Stokey Local will be holding a public meeting at 7pm TONIGHT (Monday 11 May 2015) at St Paul’s West Hackney Church, on the High Street, at the junctions of Evering and Amhurst Roads.
Everyone is welcome and they hope to answer all your questions about what has happened and what might happen next.
Stokey Local have announced that last Monday 19th May 2014, at the Royal Courts of Justice, the first hearing took place relating to the judicial review of the Council’s decision to grant planning permission for the Sainsbury’s/Wilmer Place development.
Stokey Local goes on to say that originally, this was intended as a full hearing of the judicial review of the Council’s first decision to grant planning permission in August (JR1). However, after a number of legal arguments it was decided that it was best to use the time to address a range of procedural issues – including whether there is a case to answer on challenging the second decision (JR2) and if so, whether both cases should be heard together).
The case has been taken forward by Nick Perry, but he has the support of the community at large in seeking to prevent a development which actually reduces the number of “affordable” housing units on site, damages the biodiversity of Abney Park Cemetery and will undermine the viability of many of independent stores on the High Street and Church Street.
Thanks to the sterling efforts of our team of barristers (who are working on a ‘no win, no fee’ basis) we have been granted permission to proceed with the judicial review of the second planning permission (you may recall that the developer sought to outmanoeuvre JR1, by getting the Council to grant planning permission for a second identical application).
The permission judgment basically says that on all of the points we raised about the second planning permission, we have an ‘arguable’ point. It doesn’t mean we will necessarily win – the full court hearing will decide that – just that there is a case to be answered. That we have permission on all the points is very, very good news.
Given this decision, it is highly unlikely that the developer will now try the same trick of seeking a further grant of planning permission for the same development. The two Judicial Reviews will now be heard together and the lawyers will have to submit a revised set of court documents for the combined cases in the next few weeks. Then there will be one hearing on both Judicial Reviews, lasting two or three days, these are expected to take place 14, 15 and 16 October.
As Russell, our expert on biodiversity observed, it ‘means the site is safe for at least another summer (which the bees and other insects will appreciate)’. Of course, if we actually win the case, the site will be protected for a considerably longer period (although the developer could still submit a further application).
Procedural point on disclosure
We also asked the court to order the publication of the full financial viability statement ahead of the Judicial Review. This document was the developer’s justification for there being so few affordable units in their proposal. The Council accepted their arguments but refused to put the statement or its own analysis into the public domain; arguing that publication would jeopardise the developer’s ‘commercial confidentiality’. Our point is that if we don’t see it, we cannot effectively challenge it.
After lengthy reasoning and consideration, the court refused our request for disclosure on this point. In effect the judge ruled that this is a matter for the full hearing, rather than a preliminary stage. So our failure to win that point doesn’t necessarily affect the prospects of the Judicial Review. It just means we don’t have any specific ammunition on the validity or otherwise of the original viability statement. Our legal team (which includes the leading expert on information rights) are considering the possibility of appealing this point.
Separately the Council have undertaken an internal review and have concluded they were right not to release the info. We will be pressing the point formally with the Information Commissioner’s Office, as there are a number of cases that contradict this assertion.
The full judgment on the disclosure and permission on JR2 is available here. And the draft court order that is the output of all this is here.
Finances
We originally launched a financial appeal to support Nick’s efforts based on running one JR. While our barristers are working at no cost to our side (on a no-win, no-fee, basis), we still have to pay our solicitor’s fees and any costs for expert reports. The granting of permission to proceed with JR2, effectively means that we need to raise an additional £5,000 to ensure that if we lose (which is a possibility) then we will have sufficient funds to cover any award of costs against Nick.
Consequently, we now need to raise some more money. We are not at this stage asking those who have already donated to give more, rather we are encouraging those who have yet to make a donation to do so.
Many people have given £50, but every little helps, and it is only the widespread support of the community that has allowed us to get this far, and we now have a real chance to overturn the decision at Wilmer Place.
