The legal battle between an Aylesbury Estate tenant, the council and a developer, over the ongoing demolition of the estate she lives on, culminated in the case being heard in the High Court.
Aysen Dennis, 65, whose flat of 21 years is about to be bulldozed as part of the regeneration, initiated her campaign against Southwark Council and the developer, Notting Hill Genesis, in May 2023.
The estate is being demolished in phases. Phase 2B, where Aysen lived, is particularly controversial because it involves slashing the number of social rent homes by almost 50 per cent.
Aysen told us that she believed this was an attempt at ‘social cleansing.’
She originally refused to leave her flat but reluctantly agreed to move in November, into one of the estate’s newly built, council-owned flats.
Despite having moved, she is still technically a tenant of the estate, so Aysen continued with her fight.
Earlier in the year, she staged an anti-gentrification exhibition in her flat in Wendover Block, which featured photos, collages, mementoes and audio recordings documenting her long struggle against redevelopment.
At the exhibition she fundraised for legal aid, allowing her to take the council and the multi-billion pound developer, to court. By doing this Aysen hoped to delay her flat’s demolition and “open the debate” about privately-backed regeneration projects.
Her legal argument was that the council acted unlawfully by allowing the developer to make a change which would make it easier for them to sign off on ideas that vary from the original plan.
In November, the case – which could stop Southwark Council’s plans to demolish her block and build a 25-storey private tower on the site – was heard before Mr Justice Holgate in the Royal Courts of Justice.
Ahead of the hearing, she was supported by around 50 residents and local anti-regeneration campaigners outside the court.
The group demanded an end to the redevelopment of the estate in favour of refurbishment, chanting: ‘refurbish don’t demolish, homes for people, not for profit’.
In 2015, outline planning permission was granted to redevelop the Aylesbury Estate. This establishes the main principles of a development project but allows the developer to hammer out the finer details in subsequent planning applications.
Later, in July 2022, Notting Hill Genesis inserted the word ‘severable’ into the outline planning permission.
According to Aysen’s lawyers, at the Public Interest Law Centre, the insertion of ‘severable’ would allow the developer to build “something different from the approved scheme”.
However, when Notting Hill inserted this change, it did so as a non-material amendment. Non-material amendments are very minor changes and don’t require approval from elected councillors.
Aysen claims that the amendment was not minor, so should have been a material amendment.
“Southwark Council turned a blind eye to the amendment but, thankfully, we were watching,” Aysen said.
She says the council should now submit an entirely new outline planning application.
As for the outcome, Mr Justice Holgate reserved judgment to be delivered as soon as ‘physically’ possible.