The controversial conversion of an office block near Abbots Langley into flats could have been refused by Three Rivers District Council (TRDC), according to Conservative councillors.
Permission to turn Shannon House into 74 flats was granted in 2020, with a legal expiration date of three years. However, a year later, the Conservative government introduced a minimum space standard of 37 square metres for all studios. Some of the Shannon House flats were as small as 13 square metres.
By 2023, the developers hadn’t started the conversion and applied to TRDC for new permission.
TRDC refused the application due to insufficient parking, but it was later approved at appeal.
A TRDC spokesperson said planning permission for the building, which has been leased to a London borough to house its council house tenants, was granted as part of a Permitted Development Scheme.
The spokesperson said: “Officers are aware this scheme has now been implemented with some minor amendments which benefitted from planning permission. There are no pending enforcement investigations.”
Conservative district councillor Vicky Edwards said: “It is appalling that London councils are abdicating their responsibility by offloading their social housing residents in squalid tiny flats. I don’t understand why the TRDC Lib Dems don’t want to use the powers they’ve got to stop them.”
Lib Dem councillor Stephen Giles Medhurst told ABBOTSnews: “The council and Planning Inspector were only able to assess the proposed development on the basis of transport and highways impacts; contamination risks on the site; flooding risks on the site; and impacts of noise from commercial premises on the intended occupiers of the development.
“The inspector had no powers to consider matters such as the occupier living standards.”
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