BATTLING through mountains of evidence for the public inquiry which finished today into the future of London’s East End has been a tough job for campaigners. But someone has to do it, campaign-coordinator Lucy Rogers has decided

By Mike Brooke

BATTLING through mountains of evidence for the public inquiry which finished today into the future of London’s East End has been a tough job for campaigners.

But someone has to do it, campaign-coordinator Lucy Rogers has decided.

She has been leading the residents’ fight against Tower Hamlets council’s Core Strategy being examined by a Government inspector at the Town Hall hearings for the past two weeks.

“The amount of documents you have to read make attending public hearings prohibitive,” Lucy told the East London Advertiser.

“This process is not designed for the ordinary public who have no foothold in the process. We feel we are not meant to be there.”

The Core Strategy documents contain 232 megabytes of evidence, she has worked out.

The campaigners have analysed public consultations since 2007 and say they are “astonished” at how many community groups and residents appear to have been left out, they told the inspector. They accuse the Town Hall of the minimum consultation required by law.

The Strategy is a guideline for planning decisions over the next 15 years, which campaigners have told the inspector is “unsound” because it is allowing overdevelopment and encroachment from the City and Canary Wharf into the East End at the expense of open spaces and local communities.