Park Plaza's bid to grow taller deferred by Planning Committee

Last night Lambeth's Planning Committee spent an hour and 40 minutes considering the Park Plaza Hotel's bid to add several storeys to the front of their building. Objectors representing residents of 9 Albert Embankment and Salamanca Place did an excellent job questioning the effect the extension will have on light to their homes (which are already some of the darkest and most enclosed residential areas in the borough). In the end the Committee decided they couldn't make a decision because the information the hotel and the council officers were providing on daylight wasn't clear enough.

Councillor Mark Harrison was at the meeting and ready to speak to support residents before the committee deferred the application. He has written to officers to insist on the following:

• That the information from the daylight/ sunlight study for Block C, 9 Albert Embankment be re-presented in a way which is comprehensible to lay people
• That that new presentation be shared with objectors so they have the opportunity to question it ahead of the committee meeting
• That the effect on daylight/ sunlight in the square in the middle of 9 Albert Embankment be outlined:
• Either with a full daylight/ sunlight study
• Or with a comprehensible impartial expert explanation as to why there is no effect
• That the key points of the management plans (for traffic, servicing etc) which will be conditioned be fully outlined in advance of the committee meeting, and that they are shared with objectors so they have the opportunity to question them.

He has also asked for a committee site visit to take place.