People power victorious in new Chelsea Barracks plan

Residents have followed the example of Prince Charles to force major changes to the £2.5 billion Chelsea Barracks redevelopment.

Plans for a "six-star" 90-bedroom hotel on the Pimlico Road and Chelsea Bridge Road corner of the site have been scrapped because of concerns about late-night drinking.

The Middle East developer Qatari Diar has now said the space due to be occupied by the hotel will instead be used for more flats and shops.

The developer has been at pains to keep local resident groups on board after the row over Lord Rogers's original proposal, which was derailed by Charles in 2009. Residents had complained that the hotel would increase levels of traffic, noise and late-night drinking.

As a result, a revised outline planning application submitted to Westminster council for the £2.5 billion project no longer contains a hotel or any other drinking establishment.

Other changes to the masterplan - by architects Dixon Jones, Squire & Partners and Kim Wilkie Associates - include a new pedestrian route through the scheme's "community garden", an increase in the number of green roofs and solar panels and the lowering of a number of buildings.

Prince Charles objected to the original modernist glass and steel masterplan on the grounds that it was "unsympathetic". The plan was subsequently scrapped.

Since then, Qatari Diar has insisted that a "sensitive" new masterplan would be produced through "high levels of public engagement and creative involvement".

The extent of this engagement has surprised the Belgravia Residents' Association. Randa Hanna, who chairs the association's planning group, told architects' weekly Building Design: "They have been very careful - they've almost gone overboard. I can't think of another project in London with this level of [community] involvement. Had the earlier scheme had this kind of consultation, there might have been a different result. However, what concerns me is whether their attitude will remain the same once they have planning permission."

The proposed scheme as a whole will now include up to 448 homes - 85 more than previously planned - a small-scale supermarket in Ebury Bridge Road, a leisure centre, a farmers' market and the possible use of the Grade II-listed chapel on the site for "landmark" arts and architecture events.

"It is not unrealistic to believe that a national gallery such as Tate Britain or the Royal Academy of Arts might be willing to lend curatorial assistance," the new planning application states.