Planning Application
In 2002 News International applied to the London Borough of Lewisham for outline planning permission to erect 3,500 residential units on the site. Lewisham councillors resolved to approve the application in May 2005. As of July 2008 the application had yet to be referred to Mayor of London Boris Johnson. The Mayor has the power to direct a refusal of planning consent and if the matter is ever referred will probably direct a refusal.
If the Mayor allows the application it will then be referred to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. Reasons for such a referral would include a Government direction that half the site is safeguarded for freight use. Since freight wharves on the Thames were safeguarded in 1997 by the then Secretary of State for the Environment, John Gummer, only one operational wharf has been lost to residential use without a full public inquiry. This was Delta/Blackwall Wharf, a major aggregates wharf redeveloped as part of the Greenwich Peninsula masterplan.
On 18 May 2005 a 50/50 joint venture company of Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa entered into an agreement to acquire Convoys Wharf, to develop it as a mixed residential and commercial project. In 2008 a new planning application was submitted by Hutchison based largely on the original Richard Rogers scheme.
The Grade II listed Olympia Warehouse will have to be preserved and refurbished as part of the redevelopment of the site.
Read more about this topic: Convoys Wharf
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