Westferry Printworks update
Planning appeal starts 18th May BUT the GLA, TH Council & the applicant now all agree that the scheme can only deliver 21% affordable housing + pay £43 million in CIL
Removes one of the main arguments against Printworks development.towerhamlets.gov.uk/online-applica… 1/
In theory affordability review later should result in cash contribution from the developer for affordable homes elsewhere if scheme profits greater than f'cst but details of this unclear
But 21% feels low compared to other sites nearby also with schools on site 2/
GLA & TH Council still objecting to the scheme mainly on visual grounds
Northern & Shell pointing out economic positives of this scheme + TH only delivering 74% of its housing targets in the previous 3 yrs, not sure legally whether this applies & I suspect TH caught up in 2020 3/
All parties agree the IoD Neighbourhood Plan although carrying significant weight does not add any new material considerations, given the delay in signing the lease for the new secondary school + other issues I disagree but the @IsleofDogsForum will need to review 4/
But as per normal TH Council tell me none of this, not even having the courtesy of copying me into their correspondence to the Planning Inspector (I did cc them), have to dig this all up myself after a resident told me documents had been updated on the Council website
5/
Harder to tell know what will happen in Appeal (same Inspector as last time who recommended it be dismissed) new Local Plan & London Plan more pro-development on the IoD even then old one
But CIL & affordable issues now settled
& I now worry that case against Printworks weaker
6/
The economic case for supporting development even stronger now due to COVID + Brexit than was
I support development on this site + we need to get new secondary school built but I do not think such a small area can support this scale of development without more support
7/
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Conservative budget amendment tonight from @going4golds & I
Based on proposed amendment from 12 Labour Cllrs + 8,000 laptops for pupils + speeding up infrastructure build
But it explains why affordable in short-term based on extra money from gov
See p3 democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk/documents/b375… 1/
We propose to reverse some of the proposed cuts + reduce Council tax increase from 4.99% to 4.5% based on the 12 Cllrs letter
Ordinarily we would have tried to reduce the Council tax increase further nearer to 2 to 3% in line with salary increases but that would have meant 2/
cuts elsewhere which might not have been acceptable to other Cllrs
We can afford this in the short term because of extra money from government
£7.5 million unallocated from 2020/21
£13 m new COVID grant to arrive April
£4 m new Council tax support
Plus other grants
Plus £7.6 m 3/
New London Plan approved yesterday
Tower Hamlets now has to deliver 34,730 new homes in 10 years, not including London Legacy Dev. Corp. area which has separate 21,540 home targets for north-eastern part of Tower Hamlets + part of Newham & Hackney ⬇️map 1/ london.gov.uk/what-we-do/pla…
But 34,730 target is highest in London just ahead of Newham with 32,800 & Greenwich 28,240 homes
London is moving east
A reminder also that the northern part of the Isle of Dogs is also treated the same as central London from a planning perspective, is seen as an offshoot of 2/
central London or the Central Activity Zone
Isle of Dogs has indictive target of 29,000 new homes + 110,000 jobs ! - highest combined targets in London
Other opportunity areas with higher homes targets are larger but also border us or to our east
The Mayor of London, like his 3/
Something seriously going wrong with comms around consultations at @TowerHamletsNow
Just logged onto consultations website to find 3 important consultations already started talk.towerhamlets.gov.uk/projects
a. Wood Wharf primary school
b. Robert Milligan statue
c. Reuse & Recycling SPD
1/
The recycling SPD there was a public meeting on the 24th Feb, I was not aware of that until yesterday when a resident told me they had been told 1 day in advance
Council cancelled it due to lack of interest! talk.towerhamlets.gov.uk/rrwp
I have asked it be rescheduled
So I logged
2/
onto read it to then find talk.towerhamlets.gov.uk/woodwharf
Consultation on new Wood Wharf primary school
& Robert Milligan statue talk.towerhamlets.gov.uk/robertmilligan
nobody discussed in advance with me (in my ward)
What is the point of consulting if you do not alert people to them properly?
3/
Cubitt Town Library update - may re-open 2 or 3 days a week
The Council has re-considered their proposals in the light of consultation responses, especially I suspect on equalities grounds
The Council now have two new proposals for Cubitt Town library + other library changes 1/
Main option - open Cubitt Town library Monday & Wednesday 10am to 6pm only for a total of 16 hours a week - was previously open 6 days a week
2nd option - same as above but also open Saturday 9am to 5pm for a total of 24 hours a week 2/
Idea Store Chrisp Street & Canary Wharf would still reduce Sunday opening to 4 hours on Sunday & have fewer evening staff to compensate for these changes.
The main option still delivers £1.6 million savings - will reduce staff elsewhere in the evening - still means lots of 3/
Tomorrow night Thursday 7pm we will be looking at the implementation of liveable streets starting with Wapping
Online via Zoom, click on this link to join at 7 us02web.zoom.us/j/85158929398?…
My issues with Liveable Streets are in parts process related
How do you make change with the 1/
community?, how you use data? & specific issue for tomorrow how do you ensure that meet legal public sector equalities duty for those with protected characteristics esp. disabled, aged, pregnant
This is not an argument against LTN but about the process & how they work, start
2/
in Wapping first
To make clear my personal opinion I supported (as did majority of residents) a 24hr bus gate but which allowed EW1W residents + black taxis + disabled through as well as buses rather than the bus only gate at weekday rush hours which we 1st got
Tomorrow want
3/
Yesterday was 25th anniversary of the IRA bomb on South Quay, which killed & injured many people
This Wiki page detail all of the major terrorist incidents in London going back to 1867
The causes in which terrorists were willing to kill & maim Londoners en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_t… 1/
cover a wide range of causes, movements & motivations, even if many were linked to Irish causes in some way
It is great to live in a free society but there will always be people wishing to harm us
Tower Hamlets as it grows in population & importance may become a greater focus
2/
of attacks in the future
And there are things that could be done with relatively little intrusiveness or infringement of liberties to reduce the harm associated with some forms of attacks especially those related to the use of vehicles
But I get no sense that here in TH that
3/