Throw-back to 2007: councillor's bid to combine two flats approved
Ten years ago council approved planning chief's super home conversion
Friday, 20th October 2017 — By Tom Foot
Robert Davis
IN February 2007, an application to combine two flats owned by the then city council planning chief, Cllr Robert Davis, was approved by Westminster.
According to the application, which can be viewed on the council’s online planning portal, the proposal was to “amalgamate the flats as a single family dwelling”.
The method was to “form an opening in the wall between [the flats in] Randolph Avenue [Maida Vale] to allow for the lateral conversion of these two properties”.
This week the council changed its policy on super home conversions after outlawing Classic FM owner’s bid to knock two penthouses together in Kensington.
Cllr Davis’ application was submitted by Sam Abrahams, who works as a lawyer at Cllr Davis’s law firm, Freeman Box solicitors.
It is argued in the application that the removal of a wall separating two front rooms of the flats “did not detract from the overall architectural or historic quality of the listed buildings”.
The application was approved by the council’s sub-planning committee and the properties are still listed as separate entities in Cllr Davis’s register of interests.
This week Cllr Davis did not respond to a Westminster Extra request for comment.
Before a change in portfolio in January 2017, Cllr Davis had 17 years’ continuous service as chairman of the council’s planning committee and 15 years as cabinet member for planning.
The council said this week that it was taking “a new direction with these decisions and with policy”
