Councillors decide on 13 October whether 24 social rent homes can go on Citizen Road, Harvist Estate, where building stopped in 2022. Elia Mews is also up.

Islington’s Planning Committee decides on Tuesday 13 October whether the council can build 24 social rent homes along Citizen Road on the Harvist Estate. Building on the same strip started in 2021 and stopped in 2022. Part of the site has been fenced off ever since.

Planning officers recommend that councillors grant permission (officers’ report, P2026/1683/FUL). The meeting starts at 7.30pm in the Council Chamber at the Town Hall on Upper Street, and the public can attend (agenda).

The same evening, the committee also decides whether the underground car park beneath Elia Street, near Angel, can become a self-storage unit. Both are covered below.

What would be built on Citizen Road

The council’s own housing team is the applicant. It plans two two-storey terraces on the eastern edge of the estate, between Hornsey Road and the railway viaduct. Every home would be let at social rent, the report says.

Terrace Homes
Northern, backing on to Rixon Street 4 three-bed houses, 2 four-bed houses, 4 flexible two or three-bed houses, 4 ground-floor wheelchair accessible two-bed flats
Southern, along the viaduct 10 two-bed houses

The scheme also includes:

  • 462 square metres of play space, including accessible and sensory play
  • 70 new trees, with one existing tree removed out of 54 on the site
  • new seating and meadow planting
  • a larger turning head at the north end of Citizen Road so fire engines can turn
  • nine Blue Badge bays: seven re-provided for existing residents and two for the new homes

The homes would be car free apart from those bays. The council would also pay £30,850 towards offsetting carbon and fund two construction work placements, under the terms set out in the report.

Why this is back at committee

Councillors approved 24 social rent homes in the same place in March 2019 (P2018/2767/FUL). Work began, so that permission is still live in planning terms. The site was cleared, the embankment along Rixon Street was removed, a temporary steel retaining wall went up and some piling was laid.

Then it stopped. The report says construction began in 2021 and halted in 2022. It does not say why. The council’s new-build team was advised that a fresh application was needed because policy and building rules had changed since 2019.

The new design adds ground-floor toilets and lifts to the first-floor flats, and changes the windows to reduce overheating. Officers accept that some ground-floor kitchens and living rooms would get less daylight than national guidance recommends. They put this down to the four 19-storey towers, the railway and the higher ground on Rixon Street.

Parking on the estate has been in limbo in the meantime. Before 2019 there were 106 spaces along Citizen Road. Since the enabling works, the report says, the east side has had no parking at all, the southern part of the site has become overgrown and parking on the west side is “ad hoc”.

What objectors said

The council wrote to 667 homes on the estate and in Isledon Village. It received five objections, plus a detailed objection from the Harvist Estate Action Group. Points raised include:

  • loss of daylight and outlook for neighbours
  • loss of green space and trees
  • the estate already being at capacity
  • loss of parking, including disabled bays
  • fire engine access to the towers if Citizen Road narrows
  • the risk of piling near the tower blocks
  • years of disruption from the abandoned works, and antisocial behaviour around the fenced site

On fire access, the report says the London Fire Brigade was asked and had “no observations to make”. The Building Safety Regulator made no comment because the new homes are not high-rise buildings. Officers say structural safety is dealt with under separate legislation.

The Harvist Estate has 432 flats across four towers and four low-rise blocks. A separate plan for 29 flats on the old Harvist Under 5s Nursery site was approved by the committee in April 2026, and its legal agreement has not yet been signed, according to the same report.

Elia Mews car park: self-storage under Elia Street

The other application on Tuesday is for the basement car park beneath 36 to 137 Elia Street and 1 to 16 Elia Mews, in the Duncan Terrace and Colebrooke Row conservation area (officers’ report, P2025/0790/FUL).

Petticoat Lane Investments (IOM) Ltd wants to turn most of it into a self-storage facility. Officers recommend approval. The plan would:

  • remove 80 of the 102 parking spaces
  • create 211 lockable storage units, from 1.5 to 30 square metres
  • keep 20 spaces for Islington Council, which owns the freehold, as the applicant’s lease requires
  • add two short-stay spaces for storage customers
  • open 8am to 7pm on weekdays and 10am to 4pm at weekends and on bank holidays

The opening hours were cut back during the application. The original proposal was 6am to 10pm Monday to Saturday. There would be no external changes to the building.

Neighbours sent 33 objections. They argued the car park is one of the last off-street car parks nearby, and that the nearby Theseus Walk car park was approved for self-storage in 2021 partly because Elia Mews offered an alternative. Others raised van traffic on narrow streets, noise, and a 999-year lease that they say limits the site to car parking.

Officers say the storage would not add vehicle trips compared with a full car park, and that the area’s controlled parking zone means losing the spaces would not cause unacceptable parking stress. They propose conditions on noise insulation and an operational management plan.

The objectors are right about the lease. Officers confirm it permits car parking and vehicle storage, plus the council’s 20 spaces. Self-storage would need the council, as freeholder, to agree a change. Planning permission would not change the lease, the report says, and would not imply the council will agree.

What it means for you

  • If you live on or near the Harvist Estate or Elia Street and want to speak at Tuesday’s meeting, you need to register in advance. Call the planning department on 020 7527 2278 or email enquiriesplanning@islington.gov.uk, the agenda says.
  • If the Harvist homes are approved, the council still has to sign a Director’s Agreement covering the carbon payment and work placements before the permission is issued.
  • If you park in Elia Mews car park, approval would mean only 22 spaces remain, and 20 of those are reserved for the council. The council would also have to agree a change to the lease before storage could open.
  • You can follow other decisions on our Islington planning news page.

We will report the outcome of both applications after the meeting.