Yesterday I witnessed the spectacle of Boris Johnson presiding over the planning enquiry into Eileen House – a 41 storey tower proposed for the Elephant and Castle. Southwark’s cross party planning committee had refused the application on a number of grounds – an unusual occurrence in itself as major planning applications rarely get refused in Labour run Southwark – but Boris decided he wasn’t happy and called in the decision.

The first shock of the day was that the “committee” consisted of Boris and his planning officers, with no other elected representative. Then came Cllr Peter John, leader of Southwark council, who – instead of defending his planning committee’s decision as a council leader should – supported the developers and even praised the architect for his design (when poor design had been a reason for refusal!) After that a local resident spoke in favour, claiming to be speaking as a representative of the Elephant and Castle community. Voices in the gallery rang out in unison asking me “Adele, who on earth is that? She doesn’t speak for me!” She then went on to say that everyone involved in the regeneration had “moved on”. I waited for her afterwards so that I could point out that I hadn’t moved on, in fact I have been around so long that I used to work in the building where she lives when it was still DHSS offices – years before they thought of converting it to flats! Eventually I gave up waiting for her to finish schmoozing with the developers, including former E&C boss Chris Horn who has himself “moved on” to work for the developers….

Saddest of all was that the fundamental planning failures of the site, such as lack of affordable housing, poor design etc, were completely ignored as a grotesque power battle between two big corporations – Oakmayne and Ministry of Sound – were played out in an almost pantomime fashion with Boris as the star turn. And at the end of it all, so terrified of upsetting either one of these most influential businesses and their expensive lawyers, Boris put the ball back in their court and delayed the decision by another month.

Local residents and ward councillors’ views, fundamental departures from planning policy, elected member decision making all swept under the carpet.  Another expensive development coming our way that probably even Boris can’t afford to live in ……

Cllr Adele Morris