Developer given permission to build 15 homes on east London green belt

Plans for a 15-home development on green belt land have been given the go-ahead.Planning officers at City Hall determined that the project "would not cause substantial harm to the openness of the green belt".The Metropolitan Green Belt is a protected ring of countryside across Greater London that is designed to protect the capital’s urban sprawl from moving into surrounding countries.Croft Homes RM5, a real estate company, applied to build a row of 15 houses in Collier Row. The plans involve building 13 houses and two flats next to the Grover Gardens development at Providence Place that falls inside the restricted buffer zone.But council planning officers said national planning policy makes an exception where a development would be a “limited infilling of previously developed land”, and where there would be “no substantial harm to the openness of the green belt”.The Labour Government has loosened building regulations to allow for construction on green belt land, as well as prioritising opportunities for development next to railway and Underground stations in the capital.Planning officials at the Greater London Authority concluded the development would not harm the green beltRoss LydallLondon mayor Lord Sadiq Khan is preparing to instruct local authorities to build on the green belt following the reforms. Under the planning policy shake-up, announced by ministers last year, schemes proposed in the green belt have to satisfy strict conditions, including having a higher ratio of affordable-housing, new or improved green spaces and appropriate infrastructure.Nicholas Jehan, a planning officer, told councillors at a planning committee meeting in December that part of the land that Croft Homes proposed to develop had previously been used for storing vehicles.He said the new row of houses would largely be screened by trees and the Grover Gardens development.Read More“This stretch of green belt here along Collier Row Road is significantly reduced in quality by the existing level of development and officers are satisfied that the proposals represent limited infilling of a section of the green belt,” he said.Councillors voted unanimously at the time to approve the development. It then had to be passed to City Hall, as its location meant it clashed with London-wide planning policy that restricted green belt development.Reviewing the application in April, the overarching authority permitted the council to grant the planning permission.Agreeing with the council’s assessment, officers said there would be “no sound planning reasons” for it to intervene.The council granted planning permission formally on Thursday after signing a legal planning agreement with the developer.