Transport for London ignores calls for further democratic scrutiny and agrees to enter into a joint venture with Capco - but the Save Earl's Court campaign will have its say

2/5/2014

Today the Transport for London board along with its Chair, Mayor Boris Johnson, decided to enter into a joint venture with developers Capco. This is despite widespread opposition from many residents of LBHF and RBKC, the London Assembly opposition parties, the RMT , Unite the Union, local and national business owners, the exhibitions industry and those who wish to preserve and enhance our cultural heritage.

In response to this senseless decision, the Save Earl's Court campaign will hold a press conference in the House of Commons on Friday, 7th February. Speaking will be Karim Halwagi, CEO of the Association of Event Organisers; Darren Johnson AM, Chair of the London Assembly; Andrew Slaughter MP, shadow Minister for Justice; Murad Qureshi AM and Linda Wade, Chair of the Earl's Court Area Action Group.

Support for our campaign is growing and we will continue our fight to save Earl's Court.

3 Comments

Francis Catley

2/6/2014 02:35:32 am

I am writing today not as an owner of a property on, or near, the proposed Earls Court Development Area, nor as anyone who has any financial interest, or any other form of interest, apart from personal interest. I was born in South London and visited Earls Court at least annually since a young child until I left the city as an adult.

Earls Court has such an exceeding interesting history, alongside its wartime effort in preserving our peace, that even for that reason it is worth preserving. We have heard all of the benefits the exhibitions bring to the community, there is no need to outline them here.

I want to state from the outset that I adore architecture and most historical buildings, and hate to see something irreplaceable being demolished. As far as I am aware there are no other Art Deco buildings of this size left in the world. Earls Court is therefore unique. Our future generations will not thank us for such wanton destruction of such a historical, and architecturally interesting building.

I have followed the development plans over the past few years with increasing gloom, as I watch the Exhibition centre slowly becoming history, and see the local residents lose control of their own area. What has happened to the concept of "an Englishman's home is his castle". We are seeing the ebbing away of our most basic democratic right of choice of where we live.

Have the politicians really thought this one through. The construction work could take up to 20 years. That is 20 years of large lorries, noise, dust and destruction of peace. We all know how frustrating it is when our own neighbour begins construction work. But we tolerate it because we know it is generally for a shortish period of time, and generally improves the look of the street. This gigantic demolition project will be horrendous to live through. Are all of its "neighbours" really going to continue to accept their right of peace being destroyed day after day,year after year, decade after decade. Will they really continue to vote for the councillors that allowed it to happen. We all know how things can change quickly. Seven days is a long time in politics, 20 years is just unimaginable.

We British used to be good at compromise. Isn't there any way of saving the Exhibition centres, not demolishing the houses, and finding a way to create just affordable housing in acceptable postions within the Earls Court Development area. Surely this is the crux of the matter, government should be encouraging the building of housing for real people, real Londoners. The ones that generate wealth for our amazing city. The renovation of the Empress Tower is a good example. I cannot really see how anyone would complain about that being turned into housing. Perhaps using empty spaces more efficiently, like the car park near the Centre as well. Those compromise projects that would be smaller, would cause less noise, and would be much more acceptable to the local residents. Whatever happened to Mr Cameron's Big Society. Surely that was a concept which was supposed to empower local communities, and yet this seems just the reverse.

For me the exhibition centre was a place of magic, as a young child I was in awe of the building.It added colour and wonder to my life, and helped me to become the person I am now. Exhibitions on this scale really are exciting. Row after row of apartments are just never going inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs in our wonderful city.

I am not against the idea of developers making money, I am an entrepreneur myself. There are so many impressive projects out there. Examining the Earls Court plan in detail there are a few details which seem visually interesting. But at what cost.

So although this might be very late in the day, I really hope that tommorows press conference on this subject is fruitful, and the points against this plan can be stated clearly. Most importantly this work will create the most gigantic construction site right in the centre of a highly populated zone and could last two decades, and that is, if there are no problems. Who wants to live next to such a site. More like Hell's Court than Earls Court I would imagine. The benefits might be in 20 years, that's 4 whole different fixed term governments away. Please could the councillors start thinking about the reality, of this immense construction site, on ground zero ,after it actually starts, and how their constituents will vote to punish the people that let this through.

I hope this article explains my point of view of a Londoner living away from the city.

Lucy Mata

2/17/2014 01:21:52 am

Hello Francis. Thank you for taking the time to comment on our campaign's website. We appreciate your comments and you will be able to see extracts from the press conference on our You Tube channel accessible from our website if you click on the You Tube logo in the top right hand corner. Kind regards Save Earl's Court campaign

Equity Market Tips link

4/8/2014 06:52:13 pm

Thanks for the amount of work to provide an informative article. I will certainly store it as a major point of future reference.keep in touch

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

Transport for London ignores calls for further democratic scrutiny and agrees to enter into a joint venture with Capco - but the Save Earl's Court campaign will have its say

Leave a Reply.

Archives

Categories

Author