So if you have not donated yet, please consider making a donation now.
Council elections
Stokey Local is not a party political group, we have enjoyed widespread support from across the political spectrum, but it is good to see that some of our allies have done particularly well in the recent elections. In Stoke Newington ward, Louisa Thompson, and Susan Fajana-Thomas (both Labour), two great advocates of our campaign were returned. Meanwhile Barry Buitekant (Labour) and Ian Sharer (Lib Dem) who consistently voted to oppose planning permission in the Planning Committee are also both back on the Council. The Green Party, which has been consistently supportive, also received substantial support (although no councillors) coming in second in numerous.
Review and next steps
At the moment, much of the action is taking place in terms of legal arguments about planning procedure, but over the next few weeks we will set up a meeting where we can consider what further steps we can take to unite the community and put pressure on the Council to adopt a better approach to planning in our area.
Now the elections are out of the way, we can consider lobbying the new faces in the Town Hall to get the planning department to be braver and think differently about how the Council can challenge developers.
Thanks for sticking with the campaign. Much still to do, and it wouldn’t surprise me if there are a few tricks and turns on the part of the developer and Council, before the substantive hearing of the Judicial Reviews.
Hackney Unites is organising a series of public meetings where the community can put questions to the candidates.
Why not get along to one of these events and ask your questions (whether it is about planning, or any other matter).
Tonight, (Friday) at St John at Hackney Church, Lower Clapton Road, E5 0PD from 6:30pm to 8:30pm, where the focus will be on housing issues.
Next Wednesday 14 May, at St Michael & All Angels, Corner of Fontayne Road and Northwold Road, N16 7ED from 7pm to 9pm, with a particular focus on Cazenove Ward.
Next Thursday 15 May is the Mayoral Question Time from 6:30pm to 8:30pm in the Council Chamber of Hackney Town Hall, Mare Street. If you wish to participate in this meeting you will need to pre-register given the high level of interest, if your name is not on the list then you will not be able to get in.
Just when you thought it was safe …
As you may be aware Conservative Councillor Linda Kelly has recently submitted a renewed application to take control of planning policy in Stamford Hill.
What we need to do now is:
Background
There has long been a conflict in the area about ‘over-development’. A minority group within the Charedi (ultra-orthodox Jewish) community, not supported by a single Rabbi, but encouraged and supported by Conservative Councillors are seeking to establish an ‘area of exception’ where normal planning rules do not apply. Disgracefully, Conservative Councillor Linda Kelly and her colleagues are exploiting community tensions over planning issues for her own political ends.
The Council Planning site has details of the proposed forum’s application. However to learn more about its real intentions see the recent article by Jonathan Freedland in the Jewish Chronicle.
This is substantially the same as the application that was submitted by the Stamford Hill Neighbourhood Forum this time last year, and rejected in July by the Council as divisive. The report to Cabinet found: ‘there are deep-seated divisions within the community in this part of Hackney on planning issues’ (para 9.2, Stamford Hill/North Hackney Neighbourhood Area/Forum Applications Key Decision No. LHR H14: 22 July 2013) and they rejected the proposed forum although they did agree a neighbourhood area (intending to progress to the development of a council lead Area Action Plan)
This application is designed to prevent the declaration of an Area Action plan, and we have until Friday 31 January to raise any objections to this latest incarnation of the proposed forum.
Time to object
If you can find the time you should take the time to register a written objection to ldf@hackney.gov.uk, entitling your email: ‘Central Stamford Hill neighbourhood forum’, Please also copy your response to planningwatch@btinternet.com
The key objection is that the so-called Stamford Hill Neighbourhood forum is unrepresentative, and seeks to subvert existing planning policy and procedures in an area where planning policy is very divisive.
Rather than addressing community concerns it would simply allow one special interest group to legitimise what would currently be impermissible development.
You might want to reference Jonathan Freedland’s article.
There is also an interesting and revealing Guardian item.
