Romford Residents Believe Withdrawing The Como Street Application Is Best As Tower Block Would Cause A Nightmare For Locals.

Following an article in the Havering Daily yesterday on the nine storey tower block in Romford, the Como Street Car Park Action Group have shared their thoughts.

Background

The Como St Car Park Action Group is made up of local residents and businesses, affected by this application. It’s a busy group, and we’ve met twice in public, the last meeting had around 60 residents present.

Nearly 100 detailed objections have been submitted so far by residents, and we expect many more, now that the submission date for objections has been extended until 30th September 2025 We remain disappointed that our team has needed to chase council officers for missing application documents, and that the quality and accuracy of some of the professional surveys is poor.

Our group has received assistance and support from the local branches of the Conservative Party, the Green Party and Reform.

The Application P0897.25

Since the application was submitted, our team have been leafleting the local streets and businesses, and have used social media and our website to keep everyone informed ofthe application’s progress.

The application and plans are unacceptable to our group for the following reasons:

• It will create a claustrophobic and enclosed environment, especially to residents in Linden St and Como St, and will block the late afternoon sun. It is a furtherover-development of the local area.
• The 9 storey block creates issues relating to loss of privacy as far as the next ward.
• In a borough that has one of the highest levels of car ownership in London, is a car free development really viable, or will new residents just find a way to get permits, and park on local residential streets regardless. Other tower blocks nearby have included car parking in underground facilities.
• There is already considerable parking pressure on local streets, which are CPZ’s. Many residents constantly have issues with cars parked across dropped kerbs.
• The design resembles an 80’s style office block, and has no connection to Edwardian residential properties, or the multi coloured monstrosities across St Edward’s Way.
• There will be unacceptable damage to the local eco-system, ripping out 23 healthy mature trees that offset carbon emissions, destroying the habitat of a number of colonies of bats, and displacing a wide variety of bird species.
• The application now provides no affordable or social housing, which was removed by the developer, following a Financial Viability Assessment. During allof the public consultations, it was always made clear that the proposed plans included social housing.
• The promised improvements to the River Rom have also been cancelled for viability reasons.
• The loss of a car park, that is key to the regeneration of North St and Romford Market, is unacceptable. Its loss will impact a number of local businesses that rely on the car park for customer parking. If LBH truly wants to fill the empty shops along North St, and increase footfall, then Como St car park must be retained.
• Local infrastructure is already close to breaking point, the planned expansion ofthe North St Medical practice was recently refused by LBH, and local dental practices aren’t taking new NHS patients. Where are the additional school places,and can the transport network handle any extra demand ?

Conclusion

Given that the full council passed a motion on 03/09/25 instructing a “revision of the Mercury Land Holdings business plan, to focus the company on delivering much needed social homes and driving down temporary accommodation costs”, we believe that the appropriate course of action would be to withdraw the Como St application, to allow there view to take place. Allowing the application to continue would constitute a waste of public resources, money,and considerable time and effort.

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