Public inquiry into controversial Peckham redevelopment set for end of next month

The date for a public inquiry into controversial plans to redevelop Peckham’s Aylesham Centre has been set for 28 October.

The Planning Inspectorate will launch up to eight days of hearings on the 877-home scheme, which is designed by dRMM.

Plans to redevelop the shopping centre were submitted by Berkeley Homes in July last year but the developer launched an appeal in May this year on the grounds of non-determination.

The scheme has provoked considerable controversy in Peckham due to the relative height of its proposed buildings in the mostly low-rise suburb and the low number of proposed affordable homes.

The masterplan by dRMM would see the construction of a total of 15 buildings ranging in height from five to 20 storeys, but it would contain just 77 affordable homes - down from 270 in an earlier version of the scheme.

Individual plots on the development, which would also contain retail and office space, have been designed by Dowen Farmer Architects, Feix & Merlin, Jas Bhalla Works and Nimtim Architects with Gillespies acting as landscape architect.

Southwark council, which had agreed to make a decision on the scheme by the end of January this year, said it had been forced to reconsult on the scheme following Berkeley’s decision to slash the number of affordable homes.

Revised plans submitted by the developer last December cut the scheme’s share of affordable homes from the London Plan minimum of 35% to just 12%, from 270 to 77 affordable homes, a reduction of 71%.

In July, Southwark council’s planning committee issued a symbolic refusal of the application with councillors arguing the impact of the scheme’s height on the surrounding townscape was not outweighed by the public benefit provided by the reduced number of affordable homes.

Local campaign group Aylesham Community Action has led opposition to the scheme and will be a party at the inquiry. Earlier this month, it launched a crowdfunding campaign to appoint a “top-notch” legal team with the group so far raising more than £30,000 towards its £50,000 target.

Proposals to redevelop the shopping centre have been in the works for at least a decade with initial plans drawn up by AHMM for developer BlackRock, which were never submitted, replaced by a Sheppard Robson-designed scheme for Berkeley which was junked following sustained opposition from locals. dRMM was then brought in to replace Sheppard Robson in August 2023.

A Berkeley Group spokesperson said: ”Private developments have to self-fund affordable housing without any public grant. Different developers have been trying to develop this site since 2014 and we have been working on the project since 2021.

“Meanwhile market conditions have declined and costs soared. This forced us to amend our planning application in December 2024, reducing the affordable housing so that the project can go ahead. The alternative is no housing gets delivered at all and everybody loses.”