Hackney residents stand up to council over ‘unlawful’ plans for Marian Court

Residents at the council meeting last week. Photograph: LDRS

Hackney residents last week took control of a community meeting to accuse their council of “riding roughshod” over concerns about the redevelopment of a nearby housing estate.

On Thursday (January 22) Homerton locals came to the Hackney Council’s public showcase of updated regeneration plans for the crumbling Marian Court estate, demolished in 2023. The redevelopment had stalled amid changes to safety regulations and financial woes, but plans were revived in late November last year.

However, changes to the design – and the timing of the council’s announcement – stoked suspicions that they were being rushed through.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), resident Lawrence Leason said the council gave locals “very little time to respond” to the updated plans before they put them before Hackney’s Planning Committee. “After a lot of pressure they agreed not to submit until our concerns had been addressed at a further meeting,” he said.

Plans for the changes to Marian Court. Photograph: Hackney Council / Levitt Bernstein / MUF Architecture/Art

As residents arrived at the meeting, a few came prepared to force the spotlight on their concerns that “substantial” changes were being “shoehorned” into the designs, resulting in “the worst of all possible worlds”.

“We’re not just NIMBY neighbours who are p***d off,” said Dr Hannah White, a resident. “We’re actually trying to give you really solid insights.”

The law permits “minor material amendments” to be made to developments already greenlit by planning authorities.

Updates to the Marian Court designs included converting a series of townhouses into higher-density flats, and increasing the height of a tower by two and a half storeys. Twelve balconies were also added to properties, leading some neighbours to fear they would lose privacy, while green spaces were shrunk from previous plans.

At one point, a local architect ended up giving an impromptu presentation to officers which highlighted all the design changes since 2020, arguing they were too significant to be considered “minor”. Several residents accused the council of breaking planning law.

Model of the proposals for Marian Court. Photograph: LDRS

The presentation – followed by a fiery debate – took place after a back-and-forth between Dr White, a social housing academic, and council officers. Dr White urged them to allow her and others to present the slideshow using a projector they brought to the meeting. After officers resisted, Dr White asked everyone in the room to show hands if they wanted to see the presentation. An overwhelming majority said yes.

The council told the LDRS it had to change the designs so it could retain a similar number of homes while meeting new regulations which mandate second staircases in buildings over 18m tall. The Town Hall insisted that the changes were minor, and that since the original planning permission granted in 2020 was still active the local authority could adjust the designs without having to restart the planning approval process.

At the meeting, officers said the project had to change to survive amid “money stress” from inflation and spiralling construction costs, while trying to meet “strict” City Hall funding deadlines.

Also present was Hackney’s Deputy Mayor and regeneration chief, Cllr Guy Nicholson (Labour), who said the “political emphasis” in the borough was on housebuilding.

He said: “The reason is tonight there’ll be a couple of thousand kids in temporary accommodation who are Hackney residents. Over 700 people have registered an interest to actually take on one of the shared ownership homes that are in this scheme. That is 2,700 people.”

Defending the changes as “appropriate”, he added: “I appreciate that we’ve got to really reflect hard on height, massing and density. But I think what we’ve got to try and do here is not lose sight and come back. My weight is with the architects being able to respond to those challenges both for all of us who live around a site as well as for those of us who end up living in it.”

Hackney’s social housing wait list comprises roughly 8,500 households.

The latest plans are due to deliver 163 mixed-tenure homes, including replacement council homes for social rent. These will be the final phase of the regeneration of Bridge House and Marian Court, in total delivering 270 new council homes – 84 for social rent, 120 for shared ownership and 66 for outright sale.

Other features include a 187sqm community centre and shops serving the local population. The updated estate designs are set to go before a planning sub-committee at a later date.

Marian Court made national headlines in 2021 after the council began knocking down the old housing blocks while a single mother and her four children remained living there.