Dalston plans go through

DALSTON BETRAYED BY HACKNEY COUNCIL

Despite fierce local opposition, Hackney Council planning committee voted last night to permit a development of 309 new flats, a 19 storey tower block, with no affordable housing or other public benefits.

The development will go over the new Dalston Junction tube station. It is being touted as a regeneration project – but objectors say it is a hugely expensive and overly dense scheme that will create few local jobs and be well out of the reach of local people.

The objectors were a coalition of local groups, including the Kingsland Conservation Area Advisory Committee, the Bootstrap Company, OPEN, users of the Oxfam shop, and Disability Hackney. They were objecting to the lack of affordable housing, and the poor design – some bedroom windows in different ownership will be only 5 metres apart, which is way below acceptable standards. The badly conceived bus interchange will create 100 hundred unnecessary bus movements across the south bound side of Kingsland Road and, in the words of the technical submission, increase congestion to bus services and road users in the area. The external layout creates a barrier to disabled access

The Council was asked if this was the legacy that they wanted to leave for the future of Hackney.

Only five members of the planning committee turned up to vote on this vital issue for Dalston. Although all five had obvious concerns about many of the same issues that were being objected to, only one was brave enough to vote against the proposal. The committee imposed a number of conditions on the development, but the objectors are convinced that the scheme is so bad, tinkering with it just will not help.

Jon Aldenton, Chief Executive of the Bootstrap Company said “this is an absolute disgrace. Dalston has been lumbered with a bad, unsustainable and misconceived development. Allowing TfL to get away with ignoring the standards Hackney usually sets for development creates a really dangerous precedent. The committee made a weak decision last night and it is the people of Dalston who will suffer in the long term. We are hugely disappointed that Ken Livingstone is allowing such a poor scheme to go ahead”.

Bill Parry-Davis, the Chairman of OPEN, the community environmental action company, said “they are not building Jerusalem here but these towerblocks could well become the slums of the future. The need for £40million to create a 2 acre suspended concrete slab, before even any building work can start, preconditions this scheme to an environmental and potentially a social disaster for our community. Of course, TfL get somewhere to park their buses at a fraction of the true cost. And it’ll be rich pickings for the professionals, developers and buy-to-let landlords involved."