Leaked reports from H&F Council demonstrate how Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson is being lined up to approve the highly controversial Town Hall skyscrapers and office scheme should he win re-election next Thursday. The Shepherds Bush Blog has this excellent report which you can read here.
There was always a strong whiff of a private deal between H&F Conservatives and the Tory Mayor when instead of stopping the scheme, he suspended it allowing it to