished and prominent parts of South East London. Friendly persuasion had failed when the Corporation refused to engage with residents on a design that worked for all, instead steaming ahead with plans for a mammoth development that led to the forced removal of dozens of elderly residents from their homes and that will prove devastating for remaining and future communities.

Last year, a Lewisham Planning Committee approved the Corporation’s planning application driving residents, including many social housing tenants, to raise money to drag Council Planners before the High Court.

But despite a Court Judgment that saw its grant of planning permission quashed, Lewisham Planners were determined to save face by rushing the self-same planning application back before a Planning Committee that included some of the same Councillors who had made the earlier, now legally discredited, decision.

Ignoring High Court Judge Mrs Justice Lang’s recommendation that Lewisham Planners ought to urge the City of London Corporation to “re-consider the height and scale of the proposed development, and submit a more acceptable proposal”, Lewisham’s Strategic Planning Committee, defying pleas from local MPs and the community for postponement and meaningful consultation, by a 5-1 vote again approved the same plan for the massive development on Sydenham Hill.

The controversial Mais House planning application is on one of the highest points in South London. It will tower over neighbouring Grade II Listed Lammas Green and, breaking the treeline, will be visible across London.

Residents were shocked when, despite the High Court ruling, Lewisham Planners suddenly announced on 17 June that the existing proposal would be presented unchanged for determination by its Strategic Planning Committee on 29 June. Lewisham and the City of London Corporation have been resolute in not discussing amending the scheme with residents and instead rushed the unaltered proposal back to the Planning Committee at such short notice that the community reeled at the prospect of having to wade through an additional 40 complex documents and a 250 page Case Officer report released just a few days before the Committee met, only to be faced with yet another Addendum Report published on the very day the Committee met.

Nevertheless, despite the extreme short notice, more than 240 people objected to the proposal and there was only one letter of support. Local MPs Helen Hayes and Shadow Attorney General Ellie Reeves both sent strong letters urging Lewisham to refuse the application and work with residents on a less damaging design.

In her letter Ms Reeves asked Lewisham to: “…reject any decision in relation to Mais House until planning Officers have worked with the local community to find a solution that addresses their concerns.”

Lewisham Council’s own consultees also objected to the scheme. The Conservation and Tree Officers established the level of harm to the natural and built environment. Its independent Design Review Panel, a group of professional design experts recruited by Lewisham to serve as an advisory body, are not happy with the scheme and have made a number of recommendations.

Lewisham Council ignored them all.

Despite the Mais House campaign’s support for new social housing in a more acceptable design on the site, the Committee has now ruled that housing need outweighs the multiple harms to the environment to which the council’s own conservation officer and design panel had objected.

Campaigners had sincerely hoped that the City of London Corporation would work collaboratively with them to produce a sustainable co-design scheme for the Estate that respects the existing community, the environment and the heritage, as well as providing high quality, sustainable homes for new residents that will last well into the future.

We are very sad that Lewisham would not act on the specialist advice they sought and were given and we feel that Council Officers and our elected representatives treated this process as a mere seen to be done, “tick box” exercise. It was unfair that we were ambushed with so many complex documents – some of which should have been published over a year earlier – at almost literally the 11th hour.

BACKGROUND:

Following the first Judicial Review into how Lewisham handled its earlier attempt to drive the scheme through, Mrs Justice Lang had on 18 May 2021 quashed the Council’s first grant of planning permission, stating that:

“Given the number of significant errors made by the Council, and the possibility that, absent such errors, a different conclusion could have been reached by the Planning Committee, I consider that the decision to grant planning permission ought to be quashed.”

In her Judgment, Mrs Justice Lang also pointed out that:

“156. In my view, the submissions of the IP [Interested Party: that is the applicant, the City of London Corporation] lost sight of the fact that, in the main, the objectors were not opposed to the redevelopment of the Site in order to upgrade the existing social housing and increase the number of residential units. The Claimant’s objection related to the inappropriate height and scale of the new buildings, which would harm the setting of the Grade II Listed buildings and the Conservation Area. 157. In my judgment, if the legal errors which I have identified above had not occurred, it is possible that the Members would have concluded that the IP ought to re-consider the height and scale of the proposed development, and submit a more acceptable proposal.”

