Greenwich councillors in Plumstead for photoshoot – after new development ignores town

Greenwich councillors including the leader and cabinet member have appeared in Plumstead for a photoshoot weeks after the authority decided that a major development in the area should ignore Transport for London and their own policies to utilise available funds to improve the area.

Great improvements being made on #Plumstead high street to local business shop fronts in first phase of our £5.2 million investment to regenerate the area. Leader @DanLThorpe was joined with @matt_morrow88, @dscottmcdonald and cncllr Angela Cornforth to see progress. pic.twitter.com/pJuumSaaZb

— Royal Borough of Greenwich (@Royal_Greenwich) November 29, 2021

Local councillors and the leaders were there to promote new shopfronts in Plumstead High Street and minor public realm changes, though thousands of new residents at two major developments recently approved will not be able to safely and easily walk or cycle to those very shops.

The authority ignored TfL advice during the planning process as recently covered here, and Greenwich’s Planning Department decided to not spend a penny of income from 330 homes approved earlier this month to improve links from homes to the High Street and railway station.

Thus ensuring those shops being visited for the photoshoot are not safely and easily accessible to thousands of new residents.

This excellent video taken over the past week (not by me) shows how poor and offputting the link between new homes and the station is. The underpass starts at 13 seconds and the site of 1,750 homes is at 23 seconds.

What’s happening?

It’s worth taking a step back now and looking at what they are promoting.

Back in 2015 Greenwich Council decided to draw up the Plumstead Area Framework.

It included various ideas including improvements to the station area and the gyratory.

Back then there were no solid plans for new homes in that area. Since then, however, around 2,200 have been approved, including The Reach (Completed – 66 homes), West Thamesmead Gateway (1,750 homes) and now Fairview’s blocks (330 homes).

Despite continual applications and approvals each planning application has gone before the council’s Planning Board with a report and funding agreement from the Planning Department accompanying each meeting which  ignored improvements, councillors have then approve and suggestions in the 2016 Framework ignored.

Agreements between developers and the council have also seen the authority’s Planning Department ignore their own policies seen in various reports, including Greener Greenwich (2016), Improving Physical Health (2019) and now the Carbon Reduction report 2021.

There were many congratulatory tweets from both Tory and Labour councillors about the latest Carbon Reduction report – though councillors from both barely mention relevant issues in planning meetings.

After Greenwich adopted the 2016 report they then agreed a joint project with the Greater London Authority to spend millions. Totals have varied between £4.4m and £5.2 million.

Much welcome.

Since then White Hart Road has been improved:

This is to link to Plumstead power station, which is well out the way of passing footfall.

Plans for a market and workspace at the power station have been drawn up.

Shop fronts on the High Street will also be upgraded, as covered here.

This is all great news for the area, though the authority really could and should have gone further and used incoming monies from new housing projects to enable business to benefit from those moving to 2,200 new homes, and those moving to the area to access all the shops, amenities, services and public transport links along Plumstead High Street.

They did not.

As it is, key points from that 2016 framework appear now to have been ditched, which raises another key point.

Allocating funds for substantial funds for improvements would require Greenwich to take the lead. If we look at almost every recent improvements of any scale, it’s led and funded to a sizable degree by outside parties. Often TfL or the GLA.

Left to their own devices Greenwich will not, or can not, enact changes of scale and merit.

If we see what Greenwich Highways achieve when left to their own initiative it’s the very opposite of modern policies for encouraging active travel and reducing car use.

Endless clutter, ugly streetscapes and vehicle dominance rule.

Councillors could perhaps focus less of photoshoots and more on changing deeply flawed department such as Highways, and reforming Section 106 and CIL funding priorities in the Planning Department.

A number of reports have seen absolutely no change in how income is allocated, and yet another one last week means little right now until we see evidence of change.

Want to bet on what the next big planning application before the Planning Board shows?