On 7 April the Mayor of London notified Kingston and Merton Councils that he would be calling in both parts of this cross-boundary application, and that the GLA would become the local planning authority for the whole scheme.

His reasons are twofold:

• The proposal would have a significant impact on the implementation of the London Plan, through its potential contribution to housing and affordable housing.
• Sound planning reasons: housing, public realm, transport, financial contributions, etc

The full Stage 2 Referral Report can be found here.

There has been much confusion about the call-in process and how to object to the GLA, not helped by both applications being listed on their planning portal with various inconsistencies. The GLA has confirmed the following to us:

• Comments can be submitted up until the hearing.
• All original comments submitted to Kingston and Merton should be made available to the GLA.
• Additional comments can be submitted to the GLA
• Identical planning applications have been submitted. All comments relating to this application are expected to be collated.

Although the Kingston application is currently closed for comments,  you can use the Merton listing. If you are interested in submitting additional comments, we would recommend reading our objecting page as new information is now available on each Council’s website.

More information generally on the call-in process is available on the GLA website or Planning Aid for London.

We must now wait for a public hearing at City Hall. Based on previous hearings, and an unusually large amount in the pipeline, it is reasonable to assume that ours might take place in the Summer or even Autumn.

We will be meeting with the various stakeholder groups over the next few weeks to discuss lobbying options and will keep you posted.