The former East Ham Gasworks could become the site of an 800-home housing development, according to details submitted to Newham Council.
Property developer St William Homes is considering applying for planning permission for the development despite the fact the site is at “high risk of flooding”. It is also Metropolitan Open Land – which holds equivalent legal status to green belt.
Berkeley – St William Homes’ parent company – told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) it is “delighted to be bringing forward proposals to open up the former East Ham Gasworks to deliver much-needed family homes”.
The former East Ham Gasworks is also the site of the now-derelict Leigh Road Sports Ground. It sits between Leigh Road to the west and the North Circular to its east, and is just south of the East Ham train depot.
The Environment Agency says the site, close to the River Roding, is mostly in flood zone three – at “high risk” of flooding. This means there is at least a one-in-100 annual chance of flooding.
But the council wants to earmark the site for housing in an update to its Newham Local Plan, which shapes development across the borough over the coming years.
A draft of the update says developers which want to build on the site “should ensure that flood risk is minimised and mitigated.”
Documents submitted to the council by St William Homes’ planning agents says flood defences along the Roding and the Thames give the site “significant protection.”
However, a response from the Environment Agency says the site still has “a high residual risk from potential breach or overtopping of the flood defences.”
It adds: “The residual risk is significant because a breach of the flood defences could lead to rapid onset of fast-flowing and deep-water flooding, with little or no warning.
“The number of proposed dwellings on the site mean a significant number of people could be at risk in these scenarios.”
The Environment Agency said St William Homes would need to show flood defences would provide “suitable protection” for 100 years.
Berkeley told the LDRS that any future planning application would include flood mitigation measures and sustainable urban drainage.
Some 21 of the site’s 23 acres are designated Metropolitan Open Land. This means any development considered to harm the site’s openness can only be approved under “very special circumstances” according to planning law.
However, the council’s draft update to the Local Plan would reduce the Metropolitan Open Land to 16 acres. It says any development should make these remaining 16 acres publicly accessible, and bring disused sports pitches back into use.
Berkeley’s spokesperson said this change “would enable the entire gasworks site to be cleaned up and, for the first time, opened to the public, while ensuring that the majority of the land retains its metropolitan open land status.”
The draft update is awaiting comments from the government’s Planning Inspectorate following an examination in December last year.
Details of the potential development are in an application for a scoping opinion to determine whether a planning application would need to include an environmental impact assessment. This usually comes before a full planning application, but includes a description of the developer’s proposals.
A document submitted to the council envisages “the redevelopment of the site to provide up to 800 homes in a residential-led, mixed-use development”.
Berkeley also says the development would include landscaped parkland, sports pitches, children’s play areas and walking and cycling routes.
The application was submitted to the council in March and is pending assessment.
