Council says leave path to G Gate open
by Hammersmith and Fulham Press Office
04/11/2008
Plans to regenerate wasteland in Hammersmith have been called in by the Secretary of State for communities and local government for a planning inquiry.
Hammersmith & Fulham Council’s planning applications committee approved plans to build an apartment-style hotel called the G Gate Hotel in Olympia on September 3 after having fully considered concerns raised by residents. However for reasons unknown the Secretary of State has decided to halt the development pending a local inquiry.
It is the second time in less than three months that the Secretary of State has intervened in the borough’s planning process. In August, the Secretary of State stepped in to hold up the new health centre development in White City while she considered calling it in, but the council’s decision was allowed to stand.
Leader of H&F Council, Councillor Stephen Greenhalgh, stated: “Only 150 applications across England and Wales are called in per year, so two applications from the same borough in just over the same number of months seems distinctly odd.
“I just hope the Secretary of State sees sense and realises that the delay this will cause is not helping the local economy, people or the borough as a whole.”
Earls Court/Olympia Group and Sunlight Projects plan to turn the underdeveloped marshalling yard for the Olympia Conference Centre, on the corner of Hammersmith Road and Lyons Walk, into a 259 room hotel and a 69.5 square metre retail unit on the ground floor, which includes a restaurant.
The £12 million apart-hotel is one of nine such projects in London – none of which have been called in by the Secretary of State, despite all being bigger than the proposed G Gate. It is thought that the Secretary of State has concerns over the planned building’s design and its impact on the Olympia and Avon more conservation area.
A spokesperson for communities and local government said: "There is long established process in place where less than 0.01% of all planning cases are called in. A case is considered to have more than local significance if it triggers one or more of the call-in criteria such as conflict with national policy, or if it causes national or regional controversy.
“The decision to call-in does not consider the merits or otherwise of an application – which is a matter for the inspector to consider at inquiry."
The inquiry process could last as long as 18 months, leaving the land next to the Olympia Conference Centre practically empty for the whole time, delaying much needed regeneration of the borough for years.
