Latest Update

Updates

6 December - Planning Committee delays

The council have confirmed that Gurnell will not be going to the December Planning Committee and that “the application is currently anticipated to go to the Planning Committee in the new year”.

Given it is now nearly 5 months since the end of the consultation period we have asked what is causing the delay but have not yet had a response. We’ll keep chasing for a response and will let you know as soon as we have any further news.

18 September - Response from the Mayor of London and the cost of the new leisure centre has gone up (again)

On 15 September, the Mayor’s office sent their Stage 1 response to Ealing Council.

The report says the plans do not comply with the London Plan but that ‘’possible remedies could address these deficiencies.’’ The key issues are costs, the phasing and means of re-provision of indoor and outdoor facilities, landscaping, biodiversity, pedestrian and cycle enhancements as well as an agreement on the flood risk strategy. They mentioned that the Environment Agency objected to the application given the absence of an acceptable Flood Risk Assessment and supporting flood model. All of these issues are part of the key argument of whether ''Very Special Circumstances'' exist to allow the council to build tower blocks on MOL.

Other areas where further information was requested was in relation to energy, urban greening and multiple items relating to transport. The full letter and report can be found here.

The new Gurnell Leisure Centre may now cost over £50 Million!

According to the Mayor’s Stage 1 report, it states that ‘’the Council’s independent cost assessment concludes that the leisure centre facility would cost £28.89 million with the associated basement costing a further £26 million. As such, the total cost of the leisure centre related elements in the application exceed £50 million.’’

In January, Cllr Bassam Mahfouz who is sponsoring this project, suggested that the leisure centre would cost around £40 million. In 2016, the project started off with a cost of £30 million (and the specification has been decreasing ever since.)

4 June 2020 - Planning Application update

The planning application for Gurnell is live. Now is the time to make our voice heard - if you oppose this overdevelopment then please submit your objection to the Council. See our ''How to Object'' page for more details.

The council have confirmed that objections submitted up until the date of the Planning Committee will be counted and considered.

29 April 2020 - BMX track has been submitted as a separate application

The Council have allowed the BMX track to be submitted as a separate application even though it's part of the Gurnell development proposal and falls within the project boundary. While we don't know the exact reasons he council have done this, there is significant concern because the proposed location is within a Site of Importance to Nature Conservation (SINC) and will effectively destroy the SINC. We will be objecting to this application because of its impact to the environment and the fact that the Gurnell proposal should be considered as a single application so that the benefits vs harms can be reviewed truthfully.

The BMX track application can be found here.

10 November 2019 - Deal Structure has changed

There has been a SIGNIFICANT change to the deal structure between Ealing Council and the developer (Ecoworld).
Ecoworld are no longer responsible for the leisure centre and affordable housing build– the council must now find another company to deliver these. In summary,

The council have now taken on the responsibility to build the leisure centre and affordable housing. The developer (Ecoworld) will only be responsible for the open market housing (Blocks C,D, E, F). This leaves the Council with the associated risks whereas the developer carried these risks before the deal changed.
Financial information that was previously available has now disappeared - we don’t know how much the Council are receiving for selling off our land or the size of the shortfall that must be met by public funding.
The council had all this information before the last consultation (September 2019) however they decided not to tell us.

When did this happen?

The Gurnell redevelopment was discussed at a Cabinet meeting on 17th September – just 8 days before the consultation meeting on 25th September, however none of this was mentioned to the public.

What’s the impact?

Now that the developer is now longer responsible for the leisure centre and affordable housing build, the council must find another company to deliver these.

The developer was going to pay the council £25.2m for this piece of land but it is now unclear ow much the council are receiving - this information was left out of the September 2019 consultation. Assumption is that the contribution hasdecreased,therefore widening the funding gap over and above the £12.5m already budgeted to cover the £37.7m cost of the new centre.

Council are taking on direct delivery responsibility for the leisure centre build and the associated risk– under the previous deal, the build was fixed cost and the developer carried the risk.

Leisure Centre build cost could increase above the £37.7m estimate and the council have no budget for this - it could be in the millions.

The council will have a dependency on Ecoworld to build the basement across the site and if this is delayed then the leisure centre will be closed for longer than planned.

There is a risk that the council run out of money and reduce the facility mix or specification of the leisure centre.

There is a risk that the leisure centre is demolished and delayed past 3 years or never rebuilt.

Is there anything else we didn’t know?

The council has already spent at least £1.34m on the pre planning activities, £3m has been spent in total but unclear how much over the agreed £1.34m has been incurred.

The council plan to use £10m of GLA grant to fund the affordable housing. Therefore, the 403 residential units being built by the developer do not contribute to this in any way.

This reason this project has been delayed is because the council keep submitting plans that the GLA which they do not approve. In fact, the last proposal did not include any affordable housing and it’s the GLA who have told the council that this must be included – so it’s clear that the council were willing to build 600 residential units with 0% affordable housing.

Despite these changes, the entire proposal will be submitted under one planning application.