A retired couple who sued developers over a 17-storey £35million office tower blocking their light and making it hard to read in bed have won £500,000 in damages.
Stephen and Jennifer Powell complained that the Arbor tower, part of the £2billion Bankside Yards development, 'substantially' reduced the natural light getting into their 6th floor apartment next door on London's South Bank.
Bankside Yards is eventually set to consist of eight towers, including 'mega-structures' 50 storeys high - with Arbor being the first and so far only building completed between 2019 and September 2021.
But developers ran into trouble when the Powells and their 7th floor neighbour Kevin Cooper sued, seeking an injunction to protect their rights of light and threatening the tower with potentially being torn down.
Mr Justice Fancourt, ruling on the case at London's High Court, has now refused the neighbours an injunction - saying that more than £200million would be wasted in demolishing and rebuilding the tower, plus associated 'environmental damage'.
