TrustNews Dec 22

Redevelopment and cutting carbon?

David Gleave ponders the issue of renovation vs demolition

 

 

The new Winchester District draft Local Plan says at the outset that it addresses the challenge of combatting climate change head on, and rightly so if we are to meet the Council's ambition for the district to become carbon neutral by 2030, in just eight years.

 

This fundamental commitment brings with it many interesting implications.

 

On 4 November, a two week planning inquiry in London closed. It was held to examine a proposal that has remained in the spotlight since Westminster Council granted planning permission in November 2021 - the demolition of the famous M&S Oxford Street store at Marble Arch.

 

The basis of the inquiry, ordered by the Government, was whether it was right to grant consent given the heritage and historic environment issues.

 

However, it also addressed another controversial aspect - the immediate release of 40,000 tonnes of embodied carbon caused by replacing the store with a 10 storey office block. This quantity of carbon is equivalent to a typical car driving 99 million miles - more than the distance to the sun. The inquiry heard that the proposal would pay back the carbon lost within 17 years of the 120 year lifespan of the new building.

 

When they emerge, the planning inspector's conclusions will be reported beyond the specialist architectural and planning journals and hopefully will offer interesting guidance on the retrofit versus redevelopment debate.

 

Back in Winchester, as Richard Baker reports (Central Winchester Regeneration), the Trust has objected to the City Council's application to demolish Friarsgate Medical Centre on grounds including that there has been no investigation as to whether it could be temporarily re-purposed as housing or anything else.

Now, Friarsgate and the Marble Arch store are on vastly different scales, but given the urgency of the challenge and the Local Plan's emphasis on cutting carbon, it is interesting to wonder how the issue of embodied carbon may affect applications involving demolition and the broader issue of redevelopment?