EUROPE – The owner of London's Earls Court, property developer Capital and Counties (CapCo), has been granted outline planning permission by the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (LBHF) council that will see the Earls Court exhibition centres demolished to make way for 7,500 new homes across the site.
Approval was given during a planning meeting held by the council in Hammersmith on 12 September established specifically to debate the site’s future. The masterplan, created for CapCo and other site owners, Transport for London and LBHF, is based around four distinct villages and a high street, covering more than 930,000sqm in total. The development includes mansion blocks, tall buildings, garden squares, commercial and retail zones and open space but does not include any replacement exhibition space in the area.
LBHF’s resolution to grant consent comes a week after the council approved a land sale agreement to purchase homes across the Earls Court estate to make way for redevelopment.
“We are pleased by the council’s decision to pass the resolution to grant outline planning consent for the Earls Court Masterpla,”CapCo chief executive Ian Hawksworth stated. “The proposed scheme will offer a multi-billion pound investment in both London and the local community creating thousands of new homes and jobs.”
The decision to approve the plans came against backlash from local residents living on the West Kensington and Gibbs Green Estates, who turned out in force at the planning meeting in the hope of further raising their concerns against redevelopment.
It also comes despite the Association of Event Organisers’ plea to consider the economic value and importance of the exhibition industry, reliant on sufficient exhibition space in West London.
The next crucial stage forward in the masterplan’s realisation is approval from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which has scheduled a similar planning meeting to discuss CapCo’s masterplan in late October.
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