Acme-designed £1bn redevelopment had been expected to reach committee by end of this year
A planning decision on Network Rail’s £1bn proposal to build an office development above Liverpool Street station has been pushed back by several months, Building understands.
The controversial Acme-designed redevelopment of the grade II-listed station had been scheduled for a planning committee hearing next month but this may now not take place until the spring.
It is understood the delay has been caused partly by the size and complexity of the application and the time it is taking for planning officers to work through the nearly 800 documents attached to it, which include hundreds of representations from consultees.
The plans have also amassed more than 2,100 objections from members of the public, nearly as many as the 2,315 objections received by an earlier version of the scheme designed by Herzog & de Meuron.
However, Acme’s proposals for the site, which were submitted in April, have been far more successful in garnering public backing with over 1,000 letters of support attached to the application compared to just 29 for the Herzog & de Meuron scheme.
It has also had a milder response from Historic England, which has called Acme’s plans a “significant improvement” over the previous scheme, which was being worked up with Network Rail’s former development partner Sellar before it was scrapped last year.
Acme is proposing the construction of an 11-storey office block above the station’s trainshed as an alternative to Herzog & de Meuron’s larger £1.5bn proposal for a controversial 17-storey block which would have been cantilevered over the trainshed and the adjacent grade II*-listed Andaz hotel.
The project team includes Aecom on engineering and transport, Certo as project manager, Newmark, previously known as Gerald Eve, on planning, Gleeds as cost manager, Donald Insall Associates on heritage and townscape, GIA on daylight and sunlight and SLA as landscape architect.
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