Campaigners furious at the height of a proposed development on Peckham Rye’s Aylesham Centre have produced a series of shocking graphics showing how it could look.
Aylesham Community Action (ACA) says the images show how the 27, 20 and 18-storey blocks would “loom over” Peckham like “a citadel”.
Controversial Aylesham Centre plans send shockwaves through Peckham
In a statement, ACA said: “Berkeley Homes’ plan for Peckham Town Centre is unacceptable – it would change the character of Peckham forever. It does not have the consent of the people who live, visit and work there.
“It is a massive overdevelopment with enormous buildings – a citadel that will loom over lower-rise, historic Peckham.”
In response, Berkeley has said it is reviewing public feedback to its designs and will produce more detailed plans for consultation in the coming months.
Berkeley bought the site in 2021 and first revealed details of their plans in November last year.
Its proposals would mean building 1,050 homes, of which 35 per cent would be affordable, office space, retail, green spaces and a revamped Morrisons, on the site.
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One of the blocks in the plans, located to the east of the site, would rise a staggering 27 storeys, while others would be as high as 20, 18 and 15 storeys.
However, Southwark’s own planning guidelines state the site is suitable for just 850 homes. In an open letter, the council also said new blocks should not “generally exceed” ten storeys in height.
ACA accepts that Berkeley has produced visualisations of the development but that they fail to “show the full scale of the development and height of towers.
An ACA spokesperson said: “Only one side view of the development was included in the presentation visuals, attached, and the tallest buildings in this image had been cropped at the top of this photo, so the full heights of the towers were not shown.
“The ACA would welcome Berkeley to share visualisations of their development from street level and its impact on Peckham, and in particular on its protected conservation areas, in order to enable residents to provide feedback based on the full facts of their proposals.”
A Berkeley spokesperson said: “Following our series of consultation events from November to January, we are now reviewing all feedback received from our community engagement.
“Our team is currently developing more detailed plans for consultation in the coming months, which will include a series of proposed views and wider imagery showing our proposals for the Aylesham Centre.”
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