New ZED base to be built

Its proposed three-storey block is shaped like a sail and two floors of office space are raised off the ground to create a ground-floor parking bay, known as undercroft parking.

The firm, which creates low carbon homes, said the premises would be "a showcase for 21st Century sustainable working.

"Our buildings require substantially less energy and so are significantly cheaper to run."

Harrow Council originally threw out the company's application on October 11 last year on the grounds it constituted overdevelopment and there was perceived risk of crime with the open undercroft parking area.

ZED Homes appealed to the independent Planning Inspectorate and the inspector ruled in the developer's favour following a hearing at Harrow Civic Centre earlier this year.

A company spokeswoman said: "We are absolutely delighted with the inspectors decision and look forward to developing Harrow's first low carbon commercial building."

But members of the 400-strong Roxeth Action Group had warned the inspector: "Our lives will be permanently blighted if this appeal is granted."

Harrow on the Hill councillor Eileen Kinnear (Conservative), who spoke in residents' favour at the appeal hearing, said: "I would suggest that they would be very disappointed but we couldn't do anything more.

"I did have sympathy with the residents' views because they have already got two large developments across the road from them, and developers have been putting more buildings on that that particular site."

The neighbouring developments on the Biro House plot - the site of a former pen factory - are The Arc, Barratt Homes' 140-apartment block, and ZedHarrow, ZED Homes' 12-flat development, both of which lie off Stanley Road.