Ealing campaigning group, Stop The Towers (STT), has raised concern that John Lewis Partnership may be looking to build a 20 storey plus tower building as part of its plans to offer homes on its West Ealing Waitrose site which are planned to be ready in 2027.
The planned flats, next to West Ealing station were announced as part of a nationwide roll out of John Lewis Partnership entering the residential home rental market on 9 June 2022.
With a first consultation from John Lewis to local residents taking place today (1 July 2022) and Saturday, STT is urging people to attend it at West Ealing library near Sainsburys in Melbourne Avenue W13 9BT.
A web site from John Lewis with some details of its vision is here. It shows that there will be two further public consultations in the autumn with plans to submit a planning application to Ealing Council in December 2022.
According to STT, they have spoken to John Lewis who say they will be using the argument of an ‘emerging cluster’ around the ‘transport hub’ to justify their planned tower(s) and also referenced planned 22 storey Manor Road tower as a guide for height.
Justine Sullivan, co-Chair of STT said: “We’ve tried to find out more about the development but so far have been stonewalled. So we urge Ealing residents to attend and ask questions about the height and density of the development. We need answers. At the moment we don’t know if it’s 10 or 1000 new flats. No one is saying. And with the application due to go to planning by the end of the year / early 2023, someone needs to get a move on and start sharing images if they are working to that schedule.”
Currently, next to the West Ealing station a development consisting of two tower blocks is being planned and STT says to date no information from John Lewis has been forthcoming as to its intentions.
STT is urging John Lewis to listen to local residents and is also calling on Ealing Council Peter Mason who pledged to end unwanted towers in Ealing.
Justine added: “Yet again Ealing Council is on the back foot here. Twelve months on from the disastrous Manor Road appeal, the council still hasn’t published its’ five-year housing supply figures, a statutory obligation, for which they’ve been fined. Nor have they published a local plan for what is, or isn’t acceptable to be built. Without these documents or a tall buildings policy, fighting inappropriate development is like a one-legged man trying to win an arse-kicking contest”.
