Has Ealing Council Had a Change of Heart on Friary Park?

Campaigner says new Local Plan will limit heights to 14 storeys

Sean Fletcher points out that new height restrictions may apply. Picture: YouTube

February 6, 2025

Cap The Towers (CTT), a group campaigning against what they regard as over-development in Friary Park is claiming that a ‘huge victory’ has been won thanks to Ealing Council’s New Local Plan.

The group has released a video of local resident and news presenter Sean Fletcher highlighting that the document makes specific reference to the heights of new buildings at Friary Park. The document stipulates that towers in the area should no longer exceed 14 storeys.

This restriction would not apply to the first two phases of the development, dubbed The Verdean by the developer Mount Anvil, on the side closest to the railway tracks, which already have full planning approval, but Mr Fletcher says ‘it is a huge victory for all of us’ when it comes to Phase 3 which is the last part of the project at the end closer to the A40.

Mount Anvil were granted outline planning permission for the whole project in 2019 including for three towers in Phase 3 which would have been 22, 18 and 14 floors. However, when it came time for the detailed planning permission to be submitted last year, the developer added to more towers to this part of the scheme and increased heights to a maximum of 24 and all above 14 saying that this application ‘superseded’ the previous one.

The application (243424FUL) is currently out for consultation with 151 comments having been received, most of which are objections from local residents.

CTT says that, while there may be a case to proceed with the designs in the outline permission for three towers as this has been approved, approval now cannot be given for the five towers because of the 14 storey limit in the local plan.

Sean Fletcher described the submission of a new application with the taller towers as ‘a massive blunder’.

He added, “This new application will now have to be judge according to the rules as they now stand.”

CTT says it has learnt of a letter written to the council about the New Local Plan which said that it was ‘unsound and requires modification’.

Sean Fletcher says, in the video, “I haven’t been able to say this before but, credit to Ealing Council, as it stood its ground and refused to make the changes developers wanted.”

CTT has sent the video to all the councillors on the planning committee and the Leader of Ealing Council, Peter Mason.

This is, in the words of Sean Fletcher, “so that they know that the people of Acton and Cap The Towers will hold them to account should they perform what would be a huge U-turn and break their own Local Plan rules.”

A visualisation of the completed Friary Park from planning documentation

Ealing’s New Local Plan, which covers development in the borough for the next fifteen years, has been drawn up after a lengthy consultation and is awaiting final government approval as being ‘sound’. The final draft was submitted to the government on 18 November 2024 to be considered by an independent Inspector. The examination hears evidence from anybody who wishes to make a submission on any of the key issues or questions highlighted by the Inspector. A fully approved plan would be legally binding on the Planning Committee, but it is not clear whether the plan at this point would be. The height restrictions were included in the emerging plan, but designs were approved last year for buildings above the designated height of 14 storeys in South Acton.

No date has yet been set for when the Planning Committee will consider Phase 3 and it is also not know when the Inspector will announce the decision on the New Local Plan although a date in Spring is thought most likely.