Tag Archives: Planning

Labour can take pride in its school rebuilding programme. Even if this one was finished nine years behind schedule  

Posted on November 10, 2014 by

Last Monday (November 3rd) I was at the grand opening of the John Roan School in Blackheath (the school lies in the ward I represented as a councillor until May 2014, and I used to be a governor there). Despite the big … Continue reading →

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What happens when politicians and developers meet behind closed doors – and why Unite’s wrong to call the meetings off

Posted on October 16, 2014 by

What happens when politicians and property developers meet behind closed doors? According to Vince Passfield, Unite’s deputy regional secretary for London, multi-national investors seek to “stitch up deals that would  hit council tenants and leaseholders in the capital”. As a result Unite … Continue reading →

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The approval of Mount Pleasant’s “affordable” flats at £2,800 a month shows the rot of our planning system

Posted on October 6, 2014 by

Mount Pleasant matters. Formerly a prison, it’s one of the few large, undeveloped brownfield sites left in central London. Few object to redeveloping the unpleasant wasteland behind the Royal Mail’s sorting office, where Second World War bomb sites are still … Continue reading →

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The new University faculty is the best thing built in Greenwich for decades. Critics should be careful what they wish for

Posted on September 27, 2014 by

There’s a paradox about development in Greenwich (the town, not the borough) in the last 15 years. Schemes that commanded near-universal support when they were first proposed (the glass bubble around the Cutty Sark, which makes it look like its … Continue reading →

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Carbuncle Cup: the end of localism?

Posted on September 9, 2014 by

It’s been a busy few days for me. Since last Wednesday, when Woolwich Central was announced as the winner of Building Design’s Carbuncle Cup, I’ve been inundated with emails, tweets and requests for comment: I chaired the Greenwich Council Planning … Continue reading →

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And who is to blame for this carbuncle? Er, me actually…

Posted on June 25, 2014 by

SEPTEMBER 3rd UPDATE: The Woolwich Central development, which this blog post of June 25th covered, has now been declared the winner of Building Design’s 2014 Carbuncle Cup, as covered by the Guardian, the BBC’s One Show (3 minutes thirty seconds … Continue reading →

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