Protestors won't stop Earl's Court, says developer

Sir Terry Farrell’s masterplan for Earls Court will go ahead even if residents block the redevelopment of their estate, developers Capital & Counties Properties (Capco) said this morning.
 
Speaking at MIPIM, Gary Yardley, investment director at Capco, said that development would continue on the majority of the site even if residents used new planning laws to block work on land owned by their housing authority.
 
The Earls Court masterplan, worth £6-8 bn pounds, is being built on land owned by Capco, Transport for London and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.
 
“We’d go forward with Seagrave Road [a separate site to the south], Tfl and our land anyway,” he said.
 
A spokesperson for the project said without the local authority land the site would still be 52 acres, down from 72, and still commercially viable.
 
He explained that Capco now thought around half the estate residents were in favour of the plan, and half opposed. There had been fears that the masterplan could be scuppered if opposed residents used new planning laws to take control of their estate.
 
“It’s an ongoing debate,” said Yardley. ” We have got to make sure there is a clear understanding of the scheme. All residents get a new place to live. No one is going anywhere else.”
 
He said that a planning application would be submitted in June to both Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea councils.
 
Work would only begin after the Olympics as Earls Court is hosting volleyball at the Games, with demolition not expected until late 2012.
 
Yardley said that it would be 15 - 20 years until all construction would be completed on the masterplan.