Tonight, at 6.30pm, at Woolwich Town Hall, Wellington Street, the council’s planning board will consider the application to demolish Greenwich Market. So a few days ago, a group of us decided to test the claims by Greenwich Hospital, the owners of the Market, that there is “widespread support” for their plan.
We set up our home-made banner and clipboards in the centre of town. In just five hours – three hours on Sunday and two on Monday – 806 people signed formal objection letters to the Hospital’s planning application.
Including others who wrote individual letters, the total number of objections now stands at around 880 – nearly three times the number of responses received by the Hospital to its own public consultation. More than 80 per cent of our objectors were from the borough of Greenwich or from within a few miles’ radius. It is clear that had we done it for a longer period, we could have amassed tens of thousands of names.
We showed people pictures of the proposal, and the text (written by the developers themselves) describing it, and were taken aback by the strength of feeling, verging in some cases on real anger. People were literally queuing up to sign.
There seems to be enormous concern, far greater than I suspected, among local people about “what is happening to Greenwich,” with the closure of the Village Market, the horse events in the Park, and now the Market redevelopment set to cause years of disruption and permanent damage to a unique and cherished place.
We were struck, too, by the large numbers of locals who didn’t really know about what was planned – who refused to believe, until we showed them the plans, that the market was actually going to be demolished and replaced with a modern market.
It is even more clear to me now than it was before that the development has no public support at all. The Hospital has managed to co-opt various local worthies – such as the Greenwich Society and Nick Raynsford MP – but this turns out to be no more than a symptom of how our representatives have lost touch with the people they’re supposed to represent.
Tonight, we objectors will have – ahem – five minutes to make our case (though this can be extended at the chair of the meeting’s discretion.) It is not even clear whether the 800-odd letters signed over the weekend will be formally notified to the meeting – the consultation period is officially closed – but we decided to send round copies of some of them to councillors, just so they could see what the public thought for themselves.
Will councillors take any notice? In a rational world, they should – because the application (and its cousin to put the temporary market on the Old Royal Naval College site) contravenes their own policy, the Unitary Development Plan, in at least five separate respects. However, the officers have recommended acceptance – and Greenwich councillors usually do what their officers tell them.
Greenwich councillors do not have a good record of listening to their voters or obeying their own declared planning policy – they recently approved a very unpopular high-density housing development in King’s Highway, Plumstead, despite its being in breach of 22 policies of the UDP.
I think all this says something important about how our democracy here in Greenwich is failing – partly because one party has a vast majority on the council, and feels secure to do whatever it wants; but more, I think, because of our serious lack of functioning civic institutions.
We no longer have a real conservation body – the Greenwich Society has turned itself into a PR organ for the Market developers and the people who want to tear up Greenwich Park. We don’t have particularly strong local media. Though the Mercury tries hard, it is based outside the borough and does not compare to local newspapers in some other parts of the capital. Hence the lack of information that we found among many.
Over the market, there is still time. Even if the redevelopment gets the nod tonight, the planning process is not concluded. But I think that had anything as bad as the market scheme been proposed in an area where there was a decent local paper and a strong civic group it would already have been defeated by now.
Christina Fereou says
Hello,
Please advise if you have a “lost and found office” at the Greenwich Market. We lost an anniversary ring this month in the cafe area inside the Greenwich Market. We would love to see if anyone has found it and turned it in. A reward will be given. Kind regards to you all.
Christina Fereou
Indigo says
There is a manager, I think – I have met her but I can’t for the life of me remember her name or find any contact details for her. Perhaps someone else who can will be along soon.
Nicola Frost says
Hi Christina, there are a couple of mangers at the market – try Patry:
patrycja.nowak@urban-space.co.uk
I hope you find your treasure.
Kind regards
Nicola