While both articles relate to the earlier incarnation of this proposal, the substance and motivation has not changed. It is also worth noting that the suggestion that the proponents of this application have sought to engage with us is dishonest.
A counter-proposal
It makes sense for us to submit a counter-proposal. To do this we need 21 local people living, or working, within the designated area to agree to put their names to an alternative ‘Stamford Hill (community) Neighbourhood Forum’.
The area is bordered by Bethune Road, Dunsmure Road, Portland Road, Braydon Road, Oldhill Street, Clapton Common, Spring Hill, Lingwood Road, Craven Walk, and the northern boundary of the borough.
If you will add your name to the counter-proposal that will assist us (we do not actually want any neighbourhood forum in this area, but a counter-proposal is a tactical move that illustrates that the current proposal does not enjoy cross-community support.
Getting organised
Can you please take the time to complete a short survey with questions about leafleting, meetings etc.
Let people know
We have less than a month to stop this proposal. Can you please forward this email on to friends and neighbours, can you also please send out a tweet, or post in your Facebook (if you have them):
Planning watch organising to stop the Tories exploiting community tensions in Stamford Hill: http://us6.campaign-archive2.com/?u=eab600714b6d301a22f1f829b&id=2ee53b40b4&e= Please RT
Sign up
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Planning Watch planningwatch@btinternet.com
Hackney’s Planning Subcommittee will decide tonight on the latest Sainsbury’s/Wilmer Place application. Everyone is welcome to come along to the Town Hall on Mare Street from 6pm. Stokey Local will be there with a ‘Stokey Claus’ some presents and some variations on traditional carols.
The One and Only Stokey Claus
The developer is hoping to bounce the council into approving this, the third, application before the decision on our current judicial review.
The application should be rejected because it adversely impacts on a conservation area, on traffic, on the local independent stores (the character of the area) and on the biodiversity of Abney Park.
As this is an identical application to one the Council have already approved, they have the power to:
You can help
Next steps
Whatever the outcome on Wednesday, we have booked a room in the town hall so we can meet immediately after the decision, and discuss together the next steps for our campaign.
Can we would also urge people, in the event that the decision is not the right one: please do not vent your anger at the councillors, the officers or the developers. We are an organised group and have plans in place to deal constructively with any set backs that occur. We don’t want to waste our energy, or give ammunition to our detractors. As the saying goes: ‘don’t get mad, get even!’
If the Council do vote to approve, we are still hopeful that the Secretary of State will ‘call in the decision’ (i.e. take responsibility from the Council and refer it to the planning inspectorate). Our petition now has 5,787 signatures. It would be nice to get that up to 6,000 before Wednesday, so please circulate this message and ask friends and neighbours to sign up.
Finally, if all else fails, we will seek further legal advice about a second judicial review.
We’re hopeful that we’ll get the right decision on Wednesday – but we are also prepared in case we don’t.
Diane Abbott: it’s make your mind up time
We are still encouraging Diana Abbott to join us in asking the Secretary of State to ‘call in’ the latest application. While she has put an ‘Early Day Motion’ (EDM, a form of petition for MPs) down in parliament, she has not added her voice to the demand for on the Secretary of State to ‘call in’ the latest application.
Unfortunately, her EDM will have no impact on the current application, and frankly will almost certainly have no impact on anything whatsoever. Parliament’s own website explains how EDMs work (or don’t): ‘An EDM is not likely to be debated even if it gains a large number of signatures.’
Diane’s EDM currently has two MPs signed up (and one of those is Diane), so we can be certain it will have no effect. Adding her voice to the nearly 6,000 that have already urged the Secretary of State to call in the application could lead to the matter being looked at by planning professionals who will not be intimidated by the developer.
Diane needs to make her mind up before Wednesday; is she is going to support the ‘call in’, or stay silent. If she chooses to stay silent her inaction will not be ‘neutral’, it will undermine the impact of the nearly 6,000 local people who have signed the petition.
