Member

The green space is going, leaving the residents in blocks of flats around here, many of which are social housing Peabody buildings, high and dry. They have nowhere else to go. They do not have their own gardens. They have nowhere else to take their children. It is contrary to the Government’s policy. The Government’s environmental improvement plan contains a commitment for every household to be within a 15-minute walk of green space, and that is going. In addition, it will soon all be cluttered up with restoration and renewal building materials for 20 or 30 years to come. That same green space was used extensively when the late Queen had her lying-in-state and then for the coronation, and those are not one-off events. The World Heritage status is threatened, and we will come to that later. The Infrastructure and Projects Authority regards the building there as undeliverable and not, I emphasise, for planning permission reasons. The expense is eye-watering and unknown, and so far not even a spade has entered the soil. No contractors have been found and the designers, Adjaye Associates, are now suffering a loss.