Mayor gives Southall regeneration scheme the green light
(25 March 2010)

A major redevelopment that will deliver significant regeneration to Southall - an area with a high South Asian population - was approved by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson today (25th March 2010). At a public hearing at City Hall the Mayor approved plans for the Southall Gas Works Site, which will create up to 3,750 new homes, of which 30 per cent will be affordable, and generate a significant number of job opportunities for Londoners during construction.The plan will boost Southall town centre, with a new town square on the development site and an increased focus on retail and commercial units.

As well as new and affordable homes, the application includes a hotel, cinema, and recreational facilities. It will also open up the Grand Union Canal for local people, allowing new and easy access to the waterway. A legal agreement attached to the application will see the developer contributing over £22 million towards the provision of transport infrastructure improvements, education and health facilities, and public realm improvements for the local community.

The Mayor has insisted that only 2,500 units can be built before South Road bridge, near the development site, is widened by the developer. This will help relieve traffic congestion on routes around the site and ensure smooth traffic flow on the nearby South and Beaconsfield Roads. The Mayor Boris Johnson said: "Having had the chance to listen in person to all the arguments for and against this proposal, and consider the application in greater detail, I am satisfied that all major concerns have been addressed. This application is clearly of major significance to London, with the homes it will deliver and the jobs it will create.

“West London is an important driver for the capital’s entire economy and within a decade it will become one of the best-connected regions in the UK with the arrival of Crossrail. Failure to give the Southall application the go-ahead and develop this key brownfield site could be detrimental to the future economic prosperity of the area. Considerable sums are being invested to bring lasting benefits to the local community and therefore I have no doubt that this development must be allowed to go ahead.”

Ealing and Hillingdon councils, whose boundaries the development will cross, decided to refuse the planning application for Southall Gas Works on 4 November and 10 December 2009 respectively. However, the Mayor believes the development is of major strategic importance for the whole of London, and on 22 December 2009, exercising his new planning powers, decided to 'take over' the planning application so that he could scrutinise it in more detail and determine it himself.