Harrow planners accused of cop-out

May 21 2009 By Ian Proctor, Harrow Observer

College Road, Harrow

A DECISION whether to approve plans for three residential towers on the site of Harrow's former main post office has been deferred.

Harrow Council's planning committee met last Wednesday evening to debate the scheme, submitted by Dandara for the College Road site, but ended up postponing the case by a majority vote.

The authority's chief planning officer had advised - somewhat out of the blue - that it would be beneficial for committee members to visit some of the borough's vantage points to consider the effect of the towers on the skyline.

Committee chairwoman Councillor Marilyn Ashton (Conservative) said: "It may be useful for us because we know where the site is but we're not sure what impact it's going to have.

"I think that with something as significant as this, it must be worth a month's delay and a few hours on a Saturday morning, with professional advice, to stand there and look at the various vantage points so that we can satisfy ourselves that policy D31 is not compromised."

Dandara's proposal comprises the demolition of the vacant former post office building to make way for three towers containing 410 flats, 1,120 sq metres of retail and entertainment premises with a neighbourhood police office, a public square and a pedestrian bridge over the railway line.

Planning officers had presented the committee with two recommendations, one being for approval.

The other was for refusal on the grounds that granting permission may be 'premature', given that projects for other town centre sites had fallen through and that the planning brief for the area will have to be rewritten.

The report said that the developer's liability for financial contributions to the council may not be enough on its own to produce the kind of transformation to the town centre that the council originally sought.

After the meeting, Dandara's group property director, Andrew Wagstaff, said: "We support the delay. It's important that the committee properly considers all the aspects of the site before they come to their decision.

"The recommendation for approval is extremely strong. It supports all aspects of the scheme.

"We don't support the recommendation of 'prematurity' because we have been in discussion with them for five years and carried out joint masterplan studies with them and the first we knew about this concern was 10 days ago when the draft committee report came out."

Navin Shah, Labour councillor and London Assembly member for Harrow and Brent, commented: "What a fiasco. The planning committee has once again proved to be a complete shambles.

"A site visit for this strategic project of a huge magnitude is vital but why has it taken months - nearly a year since the application was submitted - for the chairwoman and officers to realise that the committee would benefit from a site visit?

"The last-minute decision for this was greeted with disbelief, cries of a 'cop-out' and 'shambles', and I can understand why."

'Flats are not what is needed'