A campaign group opposed to British Land’s development of Canada Water, SE16, have failed to bring a legal challenge to the development.
A group of local residents and stakeholders had been seeking a judicial review of the development using specialist environmental, planning and public law firm Richard Buxton Solicitors. The group calls itself the “Canada Water Master Plan Challenge”.
Following a hearing last week, a High Court judge refused the group permission to bring the case.
The campaigners say that “while we are not completely opposed” to British Land’s plans, they “strongly believe that the plan, as approved by Southwark Council in October 2019 is seriously deficient in four major areas.”
They argue that it segregates local housing from private housing, and puts the social housing outside the main development, furthest away from the shopping areas and transport links, which is in conflict with the mayor of London’s London Plan.
They also say it will put “an impossible strain” on local public transport, which is already running at capacity.
They also say the plan is “gross overdevelopment”. The seven towers in the centre are “each far taller than Canada Water bus station” and an area marked for 28 flats in a local plan is to have 79 flats built.
They also say it will have “a grievous impact on residential and other neighbours”. They say that the shading impact on other residential blocks has not been properly considered, and there has not been a full environmental impact assessment relating to a local nature reserve.
However, a High Court judge last week found that Southwark Council did give the plan sufficient legal consideration.
The campaign group said in a statement that it and its lawyers disagree with some of the judge’s interpretation of policy.
“Disappointingly, this means that our only route to take the case forward is an appeal to the Court of Appeal. We are evaluating with our legal team whether this is a sensible option and will provide an update soon,” the statement said.
The £3.3bn, 53-acre scheme will deliver more than 7m sq ft over a range of uses, including a minimum of 2,000 homes, of which 35% will be affordable. The £700m first phase, for which detailed planning was achieved along with the outline masterplan, will include 265 new homes across a variety of tenures, 20,645 sq ft of retail space, 409,975 sq ft of workspace and a new leisure centre, in buildings of up to 35 storeys.
When Southwark Council gave British Land the green light a year ago it had also received objections from landlord Canary Wharf Group.
CWG had called for the application to be refused or deferred until British Land had committed to contributing £200m to the Jubilee Line, arguing that the development would cause greater congestion on the route.
A spokesperson for British Land, said: “We welcome the decision of the High Court. We will now continue to work with Southwark Council and other local partners to deliver the Canada Water masterplan which will support around 20,000 jobs and provide 3,000 new homes, at least 35% of which will be affordable.”
Image © British Land
