Leader – Town Hall’s inconsistent line on Stoke Newington supermarket
In April councillors on Hackney’s planning sub-committee said no to developers bidding to build a contentious new Sainsbury’s supermarket and flats in Stoke Newington. But three months later they said yes.
What had changed?
Little, according to campaigners, hundreds of whom attended a raucous planning sub-committee meeting on the last day of July.
The new plans by developers Newmark Properties – submitted so soon after earlier ones were thrown out by councillors – sparked a sustained and noisy campaign of opposition from residents who fear they will have a detrimental impact on ecology around Hackney’s most important nature reserve, Abney Park.
Stoke Newington Central councillor Louisa Thomson, who spoke against the scheme, said the development was the “single issue I have received the most correspondence about.”
And Cllr Barry Buitekant, the only member of the five-strong panel to vote against the application, told the meeting: “The differences between this scheme and the last one are so inconsequential that it is important that the committee be consistent.”
But despite this Newmark Properties now has won the go-ahead for its scheme, which it says will benefit Stoke Newington.
It is unclear how.
Cllr Buitekant was right to warn against inconsistencies in the decision making process. Newmark Properties was in the midst of appealing against the decision to reject its earlier plans, but had pledged to halt this process if its new plans were approved.
Fighting appeals can be expensive for councils, but the councillors on the sub-committee should not have felt any pressure to approve the new application because of this.
They should have stood firm and voted no again.
I agree that the Council should have stood up to the developers and Sainsburys, as it comes to something when local democracy is bullied into submission by a corporate entity.
We as residents though, should come together to demonstrate our dissatisfaction by boycotting the new store (as I will be). I suspect though, that as soon as it opens, it will be as busy as any other supermarket around the country….
Boycoting the new store is only one option, but as these stores can afford to kill off competition by initial loss-leading (only to hike prices later) this option may prove unattractive to the many who are cash strapped. This isn’t the end of the road for the protests. Cllrs hope that by the time elections come around their wrongdoings will be forgotten – but it’s important to target those members who voted for the scheme as they do not represent us – and ensure that they are not re-elected – only by doing so will we secure a council that stops putting corporate greed before local need.