Dear Supporter

The Save our South Bank Action Group once again needs your help. Your voice is more powerful in building support to oppose the Lambeth Planning Committee decision.

If you have not done so already, please consider writing directly to the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan and ask him not to approve the current planning application for 72 Upper Ground, and indeed to "call it in". This means that the building project will be put on hold to allow for proper consideration of this planning application and the impact it will have on this internationally known site.

Save our South Bank Action Group is made up of residents from Iroko Co-op; Mulberry Co-op, Palm Co-op; Peabody Stamford Street Estate and Waterloo Community Development Group and Coin Street Community Builders among others.  To join the action group please email: saveoursouthbank22@gmail.com

Thank you in advance for all that you are doing - your support is making a difference. 

Please write directly to Sadiq Khan, London Mayor and ask him to “call the application in” 

email: mayor@london.gov.uk

[Letter template]

Use information below as a template to assist you in writing your letter:

Mr Sadiq Khan, London Mayor

City Hall, 110 The Queens Walk, London SE1 2AA

[Date]

Dear Mr Khan

Save Our South Bank: Please ‘call-in’ the planning application for 72 Upper Ground

South Bank is the nation's cultural centre, with the largest collection of post-war arts buildings and arts-based visitor attractions in the UK - the proposed building on the former ITV studios is just an oversized office building and I would like you to ‘call it in’.

South Bank's cultural buildings are grand, monumental, and horizontal, protected inside a unique Conservation Area of post-war buildings - the proposed building is vertical, with two towers, is more than twice the size of the National Theatre and more than twice the height. It is 225% bigger than the building which is currently up for demolition.

South Bank buildings are set back from the river – however the proposal is for a 60m high building thrusting out to the river on this very prominent bend of the Thames.

Many of the buildings are listed and their views protected - the proposal would wreck and block the best protected views of the National Theatre from Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge.

Planning policy protects residents from having their daylight robbed by oversized new buildings - the proposal would severely diminish the daylight to dozens of homes, and completely fails guidance. 

The local area in SE1 is deficient in open space, with very little green space - the proposal would throw the River Walk, the Queen's Walk garden and Bernie Spain Gardens into shadow throughout the afternoon and would have a serious impact on this oasis of greenery.

The applicants claim that 10% of the space will be reserved for low-rent creative uses – this is always required in planning policy, is partly located in the unlettable basements, and would only be for 15 years.

The application would bring 4,000 jobs to the borough - the proposal is just another huge office block; but the area already has permission for over a million square feet of office unbuilt, and other applications for another million square feet - this is already more than the whole of King's Cross. The jobs would not be local, but overspill City jobs for anybody in the Greater London area.

Please ‘call in’ this planning application.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely

[YOUR NAME]