Come on Diane, show your support, help us persuade the Secretary of State to Call in this application.
Our detailed reasoning for why the application should be called in is in our letter.
Diane’s office email is: chalkiasg@parliament.uk she is also on Twitter: @hackneyabbott (so a few constructive comments and questions over the next few days, may help to influence her decision).
Funds
With the possibility of having to launch a second judicial review we do need to keep fundraising. We are specifically not asking people who have already donated to ‘dig deeper’, but we are urging those supporters who have not yet given, please consider making a donation now. The average donation has been in the region of £50, but people have given more, and everyone has given what they can afford and there have been many smaller donations. If you can the details are below.
Account name: Stokey Local Community Fund
Sort code: 08-60-01
Account number: 20316473
Let people know about our campaign
Please consider emailing friends and neighbours, posting on Twitter and Facebook, or you can do the old fashioned thing and talk to people and encourage them to come along and support us on Wednesday.
Don’t forget
Abney Park is hosting a Winter Fun Day from 10am to 3pm on Saturday 14 December.
A big thank you.
As ever, a big thank-you to everyone who has supported this campaign.
There is less than a week until the Council makes its decision on the proposed Sainsbury’s over-development of Wilmer Place and just one day to go to our ‘bug parade’.
Our campaign is growing, with very nearly 3,000 signatures on our petition. Please ask friends and neighbours to sign up as a matter of urgency. If you have copies of the paper petition, please bring the along on Saturday.
Over 15,000 leaflets have been distributed door-to-door by a small army of supporters, fantastic banners have been displayed across Stoke Newington, and posters are up in dozens of shops. Last Saturday Abney Park hosted a very successful costume making day for this Saturday’s Bug Parade.
If the development goes ahead, delivery lorries will be using the narrow Wilmer Place development (between Wholefoods and Mercado) to deliver to the store. it will have severe adverse impact on the biodiversity of Abney Park Cemetery. This is just one of the many problems with this development (it will also destroy local jobs already on-site, undermine the conservation area and devastate the local independent stores) but we will be focusing on the biodiversity issue this Saturday.
With less than a week to the Planning Committee, we need to get the word out that Stokey says NO.
Saturday 27 is going to be an opportunity to make a serious point while having a lot of fun and ensuring that everyone in Stokey gets to hear our concerns.
Meet us at the Abney Park cemetery gates at 12.30pm. You can make your own costume, or purchase costumes such as this bee costume modelled by Jane for less than £10 on the internet. We encourage you to be imaginative and have some fun, come as a plant, a tree, an insect a bat, or a small furry animal, but if you really cannot face dressing up, come as you are. We want to have a very visible display of the level of opposition to this development.
We will also be attending the planning committee meeting on Wednesday 31 July (6.30pm at the town hall).
This development is too big, too intrusive and not wanted (and the number of ‘affordable houses’ is well below Council guidelines). Join us in saying ‘No’.
Please forward this email onto everyone you know who cares about Stoke Newington
If you have received this email via a friend, through Facebook, Twitter etc, and would like to join our mailing list, please sign up.
Thank you to everyone for your support
On Monday 22nd July the Council’s Cabinet meeting voted to reject both of the controversial Neighbourhood Forum applications. This is principally because the proposals would be damaging to community cohesion in the area.
However Leabridge Conservative Councillor Linda Kelly, who was chair of the rejected Stamford Hill Neighbourhood Forum, has threatened to revive the idea according to East London Lines.
The Council Cabinet went on to agree to establish a Neighbourhood Area. While Planning Watch had serious concerns about the declaration of a Neighbourhood Area, we were reassured by the commitment given to the Cabinet by Councillor Guy Nicholson, that it is the Council’s intention to go further and declare an Area Action Plan.
Under an Area Action Plan, the Council would continue to have democratic control over planning policy in the area, and would, perhaps for the first time, seek to develop an inclusive strategy for addressing the various needs in the area. This could include for example developing a strategic approach for community infrastructure (schools, places of worship, care for the elderly etc.
