Hello All
A quick up-date from Campaign HQ.
A spokesperson for Rockwell property developers has responded to my enquiry regarding the rush of letters of support that were suddenly submitted to the planning portal. They openly concede that these were all solicited by the company.
In fact (I did not know this previously), the letters are automatically generated (nay, re-generated) on the company's 'Regenerate Glassmills' website.
What is not clear to me - and this seems key - is how and why do so many loyal, pro-planning activists land on this website and proactively add their names and addresses, then "sign", a standard letter that they have not authored.
This makes no sense to me and I smell a rat. It would be useful to contact a good few of these people and find out if they even know about their support for this project. Hmmm. If anyone fancies helping with some legwork...
I wrote an email expressing my concerns about this sudden rush of letters to 10 councillors/officers at Wandsworth Council and have yet to receive a reply.
A diligent supporter of the campaign (I offer my sincere thanks) did a deep dive analysis of all the support letters and found that just 6% (ie: 21 letters) are NOT the template provided by Rockwell. And even several of those show no real understanding of the issues raised by the planning proposal.
Below is the reply from Rockwell in full. And the photo above is an example of the submission page, should you want Rockwell to send a letter of your behalf. We believe in fairness of expression at this campaign, so you will find the template letter here.
Thank you,
Mickey
Dear Mr McGibbon,
Thank you for detailing your enquiry.
We are aware of the support for our proposals for One Battersea Bridge on Wandsworth’s planning portal.
The 270 letters recently submitted were collected by our team between the 14th June and 6th September. All individuals provided their details, confirmed they are over 16, and consented to us sending a letter of support in their name to the Council*.
For any further enquiries about our proposals for One Battersea Bridge please direct them to info@glassmill.co.uk the project email. I have copied in for ease.
Kind regards,
The Rockwell Team
*Begs the question: WHY?