The council’s investigation over the past year has concluded that the second phase of the BTR development — located on Woolwich Church Street, London — did not follow the original planning permission given in 2012.

In total, the council identified at least 26 main deviations to the original planning permission that lead to the decision of demolition, including: 

• lower quality residential accommodation 
• failure to provide roof gardens for residents and the public, children’s play areas, green roofs, or landscaped gardens 
• non-accessible ‘accessible’ apartments that have steps to the balconies, making them unusable by wheelchair users
• a poorer quality footbridge to Woolwich Church Street 
• visible changes to the materials and windows — including different cladding, less glazing, smaller balconies, smaller windows and no wraparound balconies resulting in a reduction of daylight and sunlight
• lack of disables parking bays

The Royal Borough of Greenwich Council has deemed the Mast Quay Phase II to bring significant harm to the area and the present and future occupiers of the buildings, and has called for the complete demolition and restoration of the land to its former condition in order to rectify this.

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It issued an enforcement notice on 25th September for the demolition of the two towers, which comprise a total of 204 flats — the notice is subject to appeal rights for a period of at least 28 days following the date of issue.

Cllr Aidan Smith, the Royal Borough of Greenwich’s cabinet member for regeneration, said: “The Mast Quay Phase II development had the potential to deliver hundreds of beautiful riverside apartments in an exciting area of London with a rich maritime past.

“Instead, what we have is a mutant development that is a blight on the landscape, local conservation zone and heritage assets and views.”

Cllr Ann-Marie Cousins, cabinet member for community, safety and enforcement, added: “Since starting work on site in 2015, they had many years to engage with us regarding the amendments they claim it was necessary to make due to changes in building regulations, yet there was no contact or application made, and an attempt was only made retrospectively as a consequence of the enforcement investigation.

“Without enforcement, our planning system can have no integrity and that is why we will not shy away from property developers exploiting the system for their own gain, to the detriment of residents and other responsible developers who do the right thing." 

DFT approached The Comer Group for a statement, but refused to comment — the firm confirmed it will be releasing a press release in relation to the situation in due course.