As we become ever more aware of the value of open green space to our well-being
and the state of emergency for our wildlife, at the same time our local authorities
seem intent upon the same course of damage and destruction, all in pursuit of
outdated ‘growth’ models of development and progress. In the process, Nature is
harmed and the public realm is impoverished, whilst Orwellian claims are made
about ‘improvements’ that have no basis in fact, let alone public consent. The
mountain of documentation that exists, in theory to legislate for improvements in
biodiversity and quality of life, ends up gutted of all real meaning or outright ignored.
Whilst there are both numerous and infamous examples of this happening at a
national level, sadly we are seeing it happen time and again at a local level.
Authorities such as the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA) and Waltham
Forest Council, that are tasked with protecting our green spaces, end up
collaborating in trashing them for profit and leaving us all worse off.
This familiar scenario, which we saw with the construction of the double-sized ice
centre on Leyton Marsh, is once again being played out with the emerging plans for
Eton Manor (Leyton) and the New Spitalfields site adjacent to Hackney Marshes.
Plans are afoot to put increasing pressure on our remaining Metropolitan Open Land
(MOL) which should have the same protected status as Green Belt. In the case of
Eton Manor, the Lee Valley Regional Park are making efforts to remove its protected MOL status so the land can be ‘disposed of’ for the construction of private facilities. Waltham
Forest Council is proposing building soaring high rises on the site at New
Spitalfields, right next to East Marsh and the imperilled River Lea. What happens at
these locations will have far reaching consequences, not just for the land in question,
but for the whole Lee Valley Park. If development is not successfully challenged,
precedent will be set for invalidating the statutory protections and privatising land
across the Lee Valley.
New Spitalfields
One of the most important areas of land, in terms of preserving the integrity of the marshes and local riparian wildlife, is New Spitalfields. Whist it is not protected land, this area, adjacent to East Marsh, has strategic importance for the Metropolitan Open Land at Hackney Marshes. The current ‘vision’ is for its future is blocks of flats up to 30 storeys! There will be huge impacts on the open space from population pressure and development at such scale.
Despite these patent threats, it has now been revealed that the Lee Valley Regional
Park Authority has lent its support to Waltham Forest Council in order to facilitate
this vastly inappropriate development next to the Park. This could be a quid pro quo
for the council’s planning approval and financial backing for the ice centre, or
an attempt to curry favour for future commercial plans at Eton Manor and the Waterworks. As these developments will remove both land and property from free use and public ownership, the LVRPA is perhaps anticipating a negative public response and council opposition. It is reasonable to assume this is why it has lent its backing to a scheme from which it will derive no obvious benefit, but which will jeopardise the ecological health of the marshes and integrity of the Lee Valley Park still further. The LVRPA are fully aware of this, warning of these impacts in an internal report on the much smaller Lea Bridge Station development.
Waltham Forest Council is under pressure from the government’s Planning Inspectorate for its unjustifiably inflated housing targets. Instead of reforming its first version of the Local Plan by reducing the housing targets and removing unpopular proposals for high rises adjacent to Walthamstow Wetlands and Hackney Marshes, it has instead stuck with its original framework. This is where the LVRPA has come rushing to its aid. A joint letter by WF Council and the LVRPA to the Planning Inspectorate on 28th September, expresses “the strategic importance of the [Local] Plan to both authorities” and makes a clear declaration of “support for its adoption following a second stage of Examination in Public”. Whilst much of the language of the letter is obtuse and inaccessible to lay readers, it is nonetheless of great import to the public since the Local Plan will shape the future of planning in the borough. We can only hope that the City of London Corporation, who own and manage Epping Forest, and the London Wildlife Trust, who manage Walthamstow Wetlands, take a principled position and object to the Local Plan during its second stage.
Whilst the Planning Inspectors have not adequately considered the impact on the Lee
Valley Park, they have concluded that Waltham Forest’s plan would have an adverse
impact on the integrity of Epping Forest. At this stage they have rejected housing
targets which will result in unacceptable impacts on the marshes – negative impacts
the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority appear only too happy to facilitate. Although Waltham Forest Council is keen to build as many houses as possible, no doubt in large part due to the income generation from council tax revenue, it is hard to see how Hackney Council, who finance the management of Hackney Marshes, will stand to gain in any way from this inappropriate development. Will they side with the other local authorities or represent the public interest and defend Nature here?