• Friends of Mais House is a community group, formed by residents and neighbours of the City of London Corporation’s Sydenham Hill Estate as a result of their frustration at the failure of the City and Lewisham to listen to concerns about plans for a massive redevelopment of the Estate.

• In November 2020, Lewisham Council granted planning permission for the development of 110 units on the Corporation of the City of London’s Sydenham Hill Estate, with the resulting loss of 63 sheltered homes at Mais House.

• On 11 February Mrs Justice Lang gave the go ahead for a Judicial Review into the way Lewisham Council handled the planning application.

• In her Order of 11 February, Mrs Justice Lang said: ‘In my view, the Claimant’s grounds are arguable and merit consideration at a full hearing’.

• Lawyers [Susan Ring of Harrison Grant Solicitors & Richard Harwood QC] are acting on behalf of a member of the Friends of Mais House.

• The High Court Judicial Review hearing took place before Mrs Justice Lang on 27-28 April and estate residents and neighbours worked together to raise funds for the legal challenge.

• Mrs Justice Lang handed down her Judgment on 18 May 2021. She quashed the grant of planning permission on four Grounds:

• Failure to give great weight to harm to heritage assets and failure consider extent of less than substantial harm as required by the Planning Policy Guidance.

• Failure to take into account the Conservation Officer’s advice

• Failure to make background papers available

• Failure to ask the Design Review Panel to consider the planning application in breach of legitimate expectation.

• On Thursday 17 June 2021, the community learnt that Lewisham were returning the very same planning application to a Planning Committee on Tuesday 29 June.

• Tues 29 June 2021: by a 5:1 vote Lewisham’s Strategic Planning Committee, Chaired by Cllr John Paschoud, elected to approve the City of London’s planning application. The application was unchanged.

• 18 August 2021: Lewisham Council publishes grant of permission for the development.

• Residents said: “We fully support a redevelopment providing 100% social housing. However, the density of this proposal is disproportionate. It is set to hugely compromise the lives of both tenants and the environment.”

• In exchange for the grant of planning permission, Lewisham Council will be allocated 50% of the new units. Yet the much needed sheltered housing will not be replaced and communal green space and amenity areas will be lost, along with many much loved trees.

• The loss of 63 sheltered housing flats means that the net gain from this development is 47 residential units. Tenancies will be allocated 50:50 between Lewisham and the City of London housing waiting lists.

• There is no safe disabled access route to the 11 family houses, making them unsuitable for wheelchair users.

• 10% of the flats will be wheelchair accessible, although Lewisham’s Design Review Panel challenged the ground floor apartments which open directly onto the public open space which have no apparent defensible zone. All have bedrooms facing directly onto it which raises concerns of privacy. Campaigners find this worrying if these flats are the ones to be allocated to disabled residents who may potentially be especially vulnerable.

• Standing at the top of Sydenham Hill Ridge, one of the highest points in South London, low rise Mais House will be replaced with a group of blocks up to eight storeys in height, breaking the tree line for the first time and visible across London.

There is a strong sense of injustice about how the development consultation was carried out. Some of the issues consistently raised were:

• Unprecedented density in a suburban location with poor infrastructure and transport links at the top of a hill

• Incongruous design - overbearing and intrusive

• Disregard for the Area of Special Character along Sydenham Ridge and impact on setting of Heritage assets

• Negative impact on biodiversity in a nature corridor, loss of 19 mature trees and severe damage to several more excellent specimens.

• Loss of play space for children

• Displacement of Mais House residents, lack of specialist assisted living and limited accessible homes

• Sydenham Woods wouldn't be there if local residents hadn't campaigned for it back in the 1980s - Southwark council wanted to build on it.

The Friends are asking for contributions to their legal fund here:

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/friendsofmaishouse/