Pocket Living application to redevelop Sudbury Town Station carpark rejected again by Brent’s planning committee

Local neighbours urge TfL not to sell the car park at Sudbury Town Station to developers. Picture: Jonathan Goldberg (Image: Jonathan Goldberg)

Pocket Living’s application to build a five storey block containing 52 “discounted” one-bedroom flats in Sudbury Town Station car park was rejected during an online planning committee meeting last night(June 10).

Landowner Transport for London planned to sell the facility to the developer, retaining a depot space and three bays for disabled people near the step-free station.

The application, recommended for approval by Brent planning officers, was deferred last month so that reasons for rejection could be explored.

READ MORE: Planning committee votes to defer Sudbury carpark development after councillors rejected application

On Wednesday members again cited Brent’s policy for mixed and affordable housing, the five storey height of the building, the lack of amenity space and ongoing concerns for parking as grounds for refusal.

Pocket Living chief Mark Fless said he was offering “significant discounts” for people on low incomes to put “52 deserving people onto the housing ladder”.

He offered an additional £600,000 for Brent Council to provide six family-sized homes for key workers elsewhere in the borough.

Council officer Neil Quinn said “it’s not like we have gone out there to bargain barter” when the cash offer was highlighted by chair of the committee Cllr James Denselow.

Lee Jay, formerly a firefighter in Brent, spoke in support of the development, saying he had been forced out of the area by high prices and is now “living comfortably” in a Pocket Living property in Hackney, paying £500 a month on his mortgage.

But opponents said the amendments to the officers’ report “failed to address the concerns of the committee” as it was still not aligned with Brent’s housing policy.

Cllr Mary Daly said adding one blue badge space would not help the “overspill of cars” into the streets and did not address the needs of “people with protected characteristics - old people, people with disabilities, pregnant women, mothers with infant children, they need space to park”.

Paul Lorber, of the Sudbury Town Residents’ Association, said: “Brent’s local plan says by ‘engaging the community the council benefits from detailed local knowledge and expertise and community commitment to the future development of the borough’. It’s important to uphold that principle.”