JUBILANT protesters cheered from the public gallery when Tower Hamlets council’s strategic development committee rejected plans to build on green spaces on their housing estates in London’s East End. Neighbours living on the Eric and Treby estates in Mile End packed the public gallery at the Town Hall for the decision
JUBILANT protesters cheered from the public gallery when the local authority council’s rejected plans to build on green spaces on their housing estates in London’s East End.
Neighbours living on the Eric and Treby estates in Mile End waved placards from the gallery at the Town Hall when Tower Hamlets’ strategic development committee threw out the proposal on Thursday.
A scheme to build new flats on what is now car parks and green open space would mean the density of buildings would be too high, they protested. Too much open space and too many car parking spaces would be lost, they fear.
NOT ENOUGH
The scheme proposed by East End Homes housing association did not include enough social or affordable’ housing to offset the loss of the open space, campaigners point out, with a gain of only 19 new social’ rented homes with the 181 new units planned.
Tory Opposition Cllr Tim Archer said: “There is a 25 per cent reduction in open space which seems like an awful loss just to gain 19 new social homes.”
But the committee was split over the issue and chairman Shafiqul Haque cast his deciding vote against the development, which would have meant demolishing 27 bedsits and building new blocks between two and seven stories high.
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