Redbridge residents have criticised the approval of a nine-home development after councillors narrowly backed the plans in a meeting on Wednesday.
The application for 142 Hermon Hill, formerly the Ark Fish Restaurant, initially split the committee, with four councillors voting in favour, four against, and three abstaining.
The development will provide four three-bedroom and five two-bedroom flats across its first and second floors, with a commercial unit on the ground floor.
Each flat will have a balcony with 1.7m privacy screens, and there will be a communal terrace.
There have been 124 objections.
Locals Phil O’Hagan and Geraldine Maclaine raised concerns about the types of homes being proposed.
O’Hagan said: “More affordable housing is what the borough needs, not more expensive housing.”
Maclaine said: “What we need is smaller flats for the next generation.
“These houses are now three quarters of a million pounds, which is ridiculous.”
An earlier feasibility scheme for the site considered 12 homes.
Under Redbridge’s planning policy, developments of 10 or more homes call for an affordable-housing contribution.
The final application was for nine.
Studio ANYO, the project’s architect, said the plans had been developed in collaboration with the council and revised in response to feedback, including to provide more family-sized homes.
Zhan Guo, an associate professor of urban planning and transportation policy at NYU, has studied how London developers respond to affordable-housing thresholds.
He said such thresholds can incentivise developers to avoid affordable-housing requirements, describing this as “a behavioural aversion to policy intervention.”
Developer Saeed Developments Ltd said the scheme was the result of “14 months’ worth of constant dialogue, constant discussion and constant amendment”.
Most other objections are about overlooking, as the extension will sit 3.2m from a neighbouring garden, and the screens will be 11.5m from a neighbouring house.
Residents also pointed to a proposal within 100m of this site, which was rejected four months earlier after similar concerns.
Planning Officer Andrew Smith responded: “Every application has a different context.”
Residents also questioned the size of one of the flats, which measures 63 square metres against a 70-square-metre standard.
Smith said this was not harmful enough to warrant full refusal.
After the initial deadlocked vote, Chair Guy Mansfield Williams said: “In the interest of allowing councillors to explain their position, I will abstain; therefore another vote will be required.”
Under the Redbridge Constitution, the Chair can break a tie with a casting vote.
Williams instead asked councillors who had voted against the plans to give their reasons before calling a second vote.
A member of the public who described themself as “fairly neutral” questioned the decision to ask only those opposing the plans to explain their reasoning, saying: “I’m absolutely flabbergasted.
“It raises significant concerns about process.”
Councillor Harneek Kaur changed her vote from against to an abstention, while Councillor Thavathuray Jeyaranjan changed his vote from an abstention to in favour.
The final vote was five in favour, three against and three abstentions.
The approval comes as Redbridge continues to fall short of its housing targets, with the lowest housing delivery rate recorded among London’s 32 boroughs.
Under the Government’s Housing Delivery Test, the borough delivered 30% of its required housing, with 1,204 homes built against a target of 3,954.
Therefore, there is a “presumption in favour of sustainable development”.
Councillor Kaur, who changed her vote from against to an abstention, said she initially opposed the application primarily over privacy concerns.
She said she was ultimately “not persuaded there was a sufficiently robust planning basis for refusal,” given the officer’s assessment and mitigation measures.
Chair Williams, Councillor Jeyaranjan, Summit Planning Associates, and Escade International were contacted for comment.
Featured image credit: Libs Driscoll
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