If you have
any one has any doubt about Labour party being unfit to stay in power after May, just read
this submission on latests part of the Convoy wharf planning stage and ASK why
Labour party on Lewisham council refuse to support any of these proposals...Clearly
People Before profit must get councillors elected in May or we will see as part of this
developer friend agenda the wholesale sell off , of Council homes
across the borough..
Convoy wharf planning submission
from Lewisham People Before Profit
Planning application Reference.DC/13/83358
16 January 2014
The Big word
sound bites prior to
the last general election was big society and localism, empower communities to
have a say on planning and help map out the area and communities in which we
all call home.
Over the past 13 years plus local residents, business and
community groups have been vocal and involved in working with the large number
of community groups seeking to Insure Convoy wharf reflects Deptford’s Proud
and historic Heritage and local residents place within.
People Before profit whilst supporting all the other groups
having a voice this evening wish to focus on what we believe are awesome
opportunities from this development that are not being
reflected in the extensive 184 page plans, for example.
Affordability,
With the average wage in Lewisham of £29.476 per year and
with studio apartments set to start from £300.000 it is hard to see how any
local resident with the average wage will be able to purchase any flats on this
development unless we look at the wider picture and the Long term.
People Before profit would urge
this Council to remember that Lewisham Council was at the forefront of fair housing in the 1960s, supporting Self
Builds, Green Homes and Co- operatives, we
would urge you to insure Affordable homes are built that remain affordable, and
for this we would urge you in supporting a clause in the lease of all
affordable that states they can only be let back to the Council and that any
future sale can only be bought by low paid, this would insure these homes would
not be able to be bought by Buy to Let investors and would be affordable
forever. This week’s report by the GLA
highlighting the fact 50% of all council homes sold are owned by buy to let
Landlords must insure this proposal is agreed and implemented on all affordable
developments using Convoy as the Landmark to change.
Only the Council is aware of what housing is most needed and
we would propose that the Council under pressure to reduce its agreed council policy of number of affordable
units to change this to Square footage instead of Units, this would allow the
council to use these homes for disabled people, Large families or elderly seeking to move to a smaller home to free
up much needed family homes, instead of 40 studios when family homes or
disabled units may be what locally we need.
Energy;
The Plans include agreement with Selchip to turn Lewisham
Rubbish into low cost fuel bills for the private home owners, we see this as an
opportunity to give all residents who will have 13 years of misery whilst all
this work goes on, a share in this low cost
energy and would further ad we would support EU directives encourage
developments of this scale to use the roofs to generate low cost Green energy
for all local residents, not just Convoy Wharf green
roofs would not deflect from the design and would ad real values as people
across the spectrum are aware of Utility price rises and the need to act and
find alternative sources of energy.
Jobs;
The time and scale of
this development means that this could be a wonderful opportunity to eradicate
the 55% youth unemployment figure in Deptford by working with Lewisham College
and others to be trained in all the skills this development will need, whilst
carrying out a full borough wide skills assessment as already agreed by full
Council to keep traffic down to a min by employing as much as possible from the
local community we would request assurances are taken to stop as what happened
in the Olympic park of fast numbers of cheap Labour being moved into caravan’s
on site and then called local residents , key must be tight monitoring and
checks to insure at every level job opportunities are given to local workers
Environment ;
The Risk assessment on sight highlights the fact that the
local water supply is at risk of contamination and that Asbestos could cause
very real concerns as the dust in the air over 13 years could cause very, real
health impacts on local residents in an area with amongst the worst air quality
in the Country and already below EU legal requirements, we would Urge you to
insure that air Quality monitor is installed as a matter of Urgency so air
quality can be monitor before the development is under way and as a way of
measuring the true effects on local residents health during the build.
We would want more real effort to create a real Green Space
that is good for wild life not a couple of trees and a few benches, the
Landscaping must reflect sense of History whilst bring real opportunities for
wildlife to thrive. We would also wish that you would request as part of these
proposal that the River is made more accessible for the community to access and
enjoy.
Access to the site is poorly stated in the report and fails
to address the Fact Evelyn street can hardly cope within the present volume of
traffic and we find it odd that these proposals only take into account Convoy
wharf and none of the other substantial developments presently under way in
Deptford which will lead to a far greater negative impact on the health of
Local residents than this report states, we are also Alarmed that the main
proposed access to this site is via Oxstalls road which is the Home of one of
the largest primary schools in the area and by using this as main access route
puts our children in very real danger , we would therefore urge this committee
to insure Large delivery’s are made by River and not trucks
Commercial space;
We like many are alarmed that the gentrification of Deptford
is pricing out many small business and
the huge number of artists and creative sorts that make Deptford home, the Faircharm eviction of an entire
warehouse of artists priced out by expensive development is testament to this.
We would urge you to work with Mayor Johnson in
turning Deptford into a Green Enterprise zone the EU has announced million s of
pounds in funding for local councils who seek to Manufacture build and develop
Green projects in their own areas, we believe a Green Enterprise Zone would
Turn Lewisham into a Borough of Opportunity and a model that could take all its
families out of poverty green enterprise zone would create thousands of
real well paid long term jobs for both young and old and would not distract
from the Developers financial aims and objectives, Tesco Metro stores seem to
be the only people able to afford the huge rents these new Shops are asking,
Smaller units and looking at the Green Business agenda would be of benefit to community and the developer, the argument that
these Stores bring jobs no longer stacks up. The Tesco Metro on Creek road only has scanning
machines and a security guard, whilst the new
Waitrose only offer 9 full time jobs and the rest as of last Friday were all on 16 Hour contracts. Clearly the
proposals in our submission are based on creating a strong sense of Community,
taking our Community out of poverty and
address both the housing and Jobs crises in
the borough in a way that is sustainable without being too costly for the
developer to object
Convoy Wharf is OF GLOBAL IMPORTANCE, ITS Historic
importance unquestionable.. This opportunity
must be one in which it reflects London housing
need and is not just another opportunity for a company based in another Country
on making billions avoiding its tax liabilities and selling 40% to overseas buyers with no real benefit to
London.
Ray Woolford
On Behalf of Lewisham People Before Profit
Joiun; www.peoplebeforeprofit.org.uk
follow Ray on twitter@Raywoolford
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