Copy
Fish Island and Hackney Wick
 
View this email in your browser
 
EEWG NEWSLETTER  May 2014

At its meeting on Wednesday, 30 April 2014, the London Legacy Development Corporation Board designated extensions to the Fish Island and Hackney Wick Conservation Areas.  The latter was extended according to the original proposed boundary; but the former was reduced by the officers in response to decisions by the LLDC's Planning Decisions Committee, following representations made by objections at the meetings.

At the second meeting, held on 25 February 2014, it is understood that four members voted for the two extended CAs in their entirety, and three members voted against; and two members voted for both CAs subject to an area being excluded in the extended Fish Island CA in LB Tower Hamlets.
The area removed from the proposed extension to the Fish Island CA is the west-bank area along the Hackney Cut, between Old Ford Locks and the Carlton Chimney - despite overwhelming support for both CAs in their entirety by statutory and non-statutory consultees.

English Heritage, Greater London Authority, London Borough of Hackney, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, Canal and Rivers Trust, Natural England;

East End Waterway Group, including a petition with currently 71 signatures and request that the Fish Island and Hackney Wick South Conservation Area be renamed Fish Island and White Post Lane Conservation Area or Old Ford Conservation Area;

East End Preservation Society, Victorian Society, SAVE Britain's Heritage, Greater London (Industrial) Archaeology Society;

Hackney Wick (and Fish Island) Cultural Interest Group, 174 emails and letters from local businesses, residents and visitors were received during the first round of consultation and 40 from the second round of consultation, and a petition organised by the Hackney Wick Cultural Interest Group, which currently hosts 1,126 signatures of support.

The above section in italics is from 7.2 in the officers' report to LLDC Board 30 April 2014, Agenda Item 17.  The report also contains the minutes of the meeting held on 25 February 2014, and three appendices of maps.  Appendix 2 shows the original proposed boundaries for both conservation areas, approved by statutory and non-statutory consultees during the first round of consultation (December 2013 - January 2014).  Appendix 3 shows the boundaries 'as recommended for designation" - in other words, without the area between the Old Ford Locks (No. 23) and the Carlton Chimney (No. 16) which was removed after both rounds of consultation and following the 25 February 2014 meeting of the LLDC's Planning Decisions Committee, to which speakers in support were not invited.

In its 21 February 2014 letter to LLDC (attached to February Newsletter) the group drew attention to the fact that whilst two buildings at Vittoria Wharf (10 Stour Road) were in the proposed extended Fish Island CA (in the area between No. 23 and No. 16 as shown on Appendix 2), they had been omitted from the local list.  We asked for them to be added to the local list and provided information in support of our request: including an illustrated note by Engineering Historian Malcolm Tucker.  This was followed by a 28 April 2014 letter to Boris Johnson, Chair of the LLDC Board.  The Secretary to the Board kindly sent email copies in advance to the Chair and Members; and tabled the EEWG letter, together with others.  Despite our best efforts, two very important industrial buildings have not only been omitted from the local list but also from the extended Fish Island CA (i.e. are in the removed area between No. 23 and No. 16 as shown on Appendix 3). 

For all the reasons set out in the letter to Boris Johnson, EEWG will continue to argue for the retention of the two good industrial buildings at Vittoria Wharf (10 Stour Road).  They should not have been left out from this very important new industrial conservation area.  Sadly, this otherwise splendid achievement by the LLDC has also been diminished by the designation of the extended conservation area in LB Tower as the fish island & hackney wick south conservation area.  This name was only revealed during the second round of consultation (January - February 2014).  Our 21 February 2014 letter to LLDC explained why the area between the Hertford Union Canal and the London Overground should not be called Hackney Wick South (Parish of St Mary Stratford Bow formed in 1720, not 1730 as stated in the explanation).  It is most unfortunate that our explanation has been ignored; and that the name for this important new industrial conservation area in LB Tower Hamlets fails to respect the fourteen-hundred-year-old boundary between two neighbouring London boroughs.

Tom Ridge
For an on behalf of East End Waterway Group
 
  East End Waterway Group
PATRON JIM FITZPATRICK MP POPLAR AND LIMEHOUSE
Local residents, schools, community groups, amenity societies and businesses working with the Canal & River Trust, Tower Hamlets Council and others for the protection and beneficial use of the six mile waterway ‘ring’, its historic buildings, structures and habitats.
2014 EAST END WATERWAY GROUP, Some rights reserved.


unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences 

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp