Greenwich Council's planning commitee gave consent for the 10.8 acre (4.37 ha) site around the Love Lane area of the town centre last Thursday

St James’s Investments, the council and Tesco submitted plans for the scheme in April 2006.

The 1.5m sq ft (139,353 sq m) scheme comprises 960 new homes, 35% of which will be affordable, a library, Tesco as the anchor supermarket, a local council service centre, 231,400 sq ft (21,497 sq m) of civic offices and Tesco and six further shops totalling 26,000 sq ft (2,415 sq m).

The scheme is designed to improve the connection between General Gordon Square and Woolwich Common and revitalise the area’s retail offering. It is expected to create around 600 jobs.

Commenting on the result, Christopher Borkowski from St James’s Investments said: ‘This means that the people of Woolwich will now have a Town Centre that they can be proud of.