Met Police threatens to block Asda’s ‘new town centre’

The Metropolitan Police is threatening to block Asda’s proposed “town centre” in west London amid concerns over public safety.

The authority is demanding hundreds of thousands of pounds in developer contributions so that it can deal with the expected surge in residents and assure the “safety of the local community” at the Park Royal site.

Asda is proposing a 60,000 sq ft superstore as well as 1,600 homes in the area but police warned the project will put “unacceptable pressure” on its staff and budget.

In a letter written to the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC), the planning authority, the Met said the size of the development would “seriously undermine” its ability to meet its policing needs.

Asda’s plans are set to add further 4,000 residents to the area. To cope with the rise, the police wants to tap into funds that developers give to the local authority, which it allocates to infrastructure improvements.

Among its demands are a new 1,600 sq ft base at a “highly visible location in the “heart of the new community”, nearby parking spaces and nearly £310,000 more to “mitigate impacts” on wider police infrastructure.

In his letter to the OPDC, Jonathan Boulton from the Met said: “Without the necessary contribution the development will be unacceptable in planning terms and permission should not be granted”.

He added: “The lack of capacity in existing infrastructure to accommodate the population growth and associated demands occasioned by the development means that it is necessary for the developer of the site to provide a contribution so the situation might be remedied.

“Without the necessary contribution to meet police needs there is a formal objection to the development on sustainability grounds and because the development is unacceptable without the necessary contribution.”

He said that the police has “been successful elsewhere in London in securing financial contributions”.

Asda is developing the site with Barratt Redrow, one of Britain’s biggest housebuilders, to build a “new town centre” for the capital. Plans include constructing five blocks up to 35 storeys high.

Mr Boulton said in the letter: “Faced with unprecedented levels of growth being proposed across London, the Metropolitan Police Service have resolved to seek developer contributions to ensure that existing levels of service can be maintained as this growth takes place.”

He is calling for a meeting with the local authority ahead of a planning application being filed.

The letter is contained in a pre-planning report commissioned by the OPDC, which raised questions over whether there were enough childcare providers in the borough to deal with the potential influx of residents.

There are fears that police and other emergency services will struggle to keep up with the pace of housing growth nationally, as Sir Keir Starmer’s Government sets its sights on building 1.5m homes by the end of parliament.

A survey by the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and the National Police Estate Group last month showed emergency services in England received just £25.4m in total over the past 32 years from so-called Section 106 agreements, which raises £6bn for local authorities every year to allocate to infrastructure improvements.

England’s emergency services have also received just £1.5m over the past 12 years from the Community Infrastructure Levy, which raises around £500m per year from developers, according to the association.

“The emergency services must fund the infrastructure required by new development schemes from their existing budgets,” the report warned.

“This means diverting funding from established communities and diluting operational coverage across the entire area covered by the ‘blue light’ service in question.”

Local authorities have consistently rejected demands from the police in recent times. The London Borough of Sutton recently declined a request to fund more police resources for a housing development at a former B&Q site.

Barratt Redrow, Asda and the OPDC declined to comment. The Metropolitan Police did not respond to requests for comment.