From early 2022 onwards, Lambeth Conservatives have consistently opposed what in March this year became Labour-approved proposals for redeveloping the Homebase site on Greyhound Lane opposite Streatham Common station to contain a 4-block development, of which one block will be 14 storeys high.
All of our candidates who have stood for election locally over the past two and a half years have taken a stand with our local community against the development, namely our 3 candidates in Streatham & Common Vale ward in the May 2022 local elections, Charley Jarrett, Chris Palin and Promise Phillips, our candidates in the 2 subsequent by-elections held in each of May and July this year, Promise Phillips and Lachlan Rurlander, alongside our Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Streatham & Croydon North constituency in this year’s 4th July general election, Anthony Boutall.
In the first Streatham Common & Vale ward by-election on 2nd May following on from the decision taken in March by the Labour-dominated Planning Committee on Lambeth Council to approve the development, we were quick to support pushing for a judicial review of that decision, if Sadiq Khan would refuse to come to the support of our local community.
In October, our neighbouring elected Conservative London Assembly Member for Croydon & Sutton and Leader of the Conservative Group on the London Assembly, Neil Garratt, alongside Neil Salt, in his capacity as Constituency Officer for Streatham & Croydon North Conservatives, lobbied the London Assembly’s Deputy Mayor for Planning, Jules Pipe, via emailed letters - copies of those letters are attached alongside this article - to urge Sadiq Khan to utilise his powers to override Lambeth’s Labour-led planning committee. The Mayor chose not to utilise those powers.
All of us as local Conservatives who have stood up in opposition to this development have consistently made clear that we aren’t opposed to new homes here – we absolutely need them – but a 14-storey tower as part of a 4-block development on that Homebase site is so out of keeping with the area as to be totally unacceptable.
We shall continue the fight against the 14-storey tower. Several of us locally have put our money where our mouths are by having donated towards Crowdfunding for seeking legal advice from a barrister as to whether or not they perceive that there may now be a case to be made in the High Court against Lambeth Council for potentially having failed to comply with its own existing rules during the recent approval process and not least in that regard from the perspective of the development breaching the Lambeth Local Plan. The generosity of many people locally – drawn mainly from the Woodgate Tower Protest Group – ensured that the requisite £2,400 for seeking this initial legal advice was secured.
Only time will tell over the weeks ahead as to whether or not the appointed barrister’s recommendation will be to push for a full judicial review to be sought in relation to the planning decision, on the grounds of any perceived strong case to be made. If that transpires then a further round of much enhanced Crowdfunding – from the prior amount raised – will be required to be secured. Please watch this space for further updates.