Boris Johnson’s planning officials have advised him to reject plans for an £800m high-rise redevelopment project planned for a vast derelict site on the edge of the City of London.
The mayor of London’s staff at the Greater London Authority said in a report released on Friday evening that the Bishopsgate Goodsyard proposal was “unacceptable”.
“The density, height, massing and layout of the scheme are not appropriate for this site.”
The scheme, located just to the south east of the City, is controversial not only due to the scale of the planned development, but also because only 10 per cent of the homes would be classed as “affordable”.
Mr Johnson took over responsibility for deciding whether the proposal could be built after the site’s developers complained that local councils were taking too long to decide. The mayor of London has the power to overrule local councils with reference to strategic needs of the whole city.
Hackney, one of two boroughs which would be home to the site, had taken the unusual step of rejecting the planning application after the power to do so had been taken away from it by the mayor, commissioning its own proposals for the site, and launching a doom-laden billboard campaign against the plans entitled “a dark future for Shoreditch”.
Jules Pipe, the mayor of Hackney, said earlier this year that “the Mayor of London should reject this shoddy application”.
Mr Johnson is due to decide whether to approve the Bishopsgate Goodsyard plans on Monday, April 18.
The project comprises more than 1,450 new homes, 600,000 sq ft of office space and 5½ acres of new “public realm”, including a raised park, as well as other facilities on a 10-acre site. Hammerson and Ballymore Group, the developers, says the project will also create around 5,000 jobs. Construction would happen in phases and would not be complete until after 2030.
A spokesperson for Hammerson and Ballymore said: “We are disappointed that the Greater London Authority’s report has recommended the scheme for refusal. The Goodsyard is one of central London’s most important strategic sites which we believe will contribute to the long term growth and success of London.”
The GLA report said that if Mr Johnson ignores its recommendations and approves the scheme anyway, he should require 25 per cent of the homes to be affordable, and seek a cash payment of £22m for the local council to build affordable housing somewhere else.