A legal battle to determine whether an eighteen-storey office block will be built in Elephant and Castle began on Tuesday (September 12).
Developer Lendlease is contesting Southwark councillors’ decision to reject the office block on H1, the final plot on Elephant Park, at the planning inquiry.
A government inspector will now choose to either back the council’s decision, made in October 2022, or overrule councillors and allow the build to go ahead.
Meet the people mobilising against a developer’s plans for the huge office block in Elephant Park
Housing Secretary Michael Gove could step in to personally make the decision, a move his department has said he is considering.
Plot H1 is the final plot of the controversial Elephant Park scheme – built where the Heygate Estate once stood.
The plot was originally destined to become housing but Lendlease, having fulfilled its housing obligations elsewhere on the site, applied to build 48,750 sqm of office space instead.
According to Lendlease, “a commercial-led building will best compliment the emerging town centre in the area and help local independent businesses to thrive”.
But local campaigner Jerry Flynn, who is expected to speak at the inquiry, said: “The H1 site should be used for the housing that was promised when the Heygate Estate was demolished.”
The inquiry is scheduled to last eight days.