Destruction of the Noah's Ark - an update

Tuesday's shocking revelation that the former Noah's Ark pub, a landmark building at the entrance to Deptford High Street conservation area, had been torn down without permission prompted a swift response from Lewisham Council.

After members of the Deptford Society reported the situation to Lewisham's senior conservation officer Joanna Ecclestone, council staff paid a visit to the site and ordered work to stop immediately.

Ecclestone subsequently wrote to members of the society with the following information, which has been forwarded to me:
We are very grateful to the resident who alerted the Council to this unauthorised demolition on Tuesday. Officers visited the site that same afternoon and stopped work, and the Council is now investigating the planning breach, which is a criminal offence under Section 169D of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and will take robust action.

The existing permissions to convert to residential and change use and add a mansard roof extension are no longer valid as the building no longer exists.  

The planning permissions were granted as 'permitted development' for this particular building. Now that the building no longer exists, these permissions are null and void and new applications will have to be submitted for any new building on the site.  

Perhaps a new pub building (or a reconstructed one) would be apt?

Meanwhile more details have emerged about the ironically-named contractor Build With Confidence Ltd, whose logo and contact information is emblazoned across the covers which were put up around the scaffolding to obscure the illegal works taking place within. 

Companies House information reveals that Build With Confidence went into voluntary liquidation almost two years ago in January 2018. It's impossible to know whether the people actually carrying out the work were employees of Build With Confidence, or whether they had simply appropriated the hoardings and company logos to give their illegal work a veneer of credibility.