Town Centre - urgent action needed

Urgent action needed

We’ve had the letter from City Hall saying Stage 2 Approval is scheduled for Tuesday March 20^th and we’ve written requesting an urgent meeting. 

Everybody now must now send a message to Sadiq Khan without delay, even short one-liners, because the objections arriving in the mayor’s office are mounting up and definitely make a difference.

Your message can say things like:

Call it in Khan. Don’t do it. Save our Square. Save our Trees. Affordable housing   - or similar!

Write to Mayor Sadiq Khan     mayor@london.gov.uk

The Mall, 45 Selbourne Road, Walthamstow E17 7JR

GLA Ref: 4306    Waltham Forest: 171355

Subject: RE: MGLA070318-5611 Meeting with the 'Save Our Square' group.

Dear Mr Gardiner

Thank you for writing to the Mayor following your exchange at the Chingford War Memorial in February, as well as for providing representations on the application for redevelopment at Walthamstow Mall and town square (including the letter from Nancy Taaffe on behalf of Save Our Square E17). Thank you also for kindly suggesting a follow up meeting to explain your concerns to the Mayor in more detail.

I am the Greater London Authority (GLA) planning officer responsible for handling this case and have been asked to write to you in response to your correspondence, and to provide a general update on the Mayor's stage 2 process.

I note that Waltham Forest Council resolved to approve the application on 13 December 2017. Prior to this, the Mayor provided his initial comments on the application to the Council on 6 November 2017 (these are available to download here: www.london.gov.uk?/?what-we-do/planning/planning-applications-and-decisions/planning-application-search/mall-walthamstow). Since then, and following the Council's committee resolution, the GLA has been working closely with the applicant and the Council in order to address outstanding strategic planning issues, and specifically, to explore the potential to enhance the proposed affordable housing offer for Walthamstow.

On 7 March 2018 Waltham Forest Council formally referred the case back to the Mayor for his stage 2 decision. The Mayor now has until 20 March 2018 to consider the case and decide whether to allow the scheme to be approved by Waltham Forest Council; whether to direct that the application be refused; or, whether to take over the application in order to determine the case himself.

Accordingly, whilst the Mayor is extremely grateful for your invitation to a meeting, given the constraints of his statutory decision-making timescale (discussed above), and the pressures of his pre-existing diary commitments, the Mayor is unable to accept.

Notwithstanding this, the Mayor wishes me to assure you that he will take into account all representations received, including the points that you have raised, as part of his consideration of the application. In due course the Mayor's decision on this case will be published on the City Hall website at: www.london.gov.uk?/?what-we-do/planning/planning-applications-and-decisions/planning-application-search/mall-walthamstow.

Yours sincerely

Graham Clements
Principal Strategic Planner | Development Management | Development, Enterprise & Environment