Greenwich Cabinet raise no issues with key borough plan full of mistakes
Greenwich Council’s Cabinet this evening raced through a meeting in just 10 minutes covering a variety of issues. No one raised a question on a key report containing numerous flaws, and so the document laying out the future of the borough – which is three years late – pushes ahead.
I covered the plan last week and highlighted a number of errors. It doesn’t appear to have been updated since 2019, and was supposed to complete in winter 2017.
Various flaws are in evidence regarding sites borough-wide. Plots submitted for planning approval such as Morden Wharf in June 2020 are not listed as having seen any applications.
It would appear minimal consultation was carried out with relevant third parties except Thames Water.
It also states Abbey Wood telephone exchange is surplus to requirements and is a “former telephone exchange”. Not so. It’s still a major BT exchange. It states Crossrail own the site. They owned a small section for storage.
Errors like this continue throughout. Not single member of Greenwich’s Cabinet raised any issue.
The report also removed car parking that was previously in line for housing in an earlier draft, and excludes some major car parks that could be suitable for mixed-use development. So much for the green agenda. Many large retail sheds are not included as potential sites for mixed-use development.
Another site where the report looks a bit silly is a section on the former Greenwich Magistrates Court. It states:
“The site is not within Greenwich Town Centre, and allocation for hotel use would not be in accordance with the criteria for site selection as the proposed use is contrary to the town centres first approach for hotels in the NPPF, London Plan and Local Plan.”
Approval was given for hotel use back in June 2020. D’oh.
There’s plenty more mistakes I covered last week.
If you want to see how it sailed through Greenwich’s Cabinet meeting without a single issue raised click here to view.
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The only way this can change is if people vote for different councilors. The Greens were very close to unseating Peninsular ward councilors at the last local elections, maybe this time they will succeed.
Nothing we the residents do will make any difference. Large developers hoodwink the council and propose some pretty awful developments. I certainly won’t be voting for the current councillors in my ward. The issue is that most people never vote in local elections. The same people will moan when their neighbourhood is ruined by inapproprate developments.