Hello All

The pre-eminent journalist Simon Jenkins has picked up on recent publicity about the One Battersea Bridge proposal and has written a scathing article about the development.

In his column in The Guardian, he has - as ever - eloquently peeled back the issues and the egregious "greed is good" mentality that surrounds these high rise apartment block developments. This section stood out to me, which I hope he does not mind me cutting n pasting here:

In Tokyo, the dignified regulation of the public sector matters. Maintaining the beauty of the environment is not a fey, nimby fad, but a duty expected of government in the public’s interest and pleasure.

Cut to the Thames, a few miles west from Gove’s slab. The current collapse of planning control in the capital has seen two Nine Elms towers rise almost 60 storeys, reducing Big Ben to the size of a toothpick in comparison. Last week, another “luxury” monster was announced up-river, next to Battersea Park. The company behind the scheme is a subsidiary of Cerberus Capital Management, run by an American billionaire, Stephen Feinberg, reportedly a friend of Donald Trump. The tower will have as much to do with relieving London’s “housing crisis” as might his friend’s tenancy of the White House.

These towers now litter the Thames, mostly foreign-owned and empty. A Guardian survey of one Vauxhall tower revealed just 10% of occupants on the electoral register. The new Battersea tower could hardly be more out of place. It will soar as a ghostly presence over the visually delicate neighbourhood of Chelsea, much as Nine Elms soars over Pimlico. It will also tower over the secluded acres of the park and continue the conversion of the Thames into an urban canyon.

I cannot imagine another world city that would permit such visual outrages. Parisians laugh with derision at what has been done to London’s skyline. Romans are astonished. Americans ask, but who is in charge? No one consults London’s citizens in any meaningful way on these planning decisions. They merely illustrate the arrogance of modern developers and their architects and the impotence of politicians. They are visible assertions of the power of greed.

Try and read his full article and forward it to others.

Wandsworth Council's deadline for Comments arrives on Thursday, 20th. It is time to step up, if you have not done so already.

One thought - maybe you can email five people from your contacts book who might have a view about One Battersea Bridge and ask them to sign the petition and comment here. Think of it as my answer to the Chain Letters of the 1970s! Nostalgia, it ain't what it used to  be.

Happy Father's Day. I got some biscuits and two flannels.

Positively yours,

RMc