Morning Lane campaigners quit community panel over ‘corrupt council process’

Campaigners at a public meeting earlier this year. Photograph: MOPS

Campaign group Morning Lane People’s Space (MOPS) has quit the council-run community panel over the Town Hall’s “top-down” planning approach at the Tesco site in central Hackney.

Activists said they were “sad” to leave the team of residents, business owners and local representatives, but claimed that staying would be “validating this half-baked and corrupt process”.

MOPS has put pressure on the council over the planned development at 55 Morning Lane ever since the Town Hall purchased the space for £60 million in 2017.

Its demands included that 50 per cent of the site be used to house families on the council’s waiting list, that the supermarket be kept in place, and, crucially, that the development process was open and collaborative.

The Hackney Central Community Panel that MOPS has resigned from was set up in June 2021 by the local authority.

The council website said the panel meets bi-monthly to maintain a dialogue with residents, businesses and other organisations over “strategic decisions and developments from an early stage”.

But MOPS have repeatedly said this “collaborative” approach has failed to live up to its name, instead excluding residents and groups like the Hackney Central Tenants and Residents Association (TRA) from decisions.

Members also claimed the panel has only met twice this year, in May and September.

In an open letter published on MOPS’ website, the group lambasted the council for its lack of transparency and treating community engagement as a “last-minute, tick-box exercise”.

The group claims the council was “dishonest” for saying it was pursuing co-design while failing to inform them—at the same community meeting during which the co-design process was launched—that it already had shortlisted architects.

In a video posted on the MOPS website on Monday, members said they felt the council was deliberately rushing procedures.

Heather Mendick criticised the lack of transparency around shortlisting architects and the council’s control of the process.

“They’ve decided to appoint an architect to design the site,” she said.

“They’ve said they’re going to have community involvement, but that is going to be three people from [a] panel – we don’t know who, we don’t know on what basis.”

Last week, Mendick told the Citizen that she had only found out the architects had been chosen by chance—when one of the architects approached a MOPS volunteer and told them in person outside the Tesco site while the group were handing out leaflets to the public.

“I said that must be a misunderstanding, because we’ve been told by the council—after we were very clear with them that everything has to be done in the open—that they will from now on, and they’re sorry for the times when they didn’t do it,” Mendick said.

“So I was really naive because obviously they have just done it, and there’s lots of things that we find out from just having conversations with other people.

“There’s not been any single act of consultation or engagement that’s been initiated by the council over 55 Morning Lane, at all–zero.

“All the consultation work for thousands and thousands of people who’ve been surveyed,  thousands of people we’ve engaged online and in person, the series of public meetings starting in 2020 and running even through the Covid [pandemic] to just a couple of weeks ago when we had the most recent one—that’s all been organised by us.

“We’re doing their job for them,” she said.

Mayor of Hackney Caroline Woodley said: “We are committed to co-designing the plans for 55 Morning Lane with the local community, so the site can provide the affordable homes and improved public spaces that local people want, all while keeping a Tesco store.

“Thousands of people have helped shape the priorities for the site and the wider Hackney Central area, through a series of in-person events, surveys and online engagement run by the council and MOPS over the last five years.

“These views have also informed the brief for the architects we have shortlisted.

“We have now asked local community representatives to help us evaluate the bids from shortlisted architects.

“Once selected, the architect will work with local people to design a broad plan for the site, which will set out how buildings, streets and public spaces might be arranged, including how buildings will be used.

“An engagement consultancy, which was recommended by MOPS, will work closely with architects on this.

“MOPS has brought a huge amount of energy and drive to the engagement process to date. I hope this will continue to be the case and that we can address their current concerns.”

Update: this article was amended at 8.40am on 18 October 2024 to clarify that MOPS is calling for 50 per cent of the Morning Lane site to be used to house people on the council’s waiting list.