Proposal To Increase Height of Friary Park Scheme Ditched
Campaigners praise community response as high towers abandoned
CGI from the developer of the new bigger towers planned at Friary Place
Local campaigners are celebrating after developers building the major development around Friary Park in Acton announced they were not proceeding with a plan to significantly raise the height of the project.
The scheme, which is a joint venture between Mount Anvil and Catalyst, already has approval for part of the development but they wanted to increase the height of two of the towers to 37 and 29 storeys. The argument was made that the extension was needed to ensure the profitability of the scheme.
Over a thousand objections were made to the proposal during the consultation, with locally based TV presenter Sean Fletcher prominent among the opponents of the scheme.
Cap The Towers: Acton, a group that was campaigning against the proposal responded to the news by saying, “This is a massive victory for our community, and a time to celebrate. Catalyst and Mount Anvil thought they could increase their greedy development at Friary Park to boost their profits, firstly by attempting to raise the tower heights without consulting local people, and secondly through the official consultation process which is weighted heavily in their favour. But you, the people of Acton, stood up to the greed and said enough is enough. It's a great example of how people working together can stand up to big corporations. Well done everyone. Together we are stronger.”
Towards the end of last year the group had predicted that the scheme was doomed to fail because the extra height of the towers required common land to be used as amenity space for residents of the development.
Sean Fletcher stands on Friars Place Green
The original plan which had a maximum height of 24 storeys has already been granted planning permission and Cap The Towers are warning that the developers may seek new ways to increase the density of the scheme.
It says, “It’s not over yet. The greedy developers remain determined to make more money at the expense of our community, by working on new proposals to cram in over a hundred further flats at Friary Park, none of which are social housing. We think they plan to do this by raising the height of comparatively smaller buildings e.g. 10 storey blocks going to 14 storeys etc. Cap The Towers is attempting to get clarification from the developers of their plans. We will keep you posted.”
The development near Acton Mainline Station could provide over 900 flats in the area when complete.
Marcus Bate, Partnerships and Communities Director at Mount Anvil, said “Our business is built on collaboration and listening. We’ve listened to concerns about the proposed increase in height to the four tallest buildings at Friary Park and we are collaborating closely with Ealing’s planners to find a better solution which achieves the same community benefits. We will ensure the revised design will retain all of the outside space and amenity improvements which we’d promised to residents, whilst maximising affordable housing delivery and not compromising on the design quality of the new buildings. Our new proposals will help deliver an outstanding healthy working community at Friary Park.”
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
January 27, 2022