This planning application has been with Kensington and Chelsea Council since October 2023. Negotiations continue between the developers and council officers.

The details of the proposals remain on the Project Flourish consultation website. The RBKC online planning file for this application PP/23/06575 now publishes over 4,300 documents. These include a set of revised application, on which a re-consultation was held in April/May 2023-5. The remainder are representations for and against the proposals.

Our Forum has submitted a second objection. This flags up the fact the GLA officers see regeneration of the Kensal Canalside Opportunity Area as being reliant on additional bridges to overcome the problem of an ‘island’ site with a single point of access/egress on Ladbroke Grove.

The GLA has prepared ‘pen portraits’ of all 47 Opportunity Areas in London. These form part of the recent consultation on Towards a London Plan. They explain the main features of each OA and end with a ‘proposition’ on categorisation within the next London Plan.

For Kensal Canalside, no change from the 2021 London Plan status of ‘nascent’ is proposed. This Opportunity Area is not seen as being ‘ready to grow’ or ‘underway’ without the necessary public transport infrastructure.

Our second objection can be read or downloaded below. This site remains unsuitable for high density housing until these basic infrastructure issues are resolved.

Kensington and Bayswater MP Joe Powell has set out four ‘tests’ which he considers that the planning application will need to meet, before he can give his support as the local MP. These are as follows:

1. There must be a significant quantity of social and genuinely affordable housing. The current proposal of approximately 20% affordable housing, of which two-thirds will be for social rent, is simply not good enough. In addition, I do not think lessons are being learned from other major developments across London where large quantities of new build flats are sold off-plan overseas before local people get a look in. I want guarantees that this will not happen in this case.
2. There must be a serious plan for transport connections to the site. As it stands, the risk is the site becomes a giant cul-de-sac with no infrastructure to create new connection points other than onto Ladbroke Grove. Initially two bridges were promised, one North to Kensal Cemetery and one south across the mainline railway. As it stands it is not clear either will happen. In addition, the potential for a proper Westward connection to the new Old Oak Common station should be given more consideration. Clearly, it would be nonsensical to not link up these two major development sites.
3. Community infrastructure needs to be guaranteed. Some of the most effective charities in North Kensington are currently based on the site, and the additional population will need community spaces – not just commercial. I know how much of a pressure is already on our community spaces so this development must provide the outdoor space, buildings, healthcare provision and other amenities everyone can use. Of course, with many our schools seriously struggling from low enrolment it’s also vital enough family-sized housing is provided for so that our local schools get a boost too.
4. Public health must be independently protected. Building in our part of London inevitably means using brownfield sites, and as in this case they often require remediation work. I believe we must make use of brownfield sites for housing but it must also be done safely. Therefore I am calling for independent monitoring of the gasworks remediation including full transparency for residents of data, and regular public meetings where progress will be shared with the community. I know people are concerned about what the remediation work will mean for air quality and pollution. It’s essential that those concerns are taken seriously.

Kensington and Chelsea Council faces a difficult decision, give the enormous number of objections to thsi planning application. And the prospects of local elections in May 2026 does not make things any easier.

Initial consultation by the Mayor of London and GLA on the next London Plan ended on June 22nd. The publication Towards a London Plan offered Londoners to comment via a survey and questions on all the main policy areas to be covered.

A ‘call for evidence’ invited more detailed responses. This exercise began back in 2022, as part of the Planning for London programme of workshops and seminars.

The StQW Neighbourhood Forum has worked closely with the Old Oak Neighbourhood Forum over the past decade, in tracking the progress of Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation. We made joint comments at all the stages of preparation of the OPDC 2022 Local Plan, and have responded to applications for individual developments on the eastern side of the OPDC area, in Scrubs Lane NW10.

It has been a difficult decade for the OPDC. Having submitted for Examination a Draft Local Plan in 2018, the Planning Inspector concluded that OPDC proposals for the 45 acre Cargiant landholding were not viable, and must be withdrawn from the Draft Plan. OPDC then switched its focus to the landholdings owned by the Department for Transport and in use as HS2 construction compounds, in East Acton.

OPDC has since acquired more sites and has assembled a substantial portfolio of development land, to the west of Old Oak Common station (under construction). These sites are shown below:i

At the very moment in 2025 when OPDC is poised to publish its ‘masterplan’ for this area, and is seeking a ‘master developer’ for a long-term partnership or joint venture, the Secretary of State has announced yet further delays to the HS2 project. Deemed an ‘absolute mess’ by Heidi Alexander, it will be late 2025 or early 2026 before a ‘comprehensive rest’ of the HS2 project is concluded. Meanwhile no firm end date or revised budget can be provided for completing the HS2 project. £25bn of extra funding has been added to the overall budget, as part of the June Spending Review.

