Councillor Geoff Barraclough, Labour’s Planning spokesperson, has written to Westminster Council’s Head of Planning, Deidra Armsby to ask planning officers to include information in planning reports that allows Councillors on the Planning Committee to judge whether a demolish-and-rebuild application passes the new test of the City Plan.
The new City Plan includes a new policy (38.11):
“As new developments are large consumers of resources and materials, the possibility of sensitively refurbishing or retrofitting buildings should also be considered prior to demolition and proposals for substantial demolition and reconstruction should be fully justified on the basis of whole-life carbon impact, resource and energy use, when compared to the existing building.”