My statement was as follows:
I am not anti-development in fact I am quite the opposite. Anyone who knows me both in a personal and business context, including my residential voters in Cripplegate, is aware of this.
As the majority of my fellow Cripplegate and Aldersgate Councillors will testify, the residents they represent are not necessarily against development in general despite what the perception within the Corporation may be. Regarding LWW, their feeling can be summed up as dissatisfaction and disappointment. In my opinion it is a missed opportunity.
300 people crammed into St Giles Church on 6th July to express this collective state of mind and, listening to them, I believe there is still time to get it right. There were many arguments put forward by residents including an inadequate and uninformative consultation process but the one that sticks out for me is the argument that the current scheme is contrary to (1) the City’s own net zero targets; (2) the ambitions of the Culture Mile; and (3) the creation of the CoL as a Destination City. I have been looking into this and I must say that, with the current level of detail provide, it is hard to argue against this at this moment in time.
For example, the Corporation say that the current buildings “are believed to be structurally inadequate for major refurbishment comprising extension or adaption” however there has been no actual Structural Survey conducted to prove this. Moreover, the Whole Life Carbon Assessment claims a 10 percent reduction in carbon per square metre for the new build option (over the refurbishment one) but that is only because the is building so big.
Even if we were to look past this, the proposals for the standard office blocks are underwhelming and thus not going to add as much value as they could do to the Culture Mile or Destination City agenda. If the Square Mile is going to adapt and evolve successfully considering the negative factors caused by the pandemic, war and impending recession then it is these types of agendas that will determine whether City workers AND non-City workers spend money in the City – 7 days a week.
This site is like no other in that it has the power to pull people to the Square Mile not only between 9-5 Mon – Friday and after the decision not to proceed with the Centre for Music, I therefore believe it is vital that the decision of what we do with the site should ultimately be opened to debate to the whole CCC and not just PIB. In reality it affects aspects that fall way outside the mandate of this Board. As the current papers state, ‘a fresh application could be made in the future’ so I will not be supporting the proposal at this Property Investment Board today but may do if alternatives were decided by the Court.
