In this high-profile article, our old friend Kieran Long came down to south east London again and managed to write an in-depth article about some of the issues relating to the Convoys Wharf redevelopment without once mentioning how dangerous/shabby/difficult to reach this part of the city is. (If you recall, the last time Mr Long ventured this way to take a look at the Waldron Health Centre, he rolled out all the cliches in the book about New Cross. Hopefully he got them all off his chest last time and will prosper with his new-found maturity.)
Bitching aside, the article is worth a read as it's quite an extensive piece for a London-wide paper. Sure, there are lots of omissions - no mention of Sayes Court or Evelyn's influence, and scant detail about the extent of the dockyard remains - and Long's assertion that the 'scale and character of the spaces around the Olympia building will be fine' rings rather hollow without any clarification or back-up, but it's a fine way of raising the profile for the Deptford is campaign, and Long has made a decent effort to engage with the political and philosophical arguments.
In the meantime, here's a cover that I'd very much like to see. This poster appeared at the end of Ffinch St yesterday, I don't know if it's anywhere else but hopefully the artist responsible is willing to spread the love a little more widely around SE8. Give us all something to smile about. (If you click on the photo to make it bigger you can read the speech bubble; Mr Hawkins is saying 'Nothing here mate').
6 comments:
It might be a good idea for someone involved in the campaign to actually contact Private Eye proper. Just the sort of thing their Nooks and Corners column may take up.
Oh that's perfeck!
Councillor Paschoud, who chairs the Strategic Planning Committee, has contributed his five bob's worth to the comments section of the ES article.
The response to Councillor Paschoud's comment is very interesting regarding this bullying new neighbour. It brings to mind anti-social behaviour. Isn't it anti-social to rob our gardens and homes of daylight and sunlight? To rob us of the chance to enjoy and participate in the heritage of the place? It seems very anti-social to me to say in print that the historic assets of the site have informed the plan, and when the architect responsible for the plan can't point out on a map of the site where those historic assets are then boy oh boy this is a very very low game being played out here. Misrepresentation to the point of being illegal?
If the councillor is correct and the Planning Rules which are in operation are not suited or capable to stop schemes like this then we might as well sack everyone in the council planning dept and give our elected representatives a night off from the planning committee meeting! This scheme is wholly unsuitable to create a sense of place, it is BULLYING the council and more so the existing communities into submission.
As keiran Long says, GOOD ARCHITECTS could achieve the imaginative outcomes that can feel difficult or vague. The fact that the developer says it needs to do it this way in order to make profits stack up for HW and, incidentally,Rupert Murdoch, who has a contract to share profits with HW, makes the evil architectural solutions here even more odious.
The councillor should do more than be "interested" in what the locals think, he should get some real research done on what they want to see, what planning policies he can object with,( they do exist to stop exactly this kind of scheme, if he cares to apply them ), and at least come to meet locals and explain why the council finds itself unable to do anything to improve this proposal and why the Bullying behaviour of the new neighbour can be allowed to go on with the councillors and officers shaking and cowering in the corner.
Consultation on safeguarded wharves review 2011/12 is available on the GLA website.
http://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/planning/spg/safeguarded-wharves-review
Note that the consultation runs until January 2012 and changes to the directions are not expected before Spring 2012.
Post a Comment