PUBLIC MEETING 27 November at Bishopsgate Institute
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Residents and Petitioners Statement 8 November
QUEEN ELIZABETH HOSPITAL REDEVELOPMENT
STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF LOCAL RESIDENTS AND PETITIONERS
We are strongly opposed to the imposition by the GLA of this major building project without public support. It is bad practice and against the principles of localism. Londoners are
witnessing an increasing lack of democracy in the planning of the city.
While new homes are welcomed on this site, over 3,100 people have signed the petition and hundreds have written comments opposing:
– the banality and overbearing impact of the proposed buildings
– the developer’s misunderstanding of the neighbourhood
– the ignoring of the site’s position on the key pedestrian and cycle route
– the wholesale demolition of an attractive and significant local historic building
– the absence of practical communal / retail / business space at ground level
– the effect on the City Farm including overshadowing
– the overshadowing of neighbours
The GLA under the Mayor of London is the landowner presiding over the scheme and will profit from it. The Mayor did not acknowledge the valid arguments put to him during the planning process and waved through the redevelopment.
The developer was chosen in a private tender process, allowing no public debate about the sort of development to pursue. Another tender scheme preserved more of the buildings and showed there was a viable alternative.
Local residents point to the local authority’s abandonment of the buildings for fifteen years, allowing its consequent decay.
We will ask that this scheme be withdrawn in order to agree a new improved design that
provides long-term housing and improves and enhances the area.
Notes to Editors:
1. The petition to Boris Johnson at Change.Org has 3,104 supporters to date. At approximately 2,200 names it was handed to Boris Johnson.
2. On 23 October the Mayor of London approved Tower Hamlets’ granting of planning permission.
3. The land is owned by the GLA.
4. The hospital site was vacated in 1998 and later sold to the HCA for £9.4 million
5. Developers are Rydon and Family Mosaic, architects Hunt Thompson
Contact: qehresidents@hotmail.com https://queenelizabethhospitalsite.wordpress.com
Carry on signing the petition to demonstrate the strength of feeling in the local area and from everyone who cares about the East End.
Localism a sham: campaign continues
Boris Johnson has ignored the petition and the many valid planning arguments put to him.
In his report to Tower Hamlets Council giving them permission to go ahead he makes no mention of those arguments.
We believe that the process to redevelop the hospital was deeply flawed and that the
concept of “localism” is a sham. The Mayor’s unilateral planning decisions favour the few at the expense of the many and contradict his own policy on making London a ‘liveable’ city.
The GLA under Boris Johnson owns the hospital site: it is still public land.
We are examining the background to the decision and considering legal action.
Carry on signing the petition to demonstrate the strength of feeling in the local area and from everyone who cares about the East End.
Boris did not listen
Boris Johnson yesterday did not refuse the plans and chose to let Tower Hamlets’ decision stand, meaning demolition of the hospital buildings to build an ugly and anti-social development on GLA land: money for the GLA.
2600 people signed the petition but our views were sidelined by Boris and his planners. These plans have been undemocratically imposed by City Hall officials and have no support on the ground.
We will be holding a public meeting. Watch this space.
Boris to decide on Wednesday 23rd Oct
Boris Johnson will decide whether to refuse the hospital plans at his weekly planning meeting on Wednesday 23 October. Sign the petition, ask Boris to refuse the plans.
* * * * * * * Keep on signing until the meeting – DEADLINE Wednesday morning * * * * * *
Why are we asking for a refusal?
1. The proposals are top-down and do not have sufficient public support.
2. The public had no part in the choice of developer and we were presented with an off-the-shelf design entailing DEMOLITION OF THE HOSPITAL BUILDINGS leaving only two façades of the Hackney Road building. One of the other schemes kept more of the buildings.
3. We want better long-term housing that includes re-use of some of the hospital buildings and benefits the area. The hospital’s significance, though it is not listed, has been underplayed throughout the planning process.
Send an email to Boris before October 23
tell him that we demand to have a say over what is built here
especially as this is now GLA land, formerly NHS land
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
mayor@london.gov.uk copy to lyndon.fothergill@london.gov.uk
email the GLA Assembly Member for City and East john.biggs@london.gov.uk
SEE HOW TO OBJECT and OUR OBJECTIONS
Ask Boris to say No
* * * * SIGN THE PETITION HERE * * * *
EMAIL BORIS AND EMAIL THE PLANNERS
mayor@london.gov.uk & lyndon.fothergill@london.gov.uk
see SAMPLE LETTER and MAIN OBJECTIONS
Tower Hamlets councillors approved the plans for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital
redevelopment on 29 August. They ignored 183 objection letters and over 200 on the
petition against the demolition of the Victorian buildings which are appreciated as a
local landmark.
Now the application goes to the Mayor of London Boris Johnson who could refuse it. He needs to know that this redevelopment is not good enough: the buildings are too big, overbearing, soulless, they will take light and offer nothing back. As the landowners, the GLA should demand higher standards from their own housing developments.
Send an email to Boris and the planners – HOW TO OBJECT
Goldsmith’s Row would have a row of front doors along its length.
Parasols represent a small row of commercial units next to the underground car-park entrance.
Plans were approved by Tower Hamlets last night
30 August: Tower Hamlets Council approved the plans for the Queen Elizabeth
Hospital development last night in a routine and perfunctory meeting.
No new conditions were imposed and the vote was 5 to 1.
There were 183 individual objections and over 200 signatures on the online petition.
There were no letters of support for the application.
The application will now be passed to the Mayor of London Boris Johnson.
Lobbying will continue – watch this space for the next steps.
COUNCILLORS WHO VOTED FOR THE PLANS
Councillor Helal Abbas, Chair (Labour)
meet your councillor
Cllr Mark Francis, Vice-Chair (Labour)
meet your councillor
Councillor Kabir Ahmed (Independent)
meet your councillor
Councillor Rajib Ahmed (Labour)
meet your councillor
Councillor Maium Miah (Independent)
meet your councillor
COUNCILLOR WHO VOTED AGAINST
Councillor Peter Golds (Conservative)
meet your councillor
TOWER HAMLETS PLANNING OFFICERS
Pete Smith, Jane Jin, Sripriya Sudhakar
SPEAKERS AGAINST THE PLANS (6 minutes)
local residents Mark Harris and Oliver Lazarus
SPEAKER FOR THE PLANS (6 minutes)
Jonathan Murch, Agent, Savills
What’s happening?
The development will go ahead in its current form unless people make their views known and put pressure to change the scheme.
Send an objection at the very latest by Sunday 18 August 2013.
HOW TO OBJECT
Why is it not good enough and what needs to be improved?
The proposed plans
The Hospital Buildings
Sale of the former hospital site
Queen Elizabeth Hospital redevelopment 