Mast Quay: Woolwich tower blocks demolition ordered by Greenwich Council - ‘I don’t have anywhere to go’

Residents have spoken of their shock after a council ordered the demolition of two riverside blocks whose developer had breached planning permission.

Greenwich Council has ordered that Mast Quay Phase II in Woolwich be pulled down after it was found to have breached planning permission 26 times.

The authority has issued an enforcement notice for the blocks, which contain 204 apartments. It says the development is “unlawful because it is so substantially different to the scheme that was originally permitted by the planning permission given in 2012”.

The deviations include “visible design changes to the external appearance of the towers”, “a lack of disabled parking bays” and “visible changes to the materials and windows”.

Isabella White has lived there for just three weeks. The 33-year-old told LondonWorld: “I don’t have anywhere to go. I’d probably have to move out of London…I moved to Manchester last year and then I found this flat and because of the price of it, I moved back.

“Nothing surprises me. Nobody is looking after the people that need to be looked after.”

Another resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “I feel a little anxious about what’s going to happen because I’ve already paid the money for rent until August next year. So right now I’m not sure what’s going to happen if they have to tear it down.

“I might lose lots of money, so that’s the thing I worry about most. It’s not good to not know where you’re standing and what’s going to happen.”

A spokesperson for the developer, Comer Homes Group, said: “The Comer Homes Group is surprised and extremely disappointed by the decision of the Royal Borough of Greenwich to issue an enforcement notice in respect of our Mast Quay Phase II development.

“We are particularly surprised to see the accompanying public statements which are inaccurate and misrepresent the position and our actions.

“We will be appealing against the enforcement notice and look forward to robustly correcting the inaccuracies and addressing the council's concerns.”

Comer Homes has until October 30 to appeal the decision.

Greenwich Council’s Labour leader, Anthony Okereke, said: “This decision is not one that the Royal Borough of Greenwich has taken lightly, but I believe it is reasonable and proportionate to the scale and seriousness of the situation. Mast Quay Phase II represents two prominent high-rise buildings on Woolwich’s riverside that just are not good enough, and the reason that they are not good enough is because the development that was given planning permission is not the one that we can all see before us today.

“In Our Greenwich, our vision for the borough by 2030, I committed to development that delivers positive change to the area for existing and new communities, and this is simply not the case with Mast Quay Phase II.

“The right thing to do is not usually the easy thing to do. That is why we will not stand by and allow poor quality and unlawful development anywhere in our borough, and we are not afraid of taking difficult decisions when we believe it’s the right thing to do.”