We share the view of the Old Oak Neighbourhood Forum that now may no be a good time for OPDC to enter into agreements with a master developer (or developers). The lack of clarity over the opening of Old Oak Common station adds risks for developers. As does the lack of an updated OPDC Strategic Transport Study, and any forecasts of passenger numbers wishing to use a Birmingham to Old Oak HS2 line.

What happens if developers exploit these uncertainties in the agreements reached with OPDC? Is the Development Coporation vulnerable to the same commercial behaviours within the supply chain which have left the original HS2 budget in tatters?

The joint OONF and StQW submission of evidence to the GLA can be read and downloaded below.

A previous post last December gave details of this proposed redevelopment of a further light industrial unit on the west side of Latimer Road. Our detailed objection letter (as a draft) was included in the post and was submitted to RBKC at that time.

The application is on the agenda for the Council’s Planning Committee on May 1st with a recommendation from officers to grant consent. For a series of reasons, we don’t consider that the proposals should be approved in its present form. These reasons include the buildings height at five storeys, along with its architectural design – which we consider to be ‘out of character’ with the rest of the street and the rest of the neighbiourhood.

Meanwhile construction on the planned development next door at Unit 10 (granted consent in December 2023) has not started. Instead the building is being marketed by Savills as a ‘development opportunity’. With its planning consent, the ‘guide price’ is £4,5m.

We believe that the prices being asked for Units 1-14, in the current London market, are over optimistic. In the near decade since the StQW Neighbourhood Plan opened up the possibility of new residential units being built above commercial space in Latimer Road, only Unit 1 has been successfully developed. Financial viability for development in the street is very marginal, The Employment Zone sections of the street still offer poor access to public transport and little by way of amenities for employees.

The Council’s Design Code for Units 1-14 introduced a set of requirements limiting the amount of commercial floorspace that can be provided at ground floor level. The StQW Policy LR5 is intended to limit heights to four storeys. RBKC already apply this flexibly. allowing a fifth floor if ‘set back’ and subject to an acceptable daylight/sunlight study (to the dismay of many residents in the street). Even so, the fact that the approved Unit 10 proposals are not being built sends a message.

Unit 9 was designed to match the height and general ‘massing’ of Unit 10, on a smaller plot. We have asked the Planning Committee to defer a decision, should councillors be minded to grant consent on Thursday. We argue that there could be a way forward for revised schemes to be built at four storeys on the plots at Unit 9 and Unit 10, if the Council were willing to be flexible on floorspace policies and design code ‘guidance’.

A cycle in which sites and planning consent are sold on to new owners, who then come up against the same viability constraints, is not going to bring re-investment to Latimer Road. There is a risk of site values becoming further inflated, adding to total costs which developers have to recoup via yet more building height. Construction by Imperial College of its underpass project will improve the connectivity of Latimer Road but the impact is hard to forecast. Much else is happening to bring investment to the White City ‘Innovation District’ on the LBHF side of the railway line.

We have suggested to the Council that the Unit 9 proposals and the planning application for the underpass should be discussed at the same committee meeting – preferably with a site visit beforehand at which councillors can hear from businesses and residents in the street as well as from the StQW Forum’s committee members. The decision on this application will now set a precedent for the street, given that different proposals may emerge for Unit 10.

A copy of our latest letter to the Council (a long read) can be downloaded below:

This project dates back to a S106 planning obligation entered into by the College and LB Hammersmith & Fulham in 2013. Construction of a pedestrian/cycle underpass beneath the West London Line (Mildmay Line) has long been part of the Transport strategies of both RBKC and LBHF.

Negotiations between all the parties involved have been ongoing for over a decade. Finally the stage has been reached of planning applications from the College being considered and decided by both Boroughs. If planning consent is granted, there are some legal agreements yet to be entered into before construction work on the underpass can start,

During the period since the project was first conceived, ‘cycling’ in London has changed significantly. TfL continue to install cycleways and Latimer Road forms part of C27 (originally a ‘Quietway’). The biggest change has been the arrival across London of dockless e-bikes, travelling at speeds up to 15mph (in theory). Private e-bikes and e-scooters, and commercial delivery bikes, scooters, and cargo bikes have added to the risks experienced by pedestrians. London now has a real problem of cyclists ignoring th Highway Code, riding on pavements, and ignoring signs and traffic lights.

The StQW Forum has long supported the Imperial underpass project, as significantly improving levels of access to public transport in the neighbourhood – primarily through reduced walking distances for many residents to the Central Line at White City. But we have reservations about the detailed design of the entrance/exit to the underpass at 3120 Latimer Road and the impact on Oxford Gardens.

Our representation on the planning application can be read and downloaded below. We think that the Latimer Road entrance/exit will need staggered steel barriers to reduce speeds of e-bikes and delivery scooters. Steel bollards at 1.5m spacing we do not see as being sufficient to ensure the cyclists will slow down in an underpass that will no have steps or ramps at either end.

