Newspaper tycoon Richard Desmond has gained planning at the third attempt to redevelop his former Isle of Dogs printworks site in London with a vast luxury flats scheme.
The 1,360-home Millwall outer dock waterfront plan will see the comprehensive redevelopment of the 6.15 hectare brownfield site, formerly occupied by his Northern & Shell publishing company’s Westferry Printworks.
Latest plans for the mixed-development have been scaled down slightly while around a third of the homes will now be affordable.
Thirteen buildings ranging from 4 to 31 storeys will be constructed in four phases over a total eight-year building programme.
The scheme also includes a 1,200-place secondary school, a rejuvenated dock front, over 2 hectares of public open space together with ground-floor shops, restaurants, community centre and workspaces.
The approval comes nine years after the controversial redevelopment was first submitted for planning to the Borough of Tower Hamlets.
The council previously turned down two planning applications for the site, with the latter submission called in by Government.
Then former housing secretary Robert Jenrick decided to give consent, overruling the Government’s own planning inspector’s decision to reject the scheme.
It was later revealed that Northern & Shell had donated £12,000 to the Tory Party two weeks after Jenrick gave the plans the green light.
The Conservative government later quashed this decision, stating that the plans would have caused harm to the surrounding area.
The professional team includes Mace as development manager, designs by architect PLP and MEP engineer Aecom with WSP acting as civil and structural engineer.
