A property developer has been accused of “mis-selling” homes as it plans to build a tower block on land neighbours thought would be green space.
Residents of Royal Wharf in Silvertown made the accusation as Newham councillors considered whether to approve the new tower yesterday (10 March).
One said they’d bought their home, in a building next to the site “on the basis that this was going to be green space”. Another described it as “a complete mis-selling”.
Oxley Wharf Property wants to build a block of housing at Royal Crest Avenue, reaching up to twelve storeys at its highest point.
It would be built on currently vacant land in the new Royal Wharf housing scheme, which Oxley developed with another firm, Ballymore.
Councillors voted to approve the new building at a strategic development committee meeting yesterday (Tuesday 10th).
But neighbours say when they bought their homes, marketing materials showed the land set to now be built on would be kept for green space.
Prajakta told councillors many had bought their homes “on precisely that basis”.
Another said: “I made this purchase because they said that this is going to be green space.”
Developers admitted that some marketing material hadn’t reflected approved development plans accurately.
Plans for the whole development previously granted planning permission show the land was to be used for housing rather than open space.
The proposed new building wasn’t constructed along with the rest of the development because the transfer of the land from Newham Council took longer than expected.
One of the Oxley’s representatives told the committee: “We are aware of one of the marketing materials in the later phases, where we had an illustrative site plan showing green space on that plot.
“However, the other brochures were in line with the consented 2012 masterplan.”
She added: “We didn’t have any intention to mislead about that plot.”
Labour committee chair Rachel Tripp said hearing the complaints from neighbours “leaves a really, really nasty taste in our mouths”.
Cllr Tripp said: “I take the point we’ve had from the applicants about your assertion this was an illustration that was done in error.
“It does seem to be very unfortunate that it had some potentially quite beneficial impacts on your sales.”
Cllr Tripp said she wanted records of the meeting to show the committee’s “grave concern” on the matter.
However, she said the committee could only make its decision based on planning laws and policy. Cllr Tripp added: “Our planning legislation dictates that we must make those decisions based on certain matters that are material to planning.”
She said this was so that “the decsions that we make are legally robust”, and “strong enough that they aren’t immediately knocked down on appeal, or that they won’t just be rampantly unfair”.
Cllr Tripp, along with Labour councillors John Morris and Alan Griffiths, voted to approve the plans. Labour committee member Madeleine Sarley Pontin voted against.
Another Labour councillor, Sarley Pontin, had criticised the proposals for including only 12% ‘affordable’ housing, which is well below the council’s 50% requirement.
But the developers argued that factors such as construction costs made providing more affordable housing “unviable”.
