A local activist today launched his high court bid to block current redevelopment plans for the Shell Centre on London’s South Bank, approved by the communities secretary in June.
George Turner is seeking to quash the planning permission for the scheme put forward by Shell International and Braeburn Estates, a developer jointly owned by Canary Wharf Group and Qatari Diar.
The multi-million-pound project involves partial demolition of the Shell Centre and redevelopment with eight blocks arranged around the retained Shell Tower, ranging in height from five to 37 storeys.
It would provide 2.3m sq ft of floorspace comprising offices, retail and leisure uses as well as up to 877 flats. The retained tower would be subject to external alterations to integrate it into the scheme.
However, opening his challenge in person at the high court, Turner said that the permission raised four main issues: “economic viability, procedural impropriety, open spaces and heritage issues”.
He said that it was difficult to overestimate the importance of the economic viability issue, arguing that the London borough of Lambeth’s local development framework sets a requirement of 40% affordable housing on-site save for in exceptional circumstances.
This scheme, he said, would provide only 10% affordable housing on-site, with a further 10% off-site and the possibility of further funding to the council in the event that certain levels of profitability are met.
He argued that the developer claimed that this was the only way the scheme could be achieved, and that it also used the viability argument to justify the departure from certain design standards and damage to amenities of neighbouring residents.
However, he said that when the communities secretary called in the matter, Lambeth failed to pass on an economic viability assessment provided by the developer, or provide any other documents assessing viability. Despite requests from objectors during the inquiry process for it to be provided, he argued that the communities secretary and his inspector, on whose recommendation permission was granted, had relied on the conclusions of a viability assessment which neither had seen.
In Turner’s written arguments, he claimed that the developers had received two sets of estimated values for its Shell Centre scheme, but had not disclosed one of them which assessed its worth “significantly higher”, improving the total value by “over £300,000,000”.
The decision is being defended by lawyers for the communities secretary, the mayor of London, Lambeth, and Braeburn Estates. The hearing is scheduled to last two days, after which Justice Collins is expected to reserve his judgment.
