Mayor calls in rejected 1,600-home east London regeneration scheme

The fate of a proposed East End estate regeneration will be decided by Sadiq Khan after the London mayor called the scheme in.

Plans to demolish 330 existing homes in Poplar to make way for the construction of a new mixed-use development were rejected by Tower Hamlets councillors in February against the recommendation of local planning officers.

The project, known as Aberfeldy New Village, would create up to 140,000 sq m of residential, retail and transport floorspace, including up to 1,582 homes, roughly 39% designated as affordable.

Tower Hamlets councillors complained about the height of the proposals and impact on traffic and sunlight, but officers said such justifications were not valid and that there would be “some issues there that, if we were in an appeal situation, would be very, very difficult to defend”.

Last week, deputy mayor for planning Jules Pipe wrote to the local authority to inform them that the mayor would act as the local planning authority for the purposes of determining the Aberfeldy application.

He said the plans would have “a significant impact on the implementation of the London Plan” and that there were “sound planning reasons for my intervention”.

The scheme is developed by a joint venture of local housing association Poplar Harca and Malaysian developer Ecoworld, which is part owned by Willmott Dixon.

Masterplanned by Levitt Bernstein, the new proposals would expand the ongoing regeneration of Aberfeldy Estate, ongoing since 2012.

A public petition against the development has been signed by nearly 800 people, citing the intended closure of an underpass for motorists, though more than 90% of Aberfeldy residents voted yes to regeneration in an October 2020 residents’ ballot with a more than 90% turnout.