Chef Delia Smith joins other celebrities in park fight

CELEBRITY chef and football club chairwoman Delia Smith has joined the fight to save an east London park.

The Wapping resident and Norwich City FC joint majority shareholder has joined Helen Mirren, Steven Berkoff, Kenny Lynch and Lee Hurst in campaigning to save King Edward VII Memorial Park near Wapping.

The park is being threatened with a super-sewer tunnel shaft by Thames Water as part of its massive Thames Tunnel project.

She said: “Sometimes you don’t agree with things, but you can understand the logic. In this instance there cannot be any trace of logic - in a built up area that’s highly populated with families, and particularly children who live in flats with no access to a garden, to remove this tiny bit of green space is quite simply idiotic. I sincerely hope the permission for this scheme will be withheld.”

Member of Save KEMP are asking Thames Water to consider nearby brownfield sites for the shaft instead of their community park.

A spokeswoman for Thames Water said: “The nub of all this is that untreated sewage currently overflows into the river via a ‘Combined Sewer Overflow’, located beneath the park. We recognise intercepting these unacceptable discharges - ie getting them into the tunnel, not the river - won’t be easy, but they have to be tackled. Our consultation is all about finding the best way to do it. Listening to local views is a key part of the process.”