CONTROVERSIAL plans to redevelop a famous market have been turned down for the second time in a year.
Members of a Greenwich Council planning board used the meeting last night (Aug 26) to unanimously reaffirm their opposition to plans for Greenwich Market.
Site owner Greenwich Hospital wants to modernise it, adding shops and a 100-room boutique hotel.
But after an original application was turned down last August due to concerns about overdevelopment, it launched an appeal - to be heard next month - and submitted a revised plan.
The changed application included keeping the original roof, which developers had first wanted to demolish altogether, and minor changes to the development’s facade.
But Edward Hill from the newly-formed Greenwich 2012 campaign group called the plans “totally outrageous”.
He told the meeting: “It’s about the destruction of a market which has been there a very long time.”
Ward councillor Cllr Maureen O’Mara, who organised a protest against the plans at the weekend, told the meeting she was opposed to the whole plan.
She said: “I think redevelopment of the market would be a wrong move for my town centre which I love very much.”
Cllr O’Mara added: “It takes no account of the World Heritage Site. We only have four in London and we’re host to one of them.”
Board member Councillor Dermot Poston said the plans looked like something from “Tokyo, Toronto or Timbuktu” while Councillor Chris Roberts compared it to “a temporary shed in a garden centre”.
Greenwich Hospital resources director Edward Dolby said afterwards the scheme had “stong support”.
He added: “We’re right to soldier on.
“We’re preserving the market and we think the plans will improve it.”
An inquiry will begin considering the market appeal on September 7.
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