General view of Woolwich Crown Court, London
(Picture: PA)A temporary extension to one of London’s crown courts looks set to be made permanent amid a fullscale crisis in the criminal justice system.
Woolwich crown court’s capacity was boosted by five hearing rooms in 2011 amid grand plans to eventually replace the temporary extension with a permanent redevelopment at the southeast London courthouse.
However, the permanent extension failed to materialise in the following ten years and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is now seeking to retain the temporary building as a long-term addition to the court.
The MoJ is relying on the near-60,000-strong backlog of criminal cases as a compelling reason for keeping the extension, in spite of its “tired” look and concerns about the long-term quality of the building.
Plans were lodged with Greenwich council last autumn but stalled amid objections from Transport for London about car park spaces. Councillors have now been urged to grant planning permission at a meeting on July 5.
Planning officer Giulia Acuto said in her report the MoJ believes the temporary extension – which will not be structurally altered or improved - “is still of strategic importance” and “in light of the continued backlog of cases and the rationalisation of courts over the years” the extension “is still required to meet the increasing need for courtrooms”.
When the extension was first approved by the council, a strict ten-year time limit was set on the building because “long term retention of these structures would not constitute a suitable high quality design solution”.
But the deadline for demolition passed in August 2021, as the MoJ belatedly made a bid to save the building from the bulldozer.
In its bid for permanent planning permission, the MoJ set out: “The courtrooms provided by the extension are being used at full capacity for hearings and this is expected to be the case for the foreseeable future due to the substantial backlog of cases.”
It also revealed the other seven courtrooms at Woolwich are soon due to be shut down for a “significant period of time” to allow for a revamp of the air conditioning system, placing even greater reliance on the extension’s capacity.
Greenwich Council has publicly stonewalled on the progress of the planning application for the last nine months.
But correspondence obtained by the Evening Standard shows TfL had concerns over the amount of car parking on the site while an urban design officer commented on the existing cladding looking “ a bit tired”.
“It was probably not conceived to last for a long time,” they added, suggesting the council investigates the future “durability” of the temporary building.
The MoJ cited security reasons while rejecting a reduction in parking spaces and has raised the possibility of extra trees and hedges to screen the building from the main road.
It has concluded the building is now “suitable for long-term retention” and the cladding’s remaining service life “should extend to at least a further 15 to 20 years”.
The department has been privately pushing for planning permission on the extension for months, insisting in May that it “really does need to get a decision this month”.
An attempt for approval under delegated powers was rebuffed as the site is too important, and councillors on the Planning Board will now make the final decision next week.
