Plans to redevelop west London school and build 300 homes scrapped over community concerns

At a Hammersmith and Fulham Council Planning and Development Control Committee meeting on Tuesday members voted to side with the officers’ recommendation and reject the submission.

Lawrence Foley, Chief Executive at Future Academies, said the trust is “disappointed” by the decision and is considering its options.

Phoenix Academy is an Outstanding-rated school in the north of Hammersmith and Fulham.

It is a coeducational secondary provision and sixth form consisting of a range of buildings constructed between the 1950s and 2010s.

In planning documents it is stated that Future Academies took over the school in 2016.

A maintenance backlog which mainly pre-dates Future Academies’ involvement has built up over the years, with a comprehensive refurbishment estimated to cost around £40 million.

The proposed redevelopment would affect the site’s western collection of buildings, which the school has described as “outdated, underused and unsafe”.

The scheme received 60 representations in-favour during consultation and more filed since, with 34 against.

A petition was also submitted by the Wormholt Residents Association (WRA) which drew 718 signatures.

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In a report prepared ahead of Tuesday’s meeting Hammersmith and Fulham Council officers recommended the application be refused.

They wrote the design and scale “would result in an overbearing and dominant development which would harm the character and appearance of the local townscape, and as such would represent an overdevelopment of the site”.

They also raised concerns about the impact on local heritage, the quality of the proposed accommodation and the loss of sports facilities.

This last point was also noted by Sports England, which objected to the scheme.

Speaking to committee members Julian Vallis, a local resident and Treasurer of the WRA, said with the right approach an application for the site could deliver a win-win.

He told members: “We engaged constructively at every stage, even offering viable alternatives.

So we want to be very clear.

We are not here to block development, but we demand Phoenix is developed with us, not over us.”
Mr Vallis claimed the applicant had “consistently ignored” attempts at engagement by the community and that the proposal had been developed “in isolation”.

“The applicant’s logic effectively seeks to deprive us of our light, our heritage, our safety, and our breath, just to make an Outstanding school bigger.”
Three local Labour councillors (Nicole Trehy, Natalia Perez and Max Schmid) also spoke to object.

Each of them expressed support for a redevelopment of the school but warned against approving the submitted scheme.

Cllr Trehy said the application was “not the best we can do” and claimed the consultation process had “fallen short”.

“It is a once in a generation opportunity and it risks being squandered through a rushed and poorly considered process.”
Mark Smith, Development Director at London Square, said a notification was received “out of the blue” just before Easter that officers were recommending refusal, despite having received no feedback from the council since submission last September.

Mr Smith requested the committee defer a decision to allow a proper response to the points raised by officers, as did Mr Foley.

“This is not about expanding an Outstanding school,” he said.

“This is about matching an Outstanding school with the facility that it deserves.”
Mr Foley continued: “These proposals represent the best chance our school has of securing the more than £40 million that we need to make improvements to the academy.

Members will be fully aware that these costs are spiralling upwards each month, linked to inflation, and we do not have the luxury of a wait and see approach when it comes to the future of the education that our children deserve.”
Conservative councillor Adrian Pascu-Tulbure asked officers what had broken down in their conversations with the applicant to result in the recommendation to refuse.

He was told “significant concerns” had been raised during the pre-application process which were not addressed, and that officers did not believe the proposal was ready to be submitted.

The other Tory member on the committee, Cllr Alex Karmel, asked about the feared impacts on heritage.

He drew attention to the recently-approved Earl’s Court scheme, which, while he voted in-favour, had listed buildings closer to the site.

Cllr Karmel said it “doesn’t seem quite just, given the scale”.

An officer said both applications went through heritage assessments, with considerations for the Phoenix Academy scheme including its location in a conservation area.

Cllr Karmel proposed the application be deferred, though this was rebuffed by the committee’s three Labour members.

The application was refused on the same party lines, with Cllr Karmel and Cllr Pascu-Tulbure voting against the officers’ recommendation to refuse.

Mr Foley said: “We are disappointed with the planning committee’s decision on Tuesday evening.

We believe these proposals deliver a balanced, long-term investment in education, alongside much-needed housing , and this was supported by more than 80 letters of support, from parents and pupils, for the application.

“We have worked hard to secure our ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted rating, and this project aims to provide modern, flexible facilities so that our school can continue to thrive, broaden its offer to students and the community, and operate in facilities that match the quality of the teaching.

We will now consider options for moving forward.”