Hackney Council Withdraw Planning Application for Car Park Constructed Without Consent!

Hackney Council planning committee were due to meet on Monday evening to discuss the application for a 60 space car park on East Marsh that has already been constructed in advance of consent, as was reported in the Hackney Gazette.

Walk for a Wild Marshes on Hackney Marshes discussing Council’s development plans

However on Friday afternoon, members of the public that had written to comment upon the application were informed that the planning application would not be decided on Monday because the application had been withdrawn.

The construction of the car park and the subsequent application for permission has been riddled by legal irregularity. The car park has been almost fully constructed without permission being obtained by Hackney Council and from the Planning Inspectorate, from whom consent is required since the area is registered Common Land.

The application was due to go to planning committee on the very day that the consultation was officially due to close. The planning officer’s report, which recommended approval, was sent on 29th August, prior to the end of the consultation period. This meant that public objections could not be fully considered in the report and would have only been added as an addendum on the day of the planning committee meeting. Additionally, the official consultee on the application, Hackney Marshes User Group, were deemed in the planning officer’s report to have not commented on the application despite having no opportunity to do so, when the application was sent to a long-defunct address.

This means that the car park on East Marsh has not been subject to any consultation with the community or interested groups and has not attained any of the necessary permission in order for it to be a lawful construction.

Obviously, we will no longer be at the planning committee meeting on Monday. However, alongside HMUG and Cllr. Ian Rathbone, we will be campaigning for correct procedure to be followed and for the Council to take into account its own Core Transport Strategy document and remove this unlawfully constructed car park on common land.