Committee Report Major Application - Main Body of Document

ANALYSIS INFORMATION

B1 BusinessC3 Dwelling House

Residential Use Details:

Flat/Maisonette

OFFICERS’ REPORT

Reason for Referral to Committee: this application is being reported to the Committee as it entails development of a significant site within the borough, which in the view of the Director of Culture and Environment, should be considered by the Committee (Clause 4).

1.SITE

1.1The Centre Point tower is a major London landmark prominently situated at the junction of New Oxford Street, Charing Cross Road and Tottenham Court Road. The application site relates to the CentrePointTower, Centre Point House and the link building which bridges across St Giles High Street linking the two buildings. All buildings on site are Grade II listed and are within the Denmark Street Conservation Area.

1.2The entire complex was designed by Richard Seifert & Partners in 1960-1966. The tower is 35 storeys with slightly convex sides. One of the most distinctive features of the building is its extensive use of concrete including being an early example of off site pre casting. Over the years a number of alterations have been undertaken to the building such as the infilling of the ground floor under the tower (which was originally the point where the basement car park was accessed) and the removal of the fountain on Charing Cross Road for the construction of the Crossrail station.

1.3The wider area around the site is characterised by many of London’s most popular visitor attractions, including the BritishMuseum, Covent Garden and Oxford Street. Interspersed within the above are residential and other small and large-scale retail uses.

1.4The area around Tottenham Court Road Station and St Giles High Street will experience considerable change over the next ten years. Several projects and major redevelopment proposals in the area are at different stages of preparation. Chief amongst them are:

• Enlargement of the Tottenham Court Road Underground Station ticket hall and implementation of the Crossrail scheme - Construction is underway and has involved the closure of Andrew Borde Street to create a site for the new main entrance to the station.
• Redevelopment of the two Tottenham Court Road station over site developments in Westminster at 135-155 Charing Cross Road and 1-23 Oxford Street/157-165 Charing Cross Road – Planning permission granted by Westminster April 2012 subject to referral to Mayor of London and S106 legal agreement
• Part redevelopment and part refurbishment of the Denmark Place Site to the south of Centre Point – pre application discussions are underway.

1.5The entire site is within the LDF Tottenham Court Road Growth Area, with the Tower being within a designated Central London Frontage. The objectives of the Growth Area are to provide a balanced mix of uses, an excellent public realm, and development of the highest quality and to remedy the lack of open space. The site is also allocated in the submission document of the LDF site allocations (March 2012). Specifically the aspiration for the ‘St Giles Circus’ site is to support high quality development appropriate to this Central London gateway and the creation of new world class public spaces The entire site is also located within an area identified as being susceptible to ground water flooding with potential slope stability issues.

1.6Following approval of the station entrance design at Tottenham Court Road a steering group was established to oversee the development of the urban realm design for St Giles Circus. This steering group consisted of representatives from LUL, Crossrail, London Borough of Camden, City of Westminster, TfL and Design for London. Gillespies developed the designs for the urban realm through to RIBA stage D and these were presented to stakeholders (CABE, Mayor’s Design Advisory Panel, local landowners, local business groups and the Tottenham Court Road Community Liaison Panel, Ward Cllrs and the Cabinet Member for Transport), with a display in the Crossrail Visitor Information Centre on St Giles High Street. A ‘schedule 7’ Crossrail application (see relevant history below) has consequently been approved for the reinstatement of the worksite within the area immediately surrounding the station (to the west of Centre Point tower), which is in effect phase 1 of the implementation of the Gillespies study. The aspiration of the Gillespies study is to close St. Giles High Street and create a new public space in between CentrePointTower and Centre Point House. The provision of this public space is identified in the LDF Draft Site Allocations document with the wider objectives being to provide the space through planning obligations and working with other agencies.These proposals are subject to traffic modelling work and public consultation to determine what the impacts of the road closure would be. The proposals are also dependent on wider proposals in the area including the Tottenham Court Road two way working scheme. The current timetable for this work is as follows:

• Traffic modelling to be completed and assessed by TfL early 2013
• Public consultation in June 2013
• Decision by stakeholders on full implementation of Gillespies study, summer 2013.

2.THE PROPOSAL

Original

2.1The proposal is for the change of use of the tower from office (class B1) and restaurant/Bar (Sui Generis) to residential. The conversion would provide 82 new residential units (16 x 1 bed, 30 x 2 bed, 33 x 3 bed and 3 x 4 bed) in addition to the 36 existing 2 bed residential units in Centre Point House. The provision of ancillary floorspace in the form of a spa, gym, pool and club on the first and second floors of the tower is also proposed. The change of use of the link building and the first and second floors of Centre Point from office (class B1) and bar (class A4) to flexible retail/restaurant/bar use (class A1/A3/A4) is also proposed.

2.2Externally the proposal includes façade and window replacement to all buildings and the relocation internally of the existing external ground and mezzanine eastern and western staircases at the tower. A glazed extension is proposed underneath the link building which would effectively be constructed on St Giles High Street and require the closure of this road. This would require the relocation of bus stands and bus routes via Earnshaw Street. A pedestrian link would be retained underneath the bridge link and a new pedestrian link is proposed underneath Centre Point House. A new public square is proposed between the Tower and Centre Point House.

2.3The buildings would be serviced from Earnshaw Street and the existing vehicular access ramp is proposed to be replaced with two car lifts and a servicing area. The existing basement car park will be used for the location of plant, cycle parking and some car parking (with a reduction of spaces from 105 (of which only 55 are in regular use by commercial occupiers) to 36 (which are proposed to be for the residential occupants of the Tower). New vertical extract ducts are proposed to the northern and southern ends of Centre Point House.

Revision[s]

2.4The enclosures to the northern and southern ends of Centre Point House have been amended with a reduction in depth and the inclusion of glazing. Amended drawings have also been submitted showing revised construction arrangements, revisions to the proposed crossing on Earnshaw Street, changes to the lifts with an extension of the main lift core down to the basement, an increased amount of cycle parking in the basement, the inclusion of electric vehicle charging points. Further information has also been submitted with regard to the Financial Viability Assessment, the search for off site affordable housing locations and the provision of affordable housing within the tower. Further transport information has also been submitted. An amended redline plan has been submitted as the original plan was not clear.

3.RELEVANT HISTORY

Application site

• 2005/2045/Pand 2006/5040/P - Change of use of floors 31, 32 and 33 from office to mixed restaurant and bar use (Sui Generis);
• Change of use of ground floor bank to bar/ restaurant use (ref 2005/1553/P, PSX0204812, PS9704250/r2).Various listed building consents for internal alterations,) new lighting, rooftop plant;
• 2009/4440/L - Removal of existing staircase, erection of temporary external staircases, and erection of new staircase and associated alterations at mezzanine level landing.
• Various advertisement consents for signage on the building;
• Various planning applications for rooftop plant;

Crossrail / Tottenham Court Road station

• Outline planning permission and heritage consents for works required for the construction, maintenance and operation of the Cross London Rail Link (CLRL - Crossrail) were deemed granted by the Crossrail Act 2008.
• Permission for the proposed works is subject to conditions imposed by Section 10 and the planning regime set out in Schedule 7 of the Act. These require plans and specifications for the operations, and works and construction arrangements to be approved by the relevant local authorities. Various applications have been approved including the following:

• 2012/1518/P - Submission under Schedule 7 of Crossrail Act 2008 for worksite restoration scheme at Tottenham Court Road Station (East) (CAM/2/4/1).

4.CONSULTATIONS

Statutory Consultees

4.1Transport for London

Summary

Transport for London (TfL) have advised that additional work on the impact of the closure of St Giles High Street needs to be undertaken by the Developer to assess the ‘final state’ proposal and the various stages of construction. Specifically the transport modelling has not been undertaken to confirm if and when St. Giles High Street can be entirely closed to vehicular traffic. This modelling needs to include wider proposals such as the Tottenham Court Road two-way working scheme and the potential for changes to be made to Denmark Street. The relocation of bus stands in the area has also not been modelled or assessed. The current development proposal also includes the closure of St Giles High Street as early as 2013 to create a works site and this should be modelled as well in relation to LUL/Crossrail construction phases (which have not yet been finalised). TfL therefore object to the planning application.

The applicant has proposed an alternative approach to assessing the impact on the highway network as the wider transport models are not available at this time. TfL do not consider this approach is robust enough to assess the impact of the scheme. TfL are unable to advise when the wider models will be available until the end of the Olympic Games, but they are unlikely to be available until early 2013.

