Labour controlled Greenwich Council has approved detailed plans to build on a public park which was created only two years ago.
Peninsula Garden was created just south of North Greenwich tube station in 2015 as an ‘ideal rough-and-tumble stomping ground for children to play’ and ‘an idyllic spot to relax’. It features 3 acres of public open spaces, planted with flowers and edible fruits, and a public amphitheatre for community use. When landscaped in 2015, it was the first park to be built in London in 100 years.
The park, always earmarked for long term development, had permission to remain in place until 2034. Despite this, councillors on Greenwich Council’s Planning Board last week decided to approve detailed plans from developer Knight Dragon to destroy the park over the next year, and to replace it 16 new buildings. Knight Dragon have said that they will replace the park with alternative open space, but at an unspecified date in the future.
The Labour controlled Council also attached a condition to the permission requiring the developer to work with TfL to ensure that the Silvertown Tunnel was delivered.
Commenting today Matt Browne, one of three Green representatives for the Peninsula, said:
This is shocking behaviour from Knight Dragon – providing a park for the community for all of two years, before ripping it up to provide faster profits from their Peninsula Masterplan. Residents will be understandably sceptical of grand, undated promises to provide a replacement. Such promises have a habit of shrinking with each year that passes.
It is yet more shocking that the Labour councillors that control Greenwich Council let them get away with this sort of behaviour. With decades left to run on the Peninsula masterplan, and plenty of car parking and brownfield space available, a responsible Council would have pressed Knight Dragon to find an alternative that would have preserved Peninsula Gardens for many more years. Instead another rare and precious piece of green space on the Peninsula is going under concrete, and to add insult to injury the Council has tried to use the permission to rope the developers into doing more to deliver disastrous plans for a Silvertown tunnel.
Greenwich Peninsula deserves better than profit-obsessed developers and Labour councillors that roll over to them.
Peninsula Garden, now facing destruction:
The condition on the planning permission re Silvertown Tunnel:
