Union Jack Club veterans take aim after tower plan gets go-ahead
MILITARY veterans have criticised plans for a 20-storey tower next to a historic club after an attempt to have the scheme thrown out was rejected.
The Union Jack Club, established in 1976 on Waterloo’s Sandell Street, provides a “home from home” for current and ex-members of the armed forces.
But it fears that approved plans for an “overbearing” 20-storey office block next door would block sunlight from 60 of 261 rooms and lead to a “significant” loss of views from the social club.
D-Day veteran Peter Kent, 98, told the Daily Mail: “It’s wrong, they ought to leave it be. This is a special place, it should be protected from development like this.”
The plans, submitted by Grandseal Ltd, were approved by Lambeth council in October. Mayor Sadiq Khan declined to call in the scheme, and Housing Secretary Michael Gove has now rejected an appeal to central Government. Speaking against the plans at planning committee, Vern Stokes OBE, a garrison sergeant major in the Army, said: “The armed forces community and the club do not deserve to exist in the shadows. Its members merit a home from home.”
However, the applicant said at the time it had sought to address the club’s concerns about light by moving the tallest part of the planned tower further away. It said that the majority of the club’s veterans would be “relatively unaffected” by the proposal, because only one of its facades faced towards the tower.
A Lambeth council spokesperson said its planning committee had “very carefully considered all concerns”, saying it would create an estimated 1,900 new jobs and unlock £1.25 million in funding for local parks and green spaces.
A spokesperson for Bourne Capital, which owns the land and was established by millionaire Labour supporter Robert Bourne, said it had “worked exhaustively” to address concerns.