{"id":9416,"date":"2025-12-02T09:46:47","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T09:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/?p=9416"},"modified":"2025-12-02T09:46:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T09:46:47","slug":"london-mayor-ends-stalemate-over-paddington-student-towers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/london-mayor-ends-stalemate-over-paddington-student-towers\/","title":{"rendered":"London Mayor ends stalemate over Paddington student towers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unite has won a long-running planning battle in Paddington after the London Mayor’s office stepped in to overturn Westminster Council and approve its 600-bed Baltic Wharf student towers project.<\/p>\n

City Hall\u2019s intervention draws a line under one of Westminster\u2019s most fiercely contested student housing disputes and finally clears the way for construction to start.<\/p>\n

The \u00a3147m scheme on a Travis Perkins builders\u2019 merchant site had been repeatedly blocked by councillors who claimed the twin-tower block would cause unacceptable light loss and harm nearby conservation areas.<\/p>\n

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Labour and Tory members united to brand the plans \u201cexcessive\u201d, warning the 20-storey massing would create a canyon effect across Paddington Basin.<\/p>\n

But deputy mayor Jules Pipe ruled the now extensively redesigned project met the London Plan \u201cwhen read as a whole\u201d, arguing the student beds, canal-side upgrades and economic benefits outweigh the acknowledged design impacts.<\/p>\n

City Hall also highlighted London\u2019s surging demand for student housing, with at least 3,500 new beds needed every year to avoid piling more pressure on mainstream homes.<\/p>\n

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The green light allows Unite to demolish the current depot at 149\u2013157 Harrow Road and deliver two linked towers containing 605 rooms above a reprovided Travis Perkins operation at ground and mezzanine level.<\/p>\n

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The scheme also brings a new public path along the Grand Union Canal, mooring improvements, canal-side landscaping, a walkway beneath Bishops Bridge Road and a retained historic gable end.<\/p>\n

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from Construction Enquirer https:\/\/ift.tt\/4ZCQ3Gf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite has won a long-running planning battle in Paddington after the London Mayor’s office stepped in to overturn Westminster Council and approve its 600-bed Baltic Wharf student towers project. City Hall\u2019s intervention draws a line under one of Westminster\u2019s most fiercely contested student housing disputes and finally clears the way for construction to start. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-9416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-construction-enquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9417,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9416\/revisions\/9417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}