SOUTHWARK COUNCIL LEADER ABANDONED PROMISE TO INCORPORATE SOUTHAMPTON WAY MOL INTO BURGESS PARK WITHOUT TELLING US!
SOUTHWARK COUNCIL REPEATED THE DEVELOPERS' LIE THAT THE LAND “HAS NOT BEEN OPERATED AS MOL FOR SOME TIME” IN THE PRESS
SOUTHWARK NEWS ARTICLE REPORTS: “Plans to save protected Burgess Park land from redevelopment shelved by Southwark Council.”
A lot has happened since our last update, reporting that the Council leader was failing to reply to our queries if they were abandoning promise to protect and integate this Burgess Park MOL into the park.
PREVIOUS LABOUR COUNCIL LEADER’S PROMISE:
As our 4,200 petition signatories may remember we were delighted following our previous campaign to stop a tower block being built on Burgess Park MOL at the Southampton Way entrance, when the Labour leader of Southwark Council promised to acquire the site and integrate it into Burgess Park.
“Dear Donnachadh
Thank you for your email. The council is fully committed to the acquisition of the scrap yard and its incorporation into Burgess Park. Given the recent planning refusal we have been reviewing our options in achieving this outcome in the most effective way possible. Given clear statutory guidance that CPO has to be seen as the last resort we have agreed to try and acquire the property by negotiation which would be the quickest way to a resolution. If those negotiations fail, we will reconsider the use of CPO powers which will probably require a further report to Cabinet.
I hope we can now make some progress by negotiation.
Regards
Cllr Kieron Williams, Leader Southwark Council.”
OUR EFFORTS TO GET UPDATE ON PROMISE FROM LABOUR LEADER
Having heard nothing, and getting worried that the Labour Government was seeking to force building on protected Green Belt/MOL brownfield sites and having heard rumours that the council was reneging on its promise, we wrote over a year ago to Cllr Williams to ask about progress with their promise.
We got no reply.
We wrote a number of times but still got no reply.
So finally, after a year of no answers, we went to the press (Southwark News) to ask if they could get an answer out of the council.
SOUTHWARK NEWS
Southwark news DID finally manage to get an answer out of the council and they wrote up an article about how the council was shelving their promise.
The article quoted the Labour council as saying “ We understand the long-standing desire to see Burgess Park extended into this space, which whilst dedicated as Metropolitan Open Land, has not operated as such for some time. Unfortunately, with ever-increasing constraints on council resources, we cannot currently afford to acquire the site.”
It should NOT take us resorting to the press, to get the council to reply to our query if they were abandoning their promise.
But more importantly, the council should NOT be repeating the developers lie that the land “has not operated as MOL for some time.”
MOL legal open space protection applies no matter what takes place on the site!!
MAY COUNCIL ELECTION PLEDGES !!
So having finally got press confirmation that the promise was abandoned and worried that the fact that the Council was repeating the developers' lies, meant that the council was moving to approve the next developers attempts to build a tower-block on the land, we decided to lobby all the political parties in this May’s local elections to Southwark Council, to see if they would promise to support integration into the park, rather than a tower block.
GREEN PARTY RESPONSE
The Green Party candidates for St Giles took the trouble to visit the site with us and spokesperson Andy Higson, stated clearly that Southwark Green Party supported the protection and integration of the protected MOL land into the park.
LIBERAL DEMOCRAT PARTY RESPONSE
The Liberal Democrat’s Council Opposition leader Cllr Victor Chamberlain told us:
“Thank you for getting in touch with Graham and me about this issue which clearly is close to the heart of many Southwark residents. I am pleased to say that the Southwark Liberal Democrats support the incorporation of this land into Burgess Park as you have laid out in your email.
We recently released our local election manifesto for 2026 www.southwark-libdems.org.uk/manifesto and one of our key Six to Fix pledges is to create 8 new parks or green spaces across the borough. Whilst we absolutely support the urgent need to build more housing in Southwark, this cannot come at the expense of vital green spaces such as Burgess Park, which we know are so important for the physical and mental wellbeing of our residents.”
LABOUR PARTY RESPONSE
We got no reply from Southwark Labour campaign, so we contacted local St Giles Labour Cllr Wingfield, who helpfully tried repeatedly to get an answer and on our deadline date for this circular update, we finally got the following reply:
Labour Cllr Helen Dennis wrote saying:
“There are currently no plans or negotiations to develop the land which is designated as Metropolitan Open Land (MOL), and as you know we have previously taken a very clear position with developers on this. It remains our ambition to restore the site as green space but we currently do not have the funding to both purchase and landscape the site which we estimate would cost several millions of pounds. We will of course keep this under review as other development comes forward in the neighbourhood.”
The Labour ward councillors in St Giles collectively wrote to us to totally back purchase and integration.
We were pleased that Labour has dropped the developer lie that the land was not MOL.
RAISING THE FUNDS NECESSARY FOR PROTECTING THIS BURGESS PARK MOL
We recognise that raising the funds for the completion of this last important corner of Burgess Park is necessary.
But there is a huge amount of high-density tower-block development taking place adjacent to it, which means the council will be getting £millions in developer planning contributions for local investment, including environmental investment.
And the council has yet to develop a project to raise the funds elsewhere e.g. from London Mayor’s wildlife investment funds, Trusts, Landfill funds etc.
The campaign to stop Southwark Council allowing a tower block to be built on this MOL site and get it to integrate the land finally into the park is 34-years-old this year!!
With your help this prolonged saga can finish successfully, with a beautiful, landscaped entrance to the park on Southampton Way, as has long been the plan!
Many thanks for your ongoing support
Donnachadh McCarthy FRSA
PP Burgess Park Action Group