Tag: leegate tower

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Leegate: London Square kicks off a new planning process to raise the height of the tower

London Square has made its first move towards getting permission to raise the height of the planned Leegate Tower to 18 storeys.

It has submitted a planning application to Lewisham Council to make a small but crucial alteration to the original planning consent granted to Galliard, which London Square took over when it bought the site.

In their covering letter (which you can read here) London Square are asking Lewisham to remove just five words from the original description of the project: ‘15-storeys (including basement level)’.  

If granted it would mean the consent would read: “Proposed development at Leegate Shopping Centre SE12, bounded by Burnt Ash Road, Eltham Road, Leyland Road and Carston Close, for the demolition of existing buildings, and the construction of buildings to provide a comprehensive mixed use development including residential (Use Class C3), flexible commercial floorspace (Use Class E), a community centre (Use Class F2) and a public house (Sui Generis), together with associated public realm, landscaping and highways improvements, vehicular access, car parking and servicing arrangements, cycle parking and stores, and all other ancillary works.”

London Square make clear in their letter that this is the first step towards getting permission to raise the tower to 18 storeys – an approach agreed with Lewisham planners. They say: “ Therefore, the Applicant is seeking to amend the description of development by removing the words ‘up to 15-storeys (including basement level)’ to allow the abovementioned amendments to come forward. This approach has been agreed with London Borough of Lewisham officers in advance of submitting this S96a application.”

Lee Manor Society’s planning expert Michael Haste explains “If they do not do this then any further application to increase the height of the main tower (and to increase the number of housing units) will not comply with the previously approved application description and therefore could not be a ‘non-material change’.”

Michael says it’s likely Lewisham will OK this, because it is only a loose description which is being changed, but this is by no means certain.  If passed London Square would then be free to make a further application under Section 73 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, asking for a “non-material” change to conditions of the original planning consent issued in November 2024, which could allow London Square to vary both the height of the main Block A tower accommodation as well as increase the number of residential units over the whole development.

It will be up to Lewisham Council to decide if adding three extra storeys to the main tower of the development is “non-material” or not. Michael says “Objectors would have to try to show that the current height of the tower was a hard-fought over issue at the time of the original application and that increasing its height further would be in breach of Lewisham’s own design and planning guidelines.”

Those guidelines – under which Lewisham would not generally allow tower blocks higher than 12 storeys in the ‘Lee Green District Centre’ area – could be critical. They are contained in Policy QD4 of Lewisham’s own Local Plan which is not expected to be fully adopted until Summer 2025 at the earliest.

The application number is DC/25/140113 and objections need to be filed to the Council by at least June 12th 2025. If you want to comment on the proposals you can do it on the planning website, but you can also write direct to your councillors and the Mayor. You can find all their contact details here.

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Leegate exhibition – London Square reveals it may make the tower 18 storeys

London Square, the new owners of Leegate, are now considering raising the height of the tower at the Lee Green crossroads from 15 to 18 storeys.

This is despite having told the Lee Manor Society earlier this year that it had no plans to add further storeys.

The new proposal was revealed at an exhibition staged by London Square, at St Peter’s Church on Eltham Road.  It was attended by around 200 local residents.

Vanessa Jones of London Square explained that the design team felt it would be better to increase the size of the tower rather than of other parts of the development. London Square is committed to significantly increasing the total number of homes on the site from the original Galliard plan.   As we have reported here previously London Square has added 80 homes to the original plan, taking the total number to 640.  Of those 250 will be “affordable housing”, 150 for social rent and the rest available under shared ownership. Both will be run by the Clarion Housing Association.

The news of the proposal to increase the height of the tower was criticised by some visitors to the exhibition.  Jackie Buscher of Effingham Road said “I didn’t like 15 storeys, and now it’s 18 storeys. We need more affordable housing but I don’t like the fact that it’s going to be higher.”

“It just keeps getting bigger. They are greedier than the last lot.”
’‘It’s enormous. It’s horrible. This is just a PR exercise.”
“I think development’s long overdue on the site. It’s become an unsocial magnet. I think we need we need homes, particularly for young people, families in the area.”

Exhibition visitors

Another visitor said “It’s appalling, absolutely appalling. And I think there’s absolutely no respect for the human race. They’re making it look like it’s a really nice landscape, and it’s not. It’s all about money.”

A resident of Weigall Road said : “I think it’s terrible. The last one was bad. This one’s even worse. It completely disfigures what Lee Green looks like, which is a real sense of community. There’ll be a great big skyscraper stuck in there.

There’s no ideal world – that’s fine – but in reality, people do have cars.” she added, referring to the decision not to have any parking on the development except “Blue Badge” spaces. ” I just think it’s the wrong thing to build there, and somebody’s going to be making a lot of money on something which is not really in the interest of the local community.”

Explanatory panels showing floor plans and images of how the development would look described the changes made to earlier proposals presented to the Lee Manor Society and local residents’ groups as ‘a range of adjustments to the Galliard proposals.’
In a panel on building heights, London Square stated: ‘In response to extensive pre-application discussions with Lewisham officers and a design review panel, the applicant is now testing an option of up to 18 storeys of building A1 [the corner building], an increase on the 15 storeys that have already been consented for this building.
‘The height of A1 will exceed the normally acceptable maximum building heights set out in policy and will therefore be assessed by officers on a case-by-case basis considering all planning benefits that the scheme will deliver. The planning application will be supported by a detailed assessment of visual and environmental impacts.
‘As was for the consented scheme, we believe the proposed changes will create a scheme which has considerable public benefits, including an increase in much needed affordable housing, London Square added. ‘It will ensure the scheme is deliverable, an important consideration after so many false starts. The plans will also bring forward a vibrant, exciting and cohesive new neighbourhood.’

However, others welcomed the plans. Andreas and Sandra who live nearby Leegate agreed they couldn’t wait for the development to be finished. “We want it to become a reality,” said Andreas. He has no worries about the height of the tower. “It’s quite modern and that’s what you want. I just want a nice place like you see in the pictures.”

Another resident said he feared that once an 18 storey tower is built, the next step would be a similarly sized block on the Sainsbury’s site on the other side of Burnt Ash Road.

London Square say they will digest the feedback resulting from the exhibition.  This summer they will be submitting a “section 73” application to Lewisham Council, asking for the original planning consent to be varied. 

It’s not clear whether London Square’s proposals could be considered to be minor changes to Galliard’s earlier plans, which could be covered by a Section 73 application, or whether they are so significant as to require a new full planning application

London Square’s other challenge is the relatively new Gateway 2 Building Safety Regulations. London Square will have to satisfy the authorities on a number of detailed points before they can start construction work. There is a huge backlog in schemes waiting for approval and many building firms say it is causing massive delays to their projects.

Nevertheless, London Square says it is aiming to start demolition of Leegate by the end of the year and is aiming to have the entire development finished by 2029 or 2030.

Residents can send their feedback to London Square via this website https://leegateregeneration.co.uk/

Meanwhile, in a reply to questions from Jim Mallory, chair of the Leegate Working Party, representing local residents’ groups, councillor James Walsh, council Cabinet Member for Inclusive Regeneration and Planning wrote: ‘I recognise your concerns around height, massing, sustainability and the principle of human-scale design. These will all be examined carefully in line with the relevant adopted and emerging policy frameworks – alongside borough-wide priorities such as the delivery of genuinely affordable housing.’