SAVEWATERLOOPARADISE
WRITE TO THE
MAYOR OF LONDON, SADIQ KHAN, TO ASK HIM TO RECONSIDER
HIS DECISION ON
ROYAL STREET
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, decided not to call in the Royal Street planning application, and to leave it to Lambeth Council to deal with. However, Lambeth failed to disclose information, and assurances given in the application are being breached.
There is precedent for this. In 2022 the Mayor accused Lambeth Council of not providing full information in the case of the proposed Brixton Hondo tower. Sadiq Khan overturned his decision to allow Lambeth to approve it.
You can help ensure that the Mayor thinks again
Please use (or adapt) the template below to write to
the Mayor to ask him to recall and reconsider the application in the light of all the facts.
You can use or amend this wording for your email to the Mayor of London
Email address for the Mayor of London:
Copy to:
savewaterlooparadise@gmail.com
Subject of email:
URGENT: ROYAL STREET SE1 7LW (LBL - 22/01206/EIAFUL) - Your Ref: 2022/0474/S2
Text of email:
Dear Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London
I am writing to ask you to revise your decision of 3 July 2023 not to call this application in for your determination.
Your original decision was taken on the basis of a failure by Lambeth Council to present critical information to you in considering this application, specifically that:
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Lambeth owns parts of the site as open space.
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Lambeth has a direct significant pecuniary interest in the development which it did not declare.
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Lambeth stands to make a windfall of at least £7.7m through the disposal of these open spaces.
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Lambeth stands to financially benefit further from any uplift in the scale or value of development.
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The application would result in a loss of 879 sq m of designated open space, contrary to London Plan policy.
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The applicant gave assurances that the existing and successful small businesses at Old Paradise Yard could stay until the site was needed for redevelopment, and that they would be given first refusal in the affordable workspace proposed in the new space, as safeguarded in the s106 legal agreement. But, by terminating leases now (many months before the site is required) and requiring existing businesses depart in January, the applicant has reneged on these assurances and has bypassed the purported safeguards of the s106 legal agreement, which only protects businesses which are still on the site at some future date when the s106 is signed, when all businesses would have been forced out.
46,000 people have signed a petition objecting to the loss of Old Paradise Yard and its exceptional arts and live events programme, revered around the world, as explained in a recent Time Out article featuring Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth.
Your culture and good growth strategies aim to “support, save and sustain cultural places and spaces”. That is reason enough to recall this application for proper consideration. However, the failure to disclose material facts and the breaches of assurances on which approval was based mean that it is essential that you should recall the application and reconsider it on the basis of full disclosure and compliance by Lambeth.
Sign-off: please include your name and your postcode, especially if you are in Lambeth
Join the thousands signatures and help us fight for a more sustainable alternative.