Southwark (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Peckham campaigners raised £15k in one week to oppose the Aylesham Centre redevelopment in Southwark, intensifying the battle over local planning.
Aylesham Community Action (ACA) campaigners will be at the Peckham Festival in Copeland Park this weekend, where they will be selling T-shirts and distributing flyers with information on their campaign.
Building on the success of last year’s event, ACA has also planned an Open House event this weekend to coincide with the Peckham Festival.
Free, bookable activities include panel discussions, sketching lessons, and guided tours across Peckham that illustrate how different places have changed.
The panel discussion, which centers on the idea of giving, will include activists, scholars, and local leaders talking about Peckham activism, architecture, and the Aylesham plans.
Since their September 9 launch, ACA campaigners have raised £15,000 of the £50,000 they need to hire a counsel to represent their objections at the planning hearing, which is scheduled for the last week of October.
Berkeley Homes, the developer, declared in July that it will appeal to the government for approval instead of the Southwark planning committee because the council had missed the deadline to evaluate the Aylesham proposal.
However, Southwark Council claimed that after the developer changed the plan in December to reduce the percentage of affordable housing on the land from 35% to 12%, it was compelled to reevaluate the proposal.
On Monday, October 27, the hearing will start. On Tuesday, ACA campaigners will demonstrate outside the Tooley Street headquarters of Southwark Council.
All of this weekend’s events have free admission, but reservations are required.
What are the main community concerns about the Aylesham Centre plans?
The initial proposal included 35% affordable housing, but was later cut back to approximately 12%, which prompted significant opposition.
Local community members and campaign groups state that this does not address the pressing need for housing in Peckham, particularly considering levels of deprivation and the large waiting lists for social housing. Residents also expressed concern that the density and height of the buildings – up to 20 storeys high on some of the proposed 14 buildings – will change the unique cultural identity of Peckham and damage the historic character.
Residents outlined a sense of overcrowding in the redevelopment that separates itself from the existing neighborhoods. The plan has implications for displacing small, independent businesses, both during construction and after, which may impact the local economy and diminish the fabric of the community.