Eton Manor
Equally egregious are the plans for nearby Eton Manor. A local and regional authority as well as a London university appear to be privately collaborating to remove part of the Eton Manor site from public ownership, despite the site’s important historical role in providing free public access to sports. Eton Manor was purchased by philanthropists to provide sporting facilities for East Londoners, in particular for local boys’ sports, at the turn of the twentieth century. After the 2012 Olympics Eton Manor was supposed to be the new home for the Manor Gardens Allotments, also created by the same philanthropists, which were evicted from their home at Bully Point. That plan was scotched by their former landlords and owners of Eton Manor the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA), who didn’t want any allotments on their land at this location, even though the removal of the allotments from Bully Point was only agreed to on the clear understanding they would be re-located to this site, which already had planning permission, after the Olympics.
The LVRPA have been attempting to sell part of the Eton Manor site for a number of
years for commercial development and floated the prospect of a 98 bed hotel, gym
and associated car park on the market in 2018. Through the determined efforts of
veteran campaigner Laurie Elks and our own Freedom of Information enquiries, we have recently discovered the conspiracy between the LVRPA and University College London to re-privatise and develop Eton Manor.
In April 2021 LVRPA Members were briefed that a “hotel is still very much part of
the thinking in line with the procurement” and the Authority “was in discussions
with UCL and had jointly commissioned a feasibility study and masterplan to look at
options for development”.
University College London (UCL) is now collaborating with the LVRPA’s project to build a hotel on this area of Metropolitan Open Land (MOL) and in return it hopes to attain its own private sporting facilities on 2.35 acres of the site deemed by the Authority as ‘no longer required for Park purposes’. So instead of environmentally compatible allotments at Eton Manor, if UCL and the LVRPA have their way, we will end up with a luxury hotel, and sports facilities only for UCL students. This on land originally bought by philanthropists to enrich the public realm and enable local people to take part in sports. The site for the proposed hotel would have been a much more sensible location for the new double-size ice centre now crowding out Leyton Marsh; we believe the only reason it was not chosen was the then-secret plan for its privatisation and sale.
No plans for the site have ever been placed in the public domain and the only information that has been attained derives from Environmental Information requests, released in redacted form only.
It has recently been revealed that it is not only UCL who are collaborating with the LVRPA in their commercialisation plans, but that Waltham Forest Council are getting into bed with them too: “LBWF and the LVRPA have therefore worked proactively together to align our ambitions for this site through collaborative work on the Leyton Mills Development Framework and new SANG Strategy. Both parties agree to continue to work together to deliver the opportunities presented by this site.”
The deciding planning authority is currently the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) which will wind up at the end of 2024. Its position on the future of the Eton Manor site remains unknown. However, if the organisation which turned down having allotments (that the public could apply to cultivate) then favours a private built development on site, it will amount to yet another betrayal of local people. We suspect discussions between the LVRPA, UCL and LLDC, in which the public will have no input, are already underway. Waltham Forest Council seems to hint that it may be the deciding planning authority by the time planning applications come to the fore:
“The Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre at Eton Manor, a site owned by LVRPA, is a
key site in the spatial and growth plans found in the Waltham Forest Local Plan (Part 1),
and presents a significant opportunity…for future investment in sports and leisure facilities. Although it is currently under the planning remit of the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), planning powers will revert to LBWF on 1st December 2024.”
What makes these collaborations particularly dangerous, as well as galling, is that they take place behind closed doors. Valuable information on the proposed future of public spaces is only attained once detailed private development plans have been drawn up and the outcome for their delivery already put in motion. Nonetheless, this is why individuals and groups such as ours spend such a great deal of time attempting to access vital and concealed planning information. Whilst the odds are stacked against us in stopping the commercial juggernaut flattening our green spaces for private gain, previous victories in defending the marshes give us some grounds for optimism in the coming battles.