james acaster and nish kumar join fight to save peckham from huge flat development

James Acaster (left) and Nish Kumar (right) have helped raise more than £46,000 for the campaign (Pictures: Getty)

Comedians Nish Kumar and James Acaster are backing a battle against what protesters have dubbed ‘gentrification on steroids’ after a developer announced plans to tear down a historic shopping centre and replace it with flats.

Berkeley Homes has applied to build 867 homes on the site of the Aylesham shopping centre and market,triggering a backlash from locals who claim the development is a further step towards pricing out families who have lived in the south London town for generations.

The application for a series of high-rise towers has been referred to the planning inspectorate,which rules on controversial developments and is a legal process. The Berkeley plans allow for only 77 affordable homes,which has been dismissed as unacceptable by campaigners.

Peckham,the setting for much much-loved comedy classic Only Fools and Horses,when it was considered a poor area south of the river,has been transformed with property prices rocketing in recent years.

The Aylesham Centre shopping mall in Peckham,south London,is at risk of being knocked down and replaced with flats (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)

With its proximity to central London and the City it has become a well-heeled area with developers circling for opportunities to bag prime sites.

The Aylesham Centre,built in the 1980s,is home to an indoor market and a range of long established shops and is owned by Berkeley who now want to bulldoze it to be replaced by a mixed development with flats.

Campaigners believe the developer is targeting those seeking to buy apartments as second homes or investment opportunities rather than providing affordable accommodation.

TV presenter Kumar and Off Menu podcast co-host Acaster have held fundraising gigs helping to raise more than £46,000,which will be used towards pay for a barrister to represent the campaigners at the planning inspectorate inquiry which starts on October 28.

Businessman Lord Harris of Peckham has also made a donation to the campaign and Southwark Council opposed the development.

Nish Kumar told Metro: ‘Developers like this are ripping the heart out of this city. Londoners need affordable housing,not another block of flats,bought by investors,that have no interest in our communities and are turning our neighbourhoods into ghost towns.’

Siobhan McCarthy,of Aylesham Community Action,who is from Peckham,told Metro: ‘These plans amount to gentrification on steroids. The plans have no buy in from the community and these flats will be snapped up by international investors and bring nothing to the community.

‘The Aylesham is a meeting place for many people and there are shops and stalls with lower prices. We are not anti development but this will rip the heart out of Peckham. It’s a battle for the heart and soul of this historic place.

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‘This is a great scheme,designed by award winning national and local architects in line with the Council’s development brief. However,delays cost money. Worsening market conditions and rising costs forced us to amend our plans – reducing the affordable housing – so that the project can finally go ahead.’

How Southwark Council have responded

Helen Dennis,Southwark Council’s cabinet member for housing said that the development was not acceptable and favoured the ‘privileged’.She said: ‘We want to create a Southwark that is for everyone,not just the privileged. That’s why we’ve delivered 3,000 new council homes in Southwark,either finished or under construction,and last year more genuinely affordable homes were completed in Southwark than any other London borough.‘We have a responsibility to deliver affordable housing to the people of our borough. We are driven by the huge impact that the housing crisis is having on our borough,with over 20,000 households on our housing waiting list and 4,000 households in temporary accommodation.‘In the face of this,it is vital that the council does all it can to secure as many social rent homes as possible through the planning process.  ‘Our target proportion for affordable homes in any new development is 35% and we fight to uphold and meet,and where possible exceed this target,working with developers to do so. In the adjusted proposal from Berkeley Homes for the Aylesham site,the low proportion of affordable housing and uncertainty about the delivery of Community Land Trust homes do not justify the development and impact on the heritage of the Rye Lane Peckham Conservation Area.‘The new plan also contradicts stipulations around design,character,conservation and heritage of the National Planning Policy Framework. Southwark Council therefore does not support the proposal from Berkeley in its current form and the council is preparing to defend its position robustly at the planning inquiry.’Got a story?If you’ve got a celebrity story,video or pictures