Planning Watch was not in favour of the declaring of a Neighbourhood Area, but we support the decision to move towards an Area Action Plan.
In short, we have successfully mobilised a community response to prevent planning policy in our area being handed over to an unelected and self-appointed forum that had made clear that it wanted to remove the little protection that current planning policies provided.
This would not have happened without the hard work and commitment of literally thousands of members of our community who spoke out and helped to alert our communities to the threats that were being posed to planning and community cohesion.
Well done to all of us!
What next
Once the Council begins the process of developing an Area Action Plan, we will need to actively engage with it. Hackney Planning Watch will be seeking to encourage maximum engagement from all sections of the community in finding long-term strategic solutions to issues that work for every section of the community. So get your thinking caps on!, More details to follow.
Thanks to everyone who has made helped over the last six months
When we get an opportunity to catch our breath, we will look to bring people together to reflect on this important step forward, and to have a small celebration of what we have achieved so far.
Sainsbury/Wilmer Place development
While the Neighbourhood Forums were undoubtedly the biggest threat to our area, there is still a big campaign to protect Abney Park Cemetery, the Stoke Newington Conservation Area, and the character of Stoke Newington from a massive over-development at Wilmer Place. This coming Saturday the community is coming together at 12.30pm for a ‘bug parade’ a fancy dress inspired event designed to highlight the adverse impact on the biodiversity of the cemetery if the proposed development goes ahead.
Many thanks for your support in our attempts to persuade Hackney Council not to agree to either of the two proposed Neighbourhood Forums in the north of the borough.
We view both proposed Forums as unrepresentative and believe that to hand planning policy to either would be divisive.
Our on-line petition has now reached a total of well over 1,000 signatures, so thank you very much to everyone who has signed up. This is a great start, but we do need to do more.
It is of interest that its supporters have issued a press release claiming that the Stamford Hill Neighbourhood Forum now has a petition of over 2,500 names in support. Given the background of their Secretary (Isaac Liebowitz, previously jailed for vote rigging and electoral fraud) we are, to say the least, ‘sceptical’ about these claims.
None the less, it makes a good target for us to aspire to. In the last few weeks 20,000 leaflets have been distributed in the area, and a number of prominent commentators, including Jonathan Freedland writing in the Jewish Chronicle have come out against the idea of a Neighbourhood Forum which he says would result in a divisive ‘blame game’.
However, despite the leafleting we have done, and the articles in the national press and radio, there are still many people in the area who are unaware of the threat that planning policy could be handed to an unelected ad unaccountable ‘forum’.
This is where we need your help. If you are on Facebook, or twitter (or other social media) please use this to publicise the petition.
Alternatively, you could just forward this email to your contacts, or even speak directly to your neighbours.
Our challenge now is to double the number of signatures over the coming four weeks. Will you ask five people to sign up?
We are aware that there have been some difficulties with the on-line petition, and a number of links have broken down in the past, unfortunately these are beyond our control.
However, to receive regular updates direct from Hackney Planning Watch, please sign up to our email list.
Thank you
Planning Watch
You can still make a difference
If we want to stop planning policy in four wards in Stamford Hill and Stoke Newington falling into the hands of an unrepresentative, unelected and unaccountable group then you can still make your voice heard.
Alrthough the Council consultation has closed you can still make a difference if you sign our petition and encourage your friends and neighbours to do so too. We have over 1,000 signatures already, but every little bit helps.
Given the history of planning here in Hackney, a forum could be very divisive. Jonathan Freedland backs us up in a recent article in the Jewish Chronicle which argues that planning decisions should remain the responsibility of the local council.
“My own view is simple. I don’t want to see a system that pits strictly Orthodox Jews against everyone else, one that would cause local people to grow resentful as they watch their streets or gardens become disfigured by excess construction.”
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Many thanks
Hackney Planning Watch
Hackney Planning Watch 