Why the Tesco Toxic Towers referral letter should be published

 I sent this to Councillors earlier today. 

Dear Councillors

Martin Jones, Principal Strategic planner for the GLA, wrote to me earlier today to say that the referral from Redbridge planning department, for the 27^th of May 2021 decision to pass the Tesco Toxic Towers application has not yet arrived. This referral is a key document as it triggers a two-week decision period for Sadiq Khan, London Mayor, to decide whether to call in the application. A call in decision could ultimately lead to the application being refused.

Anna, my contact at your planning department wrote to me on the 8^th of June 2021 within an email as follows:

“As far as I am aware, this does not get publicised on the Council’s website; it is a referral letter that get sent out directly to the GLA.

If you e-mail me say every 2-3 weeks, I can give you a better indication of what stage we are at/likely date of the stage 2 referral.”

Whilst it is very welcome that Anna is being so helpful, I seek your support for a change in procedure which will allow referral letters to be published on the council website on the day that they are sent to the GLA, along with emails or paper copies of the letter to objectors. This reform would allow objectors the option to challenge the decision made by Redbridge. The issue is that 106 agreements can be changed, Redbridge define a 106 agreement as follows at page 215 of the planning report tabled on the 27^th of May 2021:

“Section 106 Legal Agreements are a material consideration in the determination of a planning application. The purpose of such an agreement is to make otherwise unacceptable development acceptable and they should only be sought where they meet all of the tests set out above.”

For example, at page 297 of the same document Redbridge write below:

“Whilst TfL do not object to the principle of the station entrance, they remain concerned

about the matters regarding logistics and funding of the station entrance. The approach

of safeguarding of the land (through the S106 Agreement for the 4309/19 application) will

enable TfL, with support from its partners, to undertake further studies, get the relevant

approvals and to have greater flexibility regarding timings of delivery. This is important

given the costs, uncertainties around funding due to the pandemic and complexities

involved in delivering a station entrance. Overall, this approach will ensure that a station

entrance can be delivered and its delivery can be agreed in a manner that is viable and

acceptable to TfL.”

So, it would appear that at the 27^th of May the exact terms of the 106 agreement were yet to be negotiated with the Council, TFL, and Tesco. It must be fair for the public and the elected representatives to know exactly what the result of the negotiations are in the completed 106 agreement.

If you are supportive of the publication of the referral letter which I expect to include the updated 106 agreement I would be grateful if you could make a public comment to that affect and inform me.

I will attempt to raise this issue with Councillor Athwal at cabinet this coming Tuesday but the recently imposed restrictions on public speaking will make it difficult.

The campaign has organised a meeting at Barley Lane Park at 10am tomorrow morning to call on Sadiq Khan to call in the Tesco application. So far only Sian Berry AM is the only elected representative to say that the application should be called in, if you could also make a public declaration on this it would be very helpful.

Regards

Andy Walker