Mercury House Expansion is Approved
Local Greens disappointed as decision "ignores climate change impact of boilers"
Mercury House, Glenhurst Road with the proposed additional floor (taken from consultation documents)
Plans submitted by Hounslow Council for an additional storey on top of the existing existing Mercury House have been approved.
The new floor on top of the existing blocks at Mercury House would provide 6 properties. Three will be affordable rent and three shared ownership flats.
A public consultation took place in 2019. Issues raise included concerns about the height of the building, oversighting and overshadowing, some suggestions about plans for the soft landscaping around the block, and positive feedback on the secure cycle storage. 30 comments were made to the planning application.
Local Greens were deeply disappointed when planning permission for the Mercury House development in Brentford was approved by Hounslow Council, even though the plans include gas boilers. Hounslow Green party believes this decision is a big mistake because it ignores the climate change impacts of the boilers.
Tony Firkins, the Hounslow Green Party co-ordinator, and Secretary of the Green Party Energy Policy Working Group, said “We welcome the provision of six truly affordable homes.”
“We have very real concerns regarding the climate change implications for this proposal due to the planned use of gas boilers. We don’t believe that the plans approved align with the London Borough of Hounslow’s declaration of a Climate Emergency and the consequent Climate Emergency Action Plan, because the development is not zero carbon. The London mayor’s policy is that all developments should be zero carbon from 2019.”
“The gas boilers should be removed from the plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Instead heat pumps should be used. It will be much cheaper to make the development zero carbon from the start, rather than build it and change it later.”
“This is a very important issue, because 80% of the Council's emissions come from social housing. We need to start addressing the Climate Emergency now, because we are all running out of time.”
The additional floor will provide six more flats: 3 x 1 bed, 2 x 2 beds and 1 x 3 beds.
Proposed new south east elevation (from planning application)
The planning application can be accessed by visiting planning.hounslow.gov.uk/planning_search.aspx and entering P/2019/4366
February 13, 2020
