*** Please save your pennies and don't donate to this petition! Donations go to change.org, not the campaign ***

*** LATEST UPDATE: On 3 November 2020, the Lambeth Council Planning Applications Committee of seven councillors voted FOR the Hondo monstrosity by FOUR votes to THREE. The battle against the tower continues. We will not give up on protecting our Brixton from this nauseatingly inappropriate development. For updates and to join the conversation follow https://twitter.com/NoHondoTower

You can watch the recording of the decision meeting at http://ow.ly/DktV30rgj3r

Lambeth Council planning officers worked closely with Hondo Enterprises (owner of the majority of Brixton Market) to push through and approve Hondo's planning application to build a 20-storey office tower in central Brixton alongside the heritage areas of Brixton Market and the Brixton Recreation Centre, against the advice of Historic England, The Brixton Society, Right of Light Consulting chartered surveyors, local MP (and former town planner) Helen Hayes, and Coldharbour Councillor Scarlett O'Hara. By the end of Lambeth’s consultation period (22 October 2020), of the 1,192 public comments left about the proposed development on Lambeth Council's website, 1,173 were objections, seven were neutral and only 12 were in support!

Lambeth planning officers recommended that councillors approve the tower development despite the Brixton community's objections, despite it being in contravention of Lambeth Council's own policy on building height, despite the light impact study not complying with Building Research Establishment (BRE) guidelines, despite the building design not meeting a sufficient BREEAM energy and sustainability rating, despite there being little evidence of demand for office space in the area (especially in a post-Covid world) and despite it only barely scraping by in compliance with a range of other policies. In its planning application, Hondo Enterprises sells itself as having a good rapport with the community, but there is no evidence that they undertook proper consultation with the Brixton community prior to submitting the application.

The formal body deciding the fate of the proposal, the Lambeth Planning Applications Committee, met on 25 August 2020 (you can watch the meeting at http://ow.ly/nWTn30r2lgb) with a view to discussing and taking a decision on whether the tower should be allowed to be built. The meeting ran for nearly four hours, and was adjourned with the Chair requesting that the session be resumed within four weeks. This didn't happen. The meeting was scheduled to take place ten weeks later instead of four, and Lambeth Council continue to ignore emails requesting an explanation for why the meeting was delayed.

The voices of ordinary Brixtonians deserve to be heard and acknowledged as much as the voices of Texan millionaires. You can help stop the tower by signing and sharing this petition, and emailing and tweeting the councillors listed below (and your local Lambeth councillors) to express your concerns about, and objections to, the Hondo development:

Leader of Lambeth Council Jack Hopkins: 
jhopkins@lambeth.gov.uk | @JackHopkins_Lab
Ben Kind: bkind@lambeth.gov.uk | @benkind
Jessica Leigh: jleigh@lambeth.gov.uk | @Jess_Leigh
Mohammed Seedat: mseedat@lambeth.gov.uk | @moseeds
Joanne Simpson: jsimpson2@lambeth.gov.uk | @CllrJSimpson
Becca Thackray: bthackray@lambeth.gov.uk | @BeccaThacka
Clair Wilcox: cwilcox@lambeth.gov.uk | @ClairWilcox1
Tim Windle: twindle@lambeth.gov.uk | @TimWindle