A FUROUS row is developing over Town Hall plans for “Britain’s most expensive car pound” in London’s deprived East End. Tories are angry that an expensive piece of real estate in Whitechapel, a quarter-of-a-mile from the City centre, is being turned into a car lot for towed vehicles

By Else Kvist

A FUROUS row is developing over Town Hall plans for “Britain’s most expensive car pound” in London’s deprived East End.

Opposition Tories at Tower Hamlets are angry that an expensive piece of real estate at the beginning of Whitechapel’s Commercial Road, a quarter-of-a-mile from Aldgate in the City centre, is being turned into a car lot for towed vehicles.

They’re calling for the scheme to be scrapped like an old car and instead put up badly-needed housing to relieve the East End’s 23,000 waiting list.

PRIME LAND

“What a waste of taxpayers’ money and what a waste of prime land,” said Tory deputy leader Tim Archer.

“If Labour is serious about helping overcrowded families on the waiting list, they should be building new homes on this site, not making it Britain’s most expensive car pound.”

Labour’s housing chief Marc Francis hit back saying the site was only going to be used temporarily as a car pound. It could well end up being used for housing in the future, he hinted.

STRANDED

The council wants to move the present car-pound from an isolated site by the River Lea off the A13 East India Dock Road, three miles away.

The proposed site would be closer to public transport links for stranded motorists who’ve had their cars impounded.

The ruling Labour group has approved plans to bid for the leasehold of the one-and-a-half acre site.