The decision comes 11 months after the developer, Client Healey Development Solutions (Broadway), lost an appeal against rejecting an earlier offer for the site.
In November, 3DReid submitted its revised plans to Modify vacant modernity parametersConverting offices into apartments and adding two new residential towers.
These designs He sought to address the criticisms Developed by the Planning Inspector in June 2022 when Rejection of developers’ appeal On refusing its initial submission. The inspector ruled that the loss of office space was unjustified, and that the design lacked aesthetics or a “strong sense of place”.
3DReid’s resubmitted proposals retained key aspects of this rejected scheme, including the renovation of the Seifert Tower and the demolition of the existing shops to make way for the two new towers. The revised plans included a slightly smaller number of flats – reduced from 499 to 492 – with the total office space significantly increased from 529 square metres, to 1,473 square metres.
The revised plan also included a site-wide energy strategy, which the planning authority said was lacking in the previous version. Air source heat pumps and solar panels are integrated to help achieve net zero goals.
3DReid also changed the elevation design to “complement the original Tolworth Tower design”, which planning inspectors confirmed had a “significant positive impact on the proposal”.
But Kingston Council again blocked the proposal, citing 11 reasons including “poor layout” and landscaping, failure to justify a “significant loss of working space”, and failure to “clearly maximize” affordable housing on the site.
The other main reason given is the proposal’s failure to deliver a ‘robust’ fire strategy that meets the requirements of the London 2021 Plan.
Kingston Council confirmed that the decision had been delegated to a council planning officer and had not been put up for a vote on the planning committee.
Of the 75 neighbors who contributed to the council’s consultation process, 66 opposed the plans while only four supported them.
The latest designs for the remodel of the 1960s landmark, which stands next to the A3 dual carriageway at Tolworth, are the fourth set to be submitted for planning approval since 2015, and the second set of designs by 3DReid. The first proposals for the practice were rejected in May 2021, and The appeal was rejected last summer.
Kingston Council rejected the first scheme on 10 grounds, including a lack of affordable housing (50 out of 499 homes), and a failure to demonstrate a lack of demand for the 22-storey building for use as offices.
Although the Planning Inspectorate found that the number of affordable homes was “adequate” when the scheme resumed, the inspector determined that the proposed loss of working space (from 19,080 square meters of office space to 529 square meters of flexible work space) was not ” strongly justified.
The inspector’s report also found that the scheme failed to meet policy requirements for net zero carbon, and criticized the scheme’s design, stating that besides the ‘iconic’ existing tower, the two new towers lacked ‘any particularly distinctive features to clearly distinguish them from any high-rise building’ last “.
The report stated: “Accumulated damage.” […] It will significantly and clearly outweigh the benefits of the proposal.
3DReid and Healey Development Solutions (Broadway) declined to comment on the latest refusal.
The Seifert Tower has been empty since March 2019. 3DReid has previously said that the number of office tenants is declining due to the building’s “unsuitability for contemporary office requirements”.
The practice said that modifying the tower would save about 5,800 tons of embodied carbon by maintaining the original structural framework.