Building homes must balance with environment and heritage

Published: 3:08 PM March 5, 2009 Updated: 8:13 AM October 14, 2020

Dear Ed, We urgently need the investment in housing which Tower Hamlets has been denied by Conservative and Labour governments over the last 30 years. But building new homes has to be balanced against ensuring the environment is preserved and there is due respect for the East End’s heritage

Dear Ed,

EVERYONE knows there is a massive housing crisis in the East End of London, with 23,000 families on the waiting list and 12,000 overcrowded.

We urgently need the investment in housing which Tower Hamlets has been denied by Conservative and Labour governments over the last 30 years.

However, building new homes has to be balanced against ensuring the environment is preserved and there is due respect for the East End’s heritage. Families in the area around Dod Street in Limehouse face two threats from both these reasons.

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Poplar Harca housing association promised an open space would be returned as a grassed area with a children’s playground that is sadly lacking here. Now this has been ditched in order to build a small number of town houses.

On the other side of the road, the historic Labour Exchange building that housed Poplar Jobcentre is faced with demolition and replacement with an 11-storey eyesore.