TfL’s initial response on 10 July was

• Formal notifications and approval may be needed for both the permanent highway scheme and any temporary highway works required during the construction phase of the development in accordance with the Traffic Management Act 2004
• The site is currently subject to, as is the rest of the highway network in the vicinity, a number of temporary changes and diversions associated with Crossrail and London Underground (LU) upgrade works at Tottenham Court Road station, immediately to the west of the site.
• The A40 (New Oxford Street and St Giles High Street) and A400 (Charing Cross Road) form part of the Strategic Road Network (SRN), with the nearest part of the Transport for London Road Network (TLRN) being the A3211 Victoria Embankment, approximately 1km to the south-east of the site. As well as being the traffic authority for the Strategic Road Network, TfL has an interest in this development due to its proximity to, and potential impact on, Tottenham Court Road station and bus standing facilities in the area. There are also a number of schemes that affect the highway network in the area and which are currently under consideration, including temporary road closures and diversions due to Crossrail construction, the St Giles Circus Urban Realm scheme (and associated submission under Schedule 7 of the Crossrail act), and its associated proposals to introduce two way working for buses on Tottenham Court Road and Gower Street. This application needs therefore to be considered in the context of these other schemes.

Traffic Impact

• The submitted Transport Assessment states that the closure of the northern end of St Giles High Street has been modelled, and the results presented to TfL’s Network Management Group (NMG). However, it needs to be clarified that this is not the case. Whilst it is intended to model the impact of the closure as part of the ongoing modelling work associated with the Tottenham Court Road two-way scheme, this is currently still not finalised and may not be agreed for some time. The modelling presented to the NMG to date has focussed primarily on improvements to the pedestrian crossing provision at the Charing Cross Road / Oxford Street junction assuming that St Giles High Street remains open to service vehicles and to buses. Likewise, although TfL has previously confirmed that the relocation of bus stands to Earnshaw Street from St Giles High Street could be feasible with or without two-way working in Tottenham Court Road, no such assessment has been carried out using traffic modelling as stated at paragraph 7.2 of the applicant’s transport assessment.
• There is a need for the impact of the closure of St Giles High Street to be fully modelled. This assessment would need to use the existing models as a baseline and which the transport assessment accepts are not yet finalised (paragraph 7.3). This would also need to consider both the AM and PM peak periods, and assess the impacts of the closure both with and without two-way working scenario on Tottenham Court Road.
• In order to carry out this assessment it will be necessary to understand any redistribution of traffic caused by the closure of St Giles High Street, which would inform the scope of any modelling required. At present, it appears to have been assumed that all traffic would instead use Earnshaw Street or Denmark Street, which seems to TfL to be overly simplistic. It also does not take into account the potential for Denmark Street to be closed to through traffic as part of the wider public realm improvements and which would need to be taken into account in the future scenarios.
• The above scenarios are assessed against a baseline year of 2018, assuming completion of Crossrail and LU upgrade works at Tottenham Court Road along with the highway layout reverting to an agreed final state. However, the current timescale for the development involves works commencing in 2013, and the closure of part of St Giles High Street to create a works site. No assessment of the highways impact of this closure has been carried out as part of the application. If the intention is to close St Giles High Street so early in the construction of the proposed development, the impact of this must be modelled to assess its acceptability. This could utilise the existing modelling undertaken by LU as a base, starting with the model produced for Phase D3 of the construction works and also modelling the impacts through phases D4 and onwards. However, models for these phases have not yet been finalised and agreed which might have implications upon the developer’s proposed timescales.
• Given the likely difficulties associated with this, TfL would suggest that the applicant should consider whether the site can be developed without the need for a full closure of St Giles High Street (north). This may be possible if a reduced road width for this section can be agreed. However, TfL would note that this is likely to require the early relocation of some bus standing and provision of alternative loading facilities for local businesses, which will need to be addressed.
• Although bus issues are considered in further detail below, following recent discussions with the applicant pre-submission of the application, it is understood that the relocation of a bus stand to the northernmost end of Earnshaw Street is currently being considered as an alternative to offside bus stands on St Giles High Street. Given the potential proximity of the stand to the Earnshaw Street / New Oxford Street junction, the impact of this would also need to be modelled, building on the above scenarios.

Buses