The decision comes after it was revealed that planning committee chair Sinan Boztas would be removed from his position, reports James Cracknell

Plans for ‘Tepe Tower’ (credit Yen of London)

Plans for a Brimsdown tower block that councillors had been repeatedly urged to throw out for safety, design and financial reasons has finally been refused at the fourth time of asking.

The decision came amid a number of absences from the planning committee meeting held on Tuesday (5th), most notably chair Sinan Boztas, who it’s now been confirmed will be permanently replaced in the role.

Labour councillors on the committee had repeatedly and inexplicably refused to reject the ‘Tepe Tower’ plans at the site of the derelict Station Tavern pub in Green Street, adjacent to Brimsdown Station, on three separate occasions going back to July 2022.

At the first two committee debates, councillors had been given twelve reasons for refusal by Enfield Council’s own planning experts, including concerns over fire safety, financial viability, absence of affordable housing, inadequate children’s play spaces and poor design.

At the third committee debate last July, this was reduced to three, but each reason was deemed enough on its own to justify refusal.

It remains unusual for planning applications to not be refused after being recommended for refusal, and the continual insistence from Labour councillors that the developer should be given more time to address the multiple major planning concerns had angered Conservative committee members.

Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, while some improvements had been made to the 17-storey, 81-home proposal, officers explained that it still offered no affordable housing and described it as “not well designed”, with further concerns around the scheme’s ability to make sufficient financial contributions to help provide the additional local amenities that would be needed.

It was enough to finally convince councillors on both sides that the plans were unacceptable.

The decisive vote came despite an agent for developer Yen of London Ltd earlier making an attempt to intimidate the committee by telling them they would “take it to the planning inspector” and “fight to the end” if they refused it.

Murat Aydemir pointed out that concerns around flooding, which formed one of three reasons for refusal presented to the last committee debate, had now been addressed by redesigning the ground floor. Emphasising how much time and work had gone into the scheme, going all the way back to 2019, he said: “We have had 15 meetings and five or six workshops and at every point we have resolved every issue that is picked up.”

This claim was flatly denied by council planning officer Gideon Whittingham, however, who told the committee there remained several “significant” problems with the design and suggested that the developer’s “higher than typical profit margin” for the scheme was one of the reasons it remained unviable and could not provide any affordable housing.

A council transport expert also told the committee that the traffic and parking problems the tower would create if built would “potentially block emergency access” in the area.

Gideon, seemingly frustrated at the developer’s refusal to admit defeat over the plans, added: “There have been long negotiations that have taken a considerable resource from ourselves.”

When it came to the debate among committee members, it became clear that councillors were finally ready to agree the scheme’s refusal, with only vice chair Mahym Bedekova prepared to offer any defence of it when she said: “We need housing, housing, housing – five years is a long time.”

For the vote, Cllr Bedekova abstained, but all other councillors agreed the officer’s recommendation to refuse permission for the two remaining, substantial reasons – that the proposal was “not well designed and would represent an insufficiently high quality, incongruous form of development”, and because the scheme’s lack of financial viability would mean it “fails to mitigate its impact on local services, amenities, infrastructure and environment”.

As well as Sinan Boztas missing the meeting, regular member Bektas Ozer was also absent. Both had voted against refusing permission back in October 2022.

At a full council meeting taking place on Wednesday (6th), a shake-up of committee members, if agreed, will see both Cllr Boztas and Cllr Ozer removed from the planning committee. Suna Hurman and George Savva will take their places, with Cllr Bedekova taking over as chair.

As well as the controversy over Tepe Tower, Cllr Boztas also attracted criticism two years ago for failing to properly declare which properties he owned in the borough and, most recently, for his prominent role in a September decision to approve a “dangerous” dropped kerb for a Labour colleague.

Update (6th November):

The Dispatch understands that Cllr Ozer’s removal from the planning committee was necessary because he has been appointed as the new chief whip for the Labour group.

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