Boris Johnson dealt a major blow to The Oaks Action Group when he ruled that the Acton Regeneration Committee’s (ARC) plans to turn The Oaks shopping centre into a nine-storey gated community were 'acceptable' last Wednesday (December 18).

David Millican, leader of Ealing Conservatives and campaigner against the plans said that he was disappointed by the Mayor’s decision.

But Sir Edward Lister, deputy mayor for planning, said: “This scheme will prove to be a real fillip for Acton, redeveloping a shopping centre in need of modernisation and delivering almost 150 much-needed new homes and a children’s play space.”

However, Mr Millican said this left the campaign group hanging by a thread.

Speaking of the letter Angie Bray, MP for Ealing Central and Acton, has written to the secretary of state for communities and local government, Mr Millican added: “It all depends on whether Eric Pickles will review the plans or not."

The development would create 142 new homes and jobs for 500 people. Yet The Oaks Action Group oppose the plans and say the new homes would create a residential density 30 percent higher than the maximum allowed in the London Plan.

They would increase traffic, put pressure on local infrastructure, would be out of proportion with the surrounding Victorian architecture, and will put St Mary’s Burial Ground and a number of other homes in shadow for most of the day.

The Ealing Conservative Leader said: “It is the wrong development for the area. It is too big and too large. The area needs developing, but it needs a more modest development than this, something like a supermarket would be good, but not this.”

The Oaks Action Group, which is campaigning against the shopping centre scheme, said it was angry at the failure to address any of the "fatal flaws in the Acton Regeneration Company's dog's dinner of a plan".

Spokesman Doug Carnegie added: "We worked hard to focus less on the fact that Acton residents overwhelmingly loathed it than on its almost willful failure to stick to well-publicised planning rules and guidelines. It wasn't just that people didn't like its Soviet-style monolithic design. It was disliked largely because it ignored Local Development Plan guidelines, which now appear not to be worth the paper they're written on.

"So too with Boris's powers. The Mayor's office insist the London Plan is the Bible in these matters. Yet despite this tawdry scheme far exceeding London Plan density levels, the Boris ruling says these shouldn't now be regarded as 'proscriptive'.

"This bending of rules to benefit developers has been the most depressing constant in the whole process. From the shameful no-reasons-given decision by a single vote of Ealing Labour councillors in October, to the lame no-reasons-given sign-off by a Conservative Mayor, democracy has been a big loser in all this.

"But we're a stubborn bunch and we haven't lost faith in the power of argument. So we'll lick our wounds and go again - to Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles. There's also the option of a Judicial Review."