Almost 1,000 people have signed a petition calling for more local involvement and social housing in the Peckham Town Centre redevelopment.
Campaigners and local residents are calling for Berkeley – the developer behind the landmark regeneration – to listen more to locals, provide 50 per cent social housing and protect shops on the site.
Berkeley’s current proposals would mean redeveloping the Aylesham Shopping Centre site and building 850 flats, including 35 per cent affordable, in fourteen blocks rising to twenty storeys.
The online petition, launched by campaign group Aylesham Community Action (ACA), says: “Plans will soon be submitted for a massive redevelopment of the Aylesham Centre in Peckham. 14 new buildings of up to 20 storeys are proposed for the site – however community awareness remains low.
“The current proposal doesn’t fit, won’t work and must change. Peckham’s communities have not been adequately listened to throughout the process.
“We support development of the site but the latest scheme contains the same issues as the previous, widely rejected plan. A more imaginative approach is possible.”
The current proposals are scaled-down versions of those initially unveiled by Berkeley in December 2022.
Initial plans to build 1,050 homes in blocks rising to 27-storeys were met with huge public outcry and even criticised by Southwark Council.
Although the latest proposals feature shorter towers and more green space, Berkeley has struggled to win campaigners over.
ACA has said the latest plans are “essentially the same” as previous proposals and that the scheme wouldn’t match the character of Peckham.
Berkeley is yet to submit a formal planning application. But if planning permission is eventually granted by Southwark, construction is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2025.
The first affordable homes would be delivered in 2029, the Aylehsam Centre would close in 2030, and the development would be practically complete by 2034.