A grassroots campaign group which resigned from a Hackney Council community panel over redevelopment plans has hit out at the process.
Morning Lane People’s Space (MOPS) is a grassroots campaign which has been calling on the Council to adopt a more transparent and honest approach over plans to redevelop the Tesco site in central Hackney.
But the group resigned from Hackney Central Community Panel (HCCP) last month after they found out that the council had shortlisted architects for the redevelopment before any community-wide consultation had taken place.
In open letter addressed to Hackney’s elected mayor, the group said: “If we remain, we will be validating this half-baked and corrupt process.
“Rather than civic engagement this feels like a last-minute, tick-box exercise.”
The local authority purchased Tesco site on 55 Morning Lane for the sum of £60 million in 2017 and initially planned to profit from its redevelopment by signing a deal with private developers to build 500 homes, only 20% of which were reserved for affordable housing, according to campaigners.
These proposals never materialised following significant local opposition and the council set up the HCCP to give the community a space to share feedback on strategic decisions and developments in Hackney Central, according to its website.
MOPS was among a selection of local businesses and organisation representatives appointed by the council to sit on the panel.
However, its campaigners criticised the panel as unrepresentative of a community and described it as a top-down process designed to institutionalise community groups like MOPS into controlled opposition.
Since 2020, MOPS has called on the council to ensure any redevelopment plans must include a minimum of 50% council homes, the retention of a supermarket the same size as the existing Tesco superstore, and a co-design process with the community groups.
It claimed that panel members were invited to apply to be on the evaluation panel to select the architect with just four days’ notice over the weekend.
Since their resignation, MOPS has pledged to continue applying pressure on the council to ensure a co-design process with community groups.
The council has reached out to the MOPS since, but the group’s chairperson and former Hackney GP Adam Foreman, 70, said: “[It’s] mainly PR on their part.
“It reinforced me that they [Hackney Council] are worried and that they take us seriously [because] we’re the only people who have done any consultation, done any work, and we do have a public presence.”
A survey conducted by MOPS secretary and freelance researcher Heather Mendick, 54, reached over 1,300 residents.
That figure is ten times the number of people who engaged in the initial consultation by the private developers.
Mendick said: “[We will] work with the consultants who we know as much as we can and hopefully work with the architects, once we know who they are.”
She has urged the council to respect the co-design process by ensuring that information flows both ways.
Mendick said: “Co-design must involve sharing information.
“The council has to be open about their red lines.
“They have to open up the timetable [and] there has to be active support for people to take part.”
In the open letter addressed to the Mayor of Hackney, MOPS was keen to stress the importance of 55 Morning Lane for the community.
The group said: “55 Morning Lane is hugely important for Hackney.
“It is not ‘business-as-usual’ – it is a town centre redevelopment, where the interests and concerns of residents must be central.
“We will continue our work to get residents’ voices heard by Hackney Council in their plans for the site, and to ensure a large Tesco remains, and at least 50% of any housing built there is public housing that can provide homes for families on the waiting list.”
According to Centre for London figures, last year Hackney was found to have the longest average waiting times for council housing despite having the third-largest housing stock in the capital.
In 2021, there were 25.2 households in temporary accommodation per 1,000, higher than the London average of 17.03.
Mayor of Hackney Caroline Woodley said: “After Tesco put 55 Morning Lane up for sale, the council bought it to ensure we could directly influence what would be built in this key town centre location.
“We’re committed to putting the community in Hackney Central at the heart of plans for the site, which will help create a new part of the town centre and deliver new affordable homes, better public spaces and a new Tesco store, all shaped by the voices of local people.
“The views of thousands of people have helped inform the priorities for the site and the wider Hackney Central area, through a series of in-person events, surveys and online engagement.
“We’ll shortly be starting collaborative co-design work with local people to help shape future plans for the site.
“MOPS has brought a huge amount of energy and drive to the engagement process to date.
“I hope this will continue to be the case and that we can work together positively on this important site in Hackney.”
Featured image by Nick Miao.
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