SEVEN-STOREY WATERSIDE HOMES APPROVED
PLANS for a seven-storey block of homes and renovation of a derelict church have been approved in the next phase of regeneration at Brentford Waterside.
Permission was granted by Hounslow Council’s planning committee on February 11 for St Lawrence’s Church, in Brentford High Street, to be allowed to be used for a various retail and business purposes, such as for a restaurant, pub or even nursery.
The site has not been used since the 1960s and the green light has been given to knock down the vicarage to build a three-floor gym with a spa treatment room, hot and cold plunge pools and an outdoor swimming pool.
The seven-storey building also planned for ‘Plot A’ of the Brentford Waterside project will create 18 two-bedroom homes.
The applications come as part of the wider Brentford Waterside scheme, which was first approved in 2015 and is currently under construction.
The scheme by developer Ballymore Group hopes to transform the south side of Brentford town centre, with 876 homes, 50 new stores or retailers and space for cultural and wellness hubs.
Luke Emerton, a planning consultant speaking on behalf of Ballymore Group, told the committee: “I’m really pleased to see this part of the ongoing commitment to the regeneration of the town centre, especially given the pretty awful year we’ve all had. The development will bring about significant benefits to Brentford and to Hounslow more widely.”
He added that bringing back St Lawrence’s Church into use and removing it from Historic England’s buildings at-risk register “can only be seen positively”.
The change of use extension to retail and business opportunities is hoped to make it as open as possible to attracting a tenant.
Headstones in the current graveyard must also be incorporated in the plans for cloister gardens as part of the condition for the development, officers explained.
A special licence must be obtained from the government for exhumation and reburial to be done in a particular way, and for notice to be given to relatives.
However, objections were raised to the scheme for not being a zero carbon development due to the use of gas for the central heating system – which is the system approved for the entire development’s energy supply.
Instead the plan says the development will reach the 35% carbon emissions reduction target, which was accepted at the time the wider development was granted permission in 2015.
A carbon offset contribution of £198,246 will also be paid by the developer so a net zero carbon impact can be achieved.
An objector speaking at the meeting said: “We are in a climate emergency.
“This energy centre is not zero carbon and thus cannot be allowed in 2021.”
Despite the energy strategy for the development being written in 2012, and permission being granted in 2015, he added: “It was recognised that the energy system for the development had to recognise the regulatory requirements at the time of design and construction.
“It’s not alright to just say something was ok in 2012 and so it’s ok in 2021.”
Council officer Shane Baker admitted a brand new scheme would not be accepted with this system, but he added: “Ultimately these sorts of systems will be phased out.
“Hopefully this will happen soon, but having heard from Ballymore they have gone a certain way down the line and I think it’s very difficult to say completely change that system.
“In that context we have accepted it and we have accepted the carbon offset to reduce the shortfall in the reductions.”