Plans for nine homes on Hackney Car Centre site in Mare Street could be signed off

Plans to demolish a long-standing Mare Street car garage and build nine flats could be given the green light after being altered by developers.

Hackney Car Centre had been in the road for 32 years but closed in December, when owner Kemal Ahmet decided to move to Essex.

Firm Shanglade wants to build homes on the land, and after opposition to the original plans over the excessive height facing Pemberton Place, the proposals will come back to Hackney’s planning committee again on Wednesday.

Officers have recommended the scheme is approved, despite neighbours and local planning advisory groups still complaining about the scale of the plans.

The Central and South Hackney Conserv ation Area Adivsory Committee said in a report: “The proposed height along Pemberton Place does not does not sit comfortably and is excessive in height and the imbalance of the proposed large windows where the proposed property adjoins with the existing Victorian cottages.”

The Hackney Society, too, said nothing had changed since the plans were redesigned. It said the designs were lacking in “personality” and the sash windows were incongruous and unnecessary.