Homes and offices could be built above petrol stations if plans by Texaco get the go-ahead.
Ridgewood Investments, which is managing the programme for the petrol retailer, hopes to build two blocks of 27 and 12 storeys above a station on Albert Embankment by the Thames, in London, to provide 130 flats.
It is also looking to build a six-storey development made up mostly of offices and with 14 flats above a station in Clerkenwell, in the capital, and a five-storey building of 51 flats in Crouch End.
The development could be made possible by a change in Government policy to shift housing construction from greenfield sites in the country to brownfield urban sites.
Safety concerns have to date meant that such developments have not taken place. Texaco said that it could not comment on a claim that it planned to develop all 150 filling stations in this way.
Financial Times 30/01/02 page 4
