Optimising an implemented hotel permission through Section 73

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At 18–22 Crown Lane in Morden, planning permission was granted in September 2024 for the redevelopment of low-rise commercial buildings as a seven-storey, 85-bedroom hotel. Following acquisition and further design development, Ealing Grove Ltd identified changes needed to improve the building’s operation and deliverability.

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Rather than reopen the principle of development through a new application, the project team pursued amendments under Section 73 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Application 25/P0446 sought to remove the commencement condition and vary the condition identifying the approved drawings.

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Merton treated the proposals as minor material amendments that retained the consented use, height and overall design approach. The revised plans enlarged parts of the building between the first and sixth floors, altered the fifth floor and roof form, and reorganised the hotel’s front- and back-of-house accommodation. These changes increased the number of bedrooms from 85 to 98.

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The application also introduced screened windows on the western elevation, relocated cycle and refuse storage, removed two on-site parking spaces and replaced the approved living walls with architectural brick detailing. Accessible parking was addressed through the conversion of an existing on-street bay on Windermere Avenue.

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The principal planning issues were the building’s increased bulk, neighbouring privacy and daylight, parking, wind conditions and the loss of the living walls. Following amendments and further consultation, officers concluded that privacy screening, acoustic plant enclosures, revised refuse arrangements and the existing technical evidence adequately addressed these effects.

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A Deed of Variation secured £2,898 for two street trees and £1,000 for short-stay cycle parking. It also updated the carbon-offset provisions, using £308,220 as the reference figure for a future recalculation rather than as an immediately payable contribution.

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The Section 73 application was approved under delegated authority in January 2026. The resulting permission sits alongside the original consent and enables the applicant to deliver a more operationally efficient 98-bedroom hotel without changing the established principle of development.