3.1 The Greenwich Peninsula is a challenging site to develop, bounded by the Thames to the West, North and East and with limited road access from the South, much of which is dedicated to serving the Blackwall tunnel river crossing. Though the Jubilee Line station has greatly boosted the capacity of transport links, current transport capacity is still a limiting factor for developing the Peninsula. Equally, the approach flight paths to London City Airport limit the height of buildings which can be constructed on the Northern part of the Peninsula. As a result, any development proposals from English Partnerships or any other landowner would have to take into account the capacity of the Peninsula as a whole to cope with the additional economic, physical and environmental pressures, particularly in terms of additional traffic movements.
3.2 The London Borough of Greenwich, which on 23rd February 2004 granted planning permission for the Meridian Delta scheme, considers that the scheme (described in Appendix 3) has given the Borough, for the first time, a comprehensive proposal for a larger part of the Peninsula as a whole, showing how the land owned by English Partnerships, Quintain Estates11 and London Underground Limited should be developed, coherently rather than in potential conflict. In Greenwich's view, this represents a major advance on the previous Competition's proposals for just the Dome and the adjacent 20 acres, the 'Red Land', where it had been unclear to the planning authority whether such partial proposals might complicate or prejudice later development on other parts of the Peninsula. Having this full picture was a key factor in enabling the planning authority to consent to a larger, denser and so more valuable scheme than previously envisaged (See Figure 14).
14 | The Meridian Delta Scheme |
The Masterplan proposals envisage a new urban quarter based on the principles of sustainable mixed use, high density and high environmental quality. The main elements proposed are: 1 Change of use and retention of the Millennium Dome, with some external alterations; 2 Erection inside the Dome of a 20,000 seat Dome Arena; 3 Creation of the Dome Waterfront, a sports, leisure, entertainment and retail complex within the Dome; 4 Construction of Millennium Square; a large plaza between the Dome and the London Underground station serving it, and designed to accommodate large crowds and special events; 5 Car Parking to serve the Dome Arena and Waterfront; 6 Up to 10,010 residential dwellings, student and special needs housing; 7 Up to 325,000 square metres of office, research and development floorspace; 8 Up to 18,600 square metres of light industrial, business park floorspace; 9 Community uses including schools and health care provision; 10 48 acres of Public Open Space; 11 A new Hotel; and 12 Up to 22,800 square metres of retail space and up to 11,000 square metres for food and drink. Source: Meridian Delta Limited | |
3.3 By the second sale process, in April 2001, English Partnerships' overall plan, called the Flexible Framework, had evolved, reflecting the higher densities likely to be achievable. This led to the evolution of Meridian Delta's own masterplan, including the Quintain land, which now has planning permission and is based on the higher densities being promoted by current national policies, and with increased amounts of affordable housing, across the whole Peninsula.
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11 A member of the Meridian Delta consortium.