Imperial College are confident that they can manage and control cyclist behaviours at the entrance/exits at their ‘northern campus’ through their CCTV system and deployment of security staff.

Plans to re-open the former Ariadne Nektar as The Volunteer are turning into a long-running saga. The building owners Wentworth Andersen were granted a fresh licence by the RBKC Licensing Sub-Committee on August 1st 2024. The refurbished pub was due to open in the first few months of 2025. But the building remains with a hoarding at the front and with works continuing.

Wentworth Andersen have submitted a planning application to install ducting and cooling plant in the newly constructed basement of the building. This application has prompted numerous objections from neighbours. There has been no planning application to convert the original low height cellar, into what is now proposed as a kitchen for the pub and relocated customer toilets.

Similarly there was no planning application to alter the layout of the property, change the staircases and fit out the first floor as a residential flat rather than the previous dining room and kitchen.

The planning issues are complex, in terms of what may need planning consent and what may be ‘permitted development’ or internal works not requiring permission. Hence the StQW Forum has submitted an objection to this latest application, asking that RBKC planning officers provide the Planning Committee with a full report explaining what has been done to the property, and what works remain.

We are disappointed that Wentworth Andersen has not approached the Forum to explain it proposals and provide assurances to neighbours on the impact of ducting and extract works which are not a ‘like for like’ replacement of what was there before. We had one online session with WA’s project manager last year.

The Forum’s aim has always been to support the re-opening of a well-managed family pub that will be an asset to the street and the neighbourhood. We welcomed the condition imposed by RBKC that the pub should provide a food offer, rather than operating as a ‘wet only’ establishment. We hope that The Volunteer will re-open within a few months, and that the owners intentions coincide with what local residents seek as an outcome. A copy of our latest response to the Council, setting out the detail, can be read and downloaded below:

An open meeting of the StQW Forum/St Helens Residents Association held on Monday 9th December 2024 discussed the planning application for this scheme. Forty five members attended including ward councillor Portia Thaxter. We looked in detail at the plans and CGI images of the proposals.

The meeting agreed to a set of grounds for an objection to the application, in its current form. While the Forum continues to support the introduction of mixed use buildings at Units 1-14, these need to take full account of the set of policies for the street that are included in the 2018 version of our neighbourhood plan.

The current proposals from the applicants Rathplace Developments fall short of meeting these policies, and also several RBKC Local Plan requirements (in our view). The three main grounds for an objection that we discussed are:

• Height does not conform with StQW Policy LR5 and should be reduced by one floor.

• Massing and height create a ‘sense of enclosure’ in the street

• Architectural design is out of character with the Oxford Gardens Conservation Area, over-complex and incongruous, and will not harmonise with further developments in this row of light industrial units.  The Design Code ‘elevation principles’ need to be reviewed.

A full and detailed draft objection (warning – 10 pages) has now been prepared and is posted below to give opportunity for comments from all our members. The deadline for representations as shown on the RBKC website is 13th December, but planning officers have accepted that they were very late in adding to their online file important copies of pre-application advice. So we have some more time.

Views and suggestions on this draft objection, from StQW/SHRA members and others are welcome via email to sthelensassn@aol.com. We will need to submit it to RBKC by Monday 16th December.

After our meeting we learned that the developers had raised with the Council in pre-application discussions the possibility of E1 class floorspace on the ground and first floors being granted permission for Live/Work use. This form of planning permission has been resisted by RBKC for many years, because of the perceived risks of misuse as a backdoor means of obtaining residential use of commercial premises.

We think that the Council should be willing to be more open-minded on this issue. Latimer Road has always been a street in which ‘living’ and ‘working’ from the same set of terraced properties featured in its 19th century origins. We hope to persuade RBKC and the developers to discuss possible forms of Live/Work planning consents, including an element of ‘affordable workspace’ coupled with affordable housing. A major benefit could be a reduction in overall floorspace from the present plans, allowing for the removal of one floor and a building height that matches StQW policy for this row of units.

CGI image of Unit 9 proposals, with CGI of Unit 10 (consented July 2024) on the right

The former Ariadne Nektar Bar at 274 Latimer Road closed its doors a couple of years ago, after its licence was withdrawn by Kensington and Chelsea Council. The building was acquired in May 2023 by local developers and property agents Wentworth Andersen.

Since then various internal and external works have been carried out to the property. The building is a 19th century purpose-built public house, on three floors. Earlier this year Wentworth Andersen applied for a premises licence. Following a hearing on August 1st 2024 the Council’s LIcensing Sub-Committee has granted a licence, including a series of conditions on the operation of the new pub.

The pub was called the British Volunteer in a previous incarnation, and is due to re-open as The Volunteer early in 2025.

The StQW Neighbourhood Forum has long supported the case for retaining as a pub this last set of previously licensed premises in the neighbourhood (the Pavilion in Wood Lane being the nearest pub in the wider area). The Forum applied successfully for the property at 274 to be registered as an Asset of Community Value.

We were disappointed that the licence application and proposals from Wentworth Andersen were for a ‘wet-only’ pub with a reduced licensed floor area, removing the first floor dining area. Our greatest fear has been that these owners may open a pub for a few months and then argue that the business is not financially viable. The could pave the way to a planning application for change of use of the property to residential flats or a ‘family house’. This route was attempted by previous applicants at No.274 back in 2012, and has been the fate of many pubs across the country and in the Borough.

At the licence hearing, Wentworth Andersen and their agents and solicitors gave assurances that their pub proposal is is business venture that aims to succeed rather than to fail. They say they will select a suitable management company to run the pub. A kitchen is to be installed in the former cellar/basement (for which no planning application has yet been submitted).

The presence (or absence) of a resident landlord, using the ‘ancillary’ accommodation on the second floor, remains an open question at present. We continue to see the presence of a landlord onsite as important to a well managed pub operation. There is the original second floor flat available for this purpose. To date, both the first and second floors have been fitted out as flats. These are not yet let commercially, as there is no planning permission for C3 residential use other than ancillary to a pub.

The licence conditions are detailed. They include a series of requirements designed to avoid risks of noise and nuisance for neighbours. We welcome the fact that the Sub-Committee chose to add a further condition, requiring the pub to provide a ‘substantial food offer’ alongside serving alcohol. In our written representations to the Council and at the licence hearing, we argued that a pub serving food is much needed in a neighbourhood with little choice of places to eat out. A pub that attracts a regular customer base of local residents and their families we see as being more likely to succeed financially.

For those who wish to see the ‘full reasoned decision’ of the Licensing Sub-Committee and the details of opening hours and conditions under which the pub will be required to operate, these can be read and downloaded below.

This newsletter for January 2024 gives useful information on crime and antisocial behaviour in Dalgarno ward. We have asked the Safer Neighbourhood Unit if there is an equivalent newsletter for St Helens ward.

Signs of the times are that the newsletter says that the Police response to shoplifting is now that ‘an ASB warning will be issued’. StQW was successful in obtaining NCIL funding from RBKC for a third CCTV camera in North Pole Road. Tesco North Pole has had to introduce new security screens and anti-theft protection for its more expensive meat items.

These proposals for a major development at the Kensal Canalside Opportunity Area were submitted to Kensington and Chelsea Council in October 2023. The public consultation period advertised by the Council runs until January 12th 2024.

The application will remain ‘under consideration’ by the Council for many further months and possibly until late in 2024. There remain issues to be resolved with the applicants. The Council needs its Draft New Local Plan to be adopted and in force before deciding the application, if it wishes to avoid potential policy conflicts with the current 2019 Local Plan.

There will be a further stage of public consultation on ‘Major Modifications’ to the New Draft Local Plan, before this updated version can be adopted,

Meanwhile several hundred responses have been submitted on the Ballymore/Sainsburys application. Many are very brief comments supporting the proposals on the basis that Kensington needs to see more homes being built. The applicants have used two PR firms to collect such responses from shoppers at the existing Sainsburys store, and from door-knocking in the surrounding area.

Responses from local community organisations and amenity groups in the area, and from many individual residents, object to the application. Objections relate to the high housing density of the proposals, the insufficient public open space, building heights up to 29 storeys, and the impact on traffic in Ladbroke Grove. The housing numbers involved (at 2,516 units on this part of Opportunity Area) are near double what the Council envisaged back when it consulted on options in 2012.

Previous ‘development capacities’ for this site assumed a new Crossrail/Elizabeth Line station at the heart of this development. The Council and the developers have now accepted that there is no prospect of this happening, within the 2022-2042 period of the New Local Plan. Levels of access to public transport will remain low for a site in inner London. Ladbroke Grove will be the nearest Underground station, a 16 minute walk from the new development.

For these and other reasons, the StQW Forum and St Helens Residents Association are submitting an objection to this application. A final draft of our objection letter is below. This will be submitted on January 12th subject to any last minute edits or additions.

Our forum was first designated by RB Kensington and Chelsea in 2013. Designation under the 2011 Localism Act last for 5 years at a time. We applied successfully for ‘redesignation’ in 2018 and applied a second time to the Council in mid 2023.

RBKC consulted on our application from late August 2023 until October 6th. A total of 75 representations were received. Of these 72 supported the redesignation.

The Council has now formally confirmed the decision to redesignate via a ‘Key Decision’.

The documents involved can be downloaded below. We are grateful for the support shown by our members and other in the neighbourhood.

The Forum is now embarking on a review and update of our neighbourhood plan, which was adopted by RBKC as part of the development plan for the Borough in 2018.