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Fury at council 'pantomime' to allow high-rises
Tony Bonnici and Jonathan Prynn1 Dec 2011
A high-rise flats development that residents say will "ruin" one of the last unspoiled stretches of riverside in central London has been given the go-ahead.
About 400 protesters were "tremendously frustrated and disappointed" after Hammersmith and Fulham councillors voted in favour of the scheme after a stormy council meeting.
It will see the construction of two tower blocks of 10 and 15 storeys overlooking a stretch of Georgian buildings on the north bank of the Thames.
After a highly charged four-and-a-half hour meeting last night, councillors on the Tory dominated planning committee voted seven to three in favour.
Local resident Heather Alston said: "It was a forgone conclusion. All the arguments came out and they disregarded them - it was a farce. It was nothing about democracy, it was all about someone wanting to make a name for themselves and riding roughshod over local people."
The project has been opposed by 38 local residents' associations and English Heritage and some 8,500 residents who signed a petition including actors Joely Richardson, Ralph Fiennes and Dame Sheila Hancock, director Sir Trevor Nunn, broadcaster Jeremy Vine and artist Sir Peter Blake.
The sale of the apartments will fund a new town hall but will require the demolition of an art deco cinema and a housing estate for blind tenants run by the Thomas Pocklington charity. There will be 290 flats, a new supermarket and a footbridge over the A4 connecting Hammersmith with the river.
Una Hodgkins of campaign group Save our Skyline said plans to relocate the blind tenants in Cromwell Avenue were "obscene" and condemned the meeting at Latymer School as "a pantomime".
John Jones, chairman of SOS, said: "It only serves to demonstrate the arrogance of this council and the inherent conflict of interest in the council having power to grant itself planning permission. This is a disgraceful deal which shames Hammersmith and is particularly galling as all the councillors who approved it live in Fulham."
Mark Loveday, cabinet member for strategy, said: "It is good news for businesses in and around King Street. It is good news for people who are hoping to get onto the property ladder. And it is good news for taxpayers who will not need to find £18million to refurbish the ugly town hall extension."
Reader views (15)
I live in Barnes and our views of this unspoilt stretch of the Thames River will be blighted forever by this Council Development. Plus the views from Hammersmith Bridge. So many people enjoy that stretch of river and now it will be scarred by four horrendous towerblocks.
And just so the Council gets itself fancy new offices. I just can't believe it. Serving the community? The Council are just serving themselves.
I sat through four hours of that meeting and those Councillors couldn't explain or defend this horrendous scheme at all. Perhaps they felt they didn't need to bother. Again and again the Council were silenced by irrefutable arguments. I couldn't believe it when the Conservative Councillors passed it en masse after all that opposition. Hundreds and hundreds of people were there and their views just got steamrollered. I have never been more shocked than by this sham of a Council meeting.
Democracy? I don't think so. This was a corrupt political decision taken without any regard to what the people think. What have our Conservative Councillors come to? I am voting them out. Boris too unless he changes this decision.
- Dave, Barnes, 03/12/2011 03:17
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This meeting was Hogarthian in it’s farce. “Hammersmith and Fulham, Putting Residents First” displayed on the screen at the beginning of the meeting underlines what a Farago it was. What Residents are we talking about here, because their core vote was protesting in front of them that evening? “Putting Developers First” at the expense of the poor, blind, local culture and green spaces seems to fit. Oh yes and getting some shiny new offices where they can hold £7000 leaving parties for well paid executives. Perhaps the people who can afford these flats will also think that a £250,000 salary is chickenfeed like Boris. The Council says that these flats will get people onto the housing ladder. That’s 24 carat Gold one then? So much for the London Plan!
- Damian, Hammersmith, 02/12/2011 23:51
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I am ashamed to say that I was a Tory voter - no more - the blinkers have come off. I was completely appalled by the farce of a meeting held on Wednesday night. It was like some ghastly operatic tragedy. Sitting with people who will be loosing their homes, while the planning officers mumbled of core strategies and the UDP in order to try and justify the development and re-housing them.
If this was the only reason to be up in arms about this development it would be enough but it is not. There are so many reasons why this development should be called in and stopped in its tracks - the vandalism of our historic riverside, the demolition of our valued local cinema and the destruction of Furnivall Gardens, our much loved open space in this urban jungle.
This is our community and I think that the Fulham based Tory councillors have underestimated our passion for it. If they want involvement and a "Big Society" they shall have one - I for one am not going to take this lying down.
Boris Johnson - CALL IT IN!
- Georgina, Hammersmith, 02/12/2011 11:48
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So the price of addressing 'the ugly town hall extension' is to demolish an Art-Deco Cinema and to blight the view of the Riverside?
- Martin Brinton, World's End London, 02/12/2011 09:07
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Watch closely everyone of these Tory councillors for as long as they remain in office then see where they retire to and who pays. See if their visible means of income matches their lifestyle.
Someone, or some people will have been handsomely thanked for their efforts in approving this huge scheme.
The intended planning law changes are an open invitation to organised planned corrupt conduct at all levels involved that will ruin the lives of many, whilst enriching a few undeserving ones.
That's more or less how the Tories always manage to manipulate life in this country so no one should be in the least bit surprised.
- Concerned Observer, Harrow, 02/12/2011 01:46
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LBH&F council has, yet again, refused to listen to thousands of local residents, community associations and national groups from across the political spectrum who have been united in their condemnation of this dreadful development. The council's blinkered and undemocratic development strategy will abolish historic sight-lines and river views for generations to come. Their place will be filled with monstrous tower blocks and homogenous, wealthy ghettos that will dominate the riverside. It will leave our borough aesthetically, culturally, environmentally and socially impoverished.
Come on all you Londoners who care about preserving the communities and culture of this great city and in particular the historic Thames waterfront!
Let the Mayor know how you feel - this is happening on his watch!
- Jasmine Daines, London, 02/12/2011 00:37
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Whilst this meeting was pure entertainment and excellent theatre - (plenty of fiction and pantomime heckling) the ending was disgraceful. Even though the result was not unexpected it still came as a shock having sat through 4.5hrs of conservative drivel and compelling evidence to vote against!
Shame on them - "Putting Residents First" or "Putting Developers First" ??
- Rebecca, Hammersmith, 01/12/2011 22:42
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This is the most venal council leadership I have ever seen. Totally corrupted by their self-serving ties to the developers. The evidence given against the development was utterly damning and in any normal, democratic judicial process the application would have been rejected. But not at the Hammersmith & Fulham Planning Application Meeting. This was not just a mockery of democracy it actually had very sinister undertones in terms of the Orwellian language used by the planning officers. We now seem to be living in an elected dictatorship and my parents and grandparents didn't fight in and survive two world wars for our generation to witness tyranny rear its ugly head on these shores. Nonetheless, the struggle continues to stop this obscene plan and Boris Johnson should pay attention to the uproar and outrage that this rotten borough is creating even amongst longstanding tory voters. Beware at the elections!
- Carlo, London, 01/12/2011 20:48
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Has anyone noticed they want to build 286 new homes, yet they're only providing 100 parking spaces. Utterly ludicrous and short sighted. It will either mean blight on nearby roads with a lack of parking space, or it'll mean people will be buying homes without the ability to ever own a car (very bad investment if they want to sell them on). Who makes these idiotic decisions?
- H Morgan, London, 01/12/2011 14:44
Ah but think of all the parking and parking fine income this type of planning generates!
Well someone has to subsidize the millionaires in their multi million pound pads who only pay council tax on £500,000 if its value!!
Anyway think of the wonderful view of the river from these flats I a clear day you will be able to wave across to your Wandsworth neighbours!!!
I bet their was no campaign in the foutnightly H&F Tory News the council loves to produce!!!
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 01/12/2011 19:55
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How many of those whining about this decision voted for the Tories at the last council elections?.You got what you voted for.A typical Tory Council.
- colin, barking essex, 01/12/2011 17:43
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This was a travesty of a meeting. Tory Councillors voted en masse for the Hammersmith Development Scheme. They disregarded compelling arguments that the historic riverside at Hammersmith should not be blighted with four towerblocks rising up to 15 storeys. A local park will be destroyed, blind people's homes will be lost and the local cinema sacrificed for the Council Scheme but the Tory Councillors did not care; one of them spent the evening on his Blackberry.
Jargon was the order of the day for the Council who claimed that 290 luxury flats in overcrowded Hammersmith was a 'great benefit' to the local community. But they couldn't manage any affordable housing. All this, so that the Council can award themselves fancy new offices. It is shameful that local government has come to this.
The Council appear to have entirely forgotten they are voted in to serve the community and not themselves. Hundreds of people attended this meeting and many, many more queued outside and were unable to get in. However, in the end they may as well not have bothered. The views of the people who live in Hammersmith counted for absolutely nothing.
- Jane, Hammersmith, 01/12/2011 16:07
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Has anyone noticed they want to build 286 new homes, yet they're only providing 100 parking spaces. Utterly ludicrous and short sighted. It will either mean blight on nearby roads with a lack of parking space, or it'll mean people will be buying homes without the ability to ever own a car (very bad investment if they want to sell them on). Who makes these idiotic decisions?
- H Morgan, London, 01/12/2011 14:44
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I also attended this meeting. Was totally staggered by the sheer arrogance of Stephen Greenhalgh and his Tory councillors. The 'no' camp absolutely steam-rolled the planners- it was almost embarrassing to watch at times- but the councillors still voted it through to build new luxury offices for...... Guess who??? Themselves!
Eat your heart our Putin!
- Ben, Shepherds Bush, 01/12/2011 13:34
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What a farce. Planning officers appeared to be reading from a script, and not even a particularly good one. Tory councillors asked leading questions to get positive answers, and ignored the much more serious ones raised by the opposition. English Heritage's objections were dismissed out of hand. One councillor broke ranks and did a brilliant 20-minute hatchet job on the scheme, calling into question its supposed regenerative benefits and pointing out countless flaws and deficiencies in the arguments in favour. She deserved and got a standing ovation, but it made absolutely no difference.
The clear message was that all planning officers had to do was interpret planning legislation and guidance and they could do that as partially as they liked. The committee didn't even bother to listen to the arguments properly, one was using his BlackBerry throughout. Residents' views (in their thousands) counted for absolutely nothing. Totally shameful.
- Mairi, London, UK, 01/12/2011 13:18
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This was the weirdest meeting I have ever been to. An incoherent and totally prejudiced presentation by a supposedly independent planning officer who just happens to be in the Department run by the council official responsible to promoting the development. A developer whose CEO just happens to have given £300,000+ to the Conservative Party. A group of councillors, who were meant to be performing a non-partisan quasi-judicial role, but all chose to vote along party lines. And all the councillors who voted for the scheme live in Fulham. It felt more like North Korea than Hammersmith. Shame on Mr Greenhalgh and his acolytes.
- Charles, Hammersmith, 01/12/2011 13:07
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