Mark Smulian,
PlanningResource,
12 November 2008
Star and Garter: plans include a hotel, 66 homes and a care home
The government has put a block on a controversial hotel and care home development opposite Hampton Court Palace after calls for its intervention.
The Government Office for the South East has issued an article 14 direction stopping Elmbridge Borough Council making a decision on developer Gladedale’s scheme for the ‘Jolly Boatman’ site.
Gladedale wants to build a hotel, 66 homes and a care home for the Royal Star and Garter military charity but Historic Royal Palaces urged the government to call in the application.
The council’s planning committee met this week and deferred its decision pending further investigation of traffic flows and affordable housing.
This is despite the proposals getting backing from the council’s area planning committee last week.
The scheme has been dogged by controversy. Local protesters complained the building would ruin views of the palace, while the charity has said the project represents its only chance to replace its nearby 90-year-old home (Planning, 29 August 2008).
Both sides have called in celebrity support, with Falklands war veteran Simon Weston supporting the proposal and historian David Starkey denouncing it.
CABE called the proposal “high-quality and appropriate for this prominent position”. But Historic Royal Palaces urged communities secretary Hazel Blears to call in the application.
John Barnes, its conservation and learning director, said: “Of course, we also want to see an end to the eyesore around Hampton Court station caused by years of neglect, but the solution is not the scheme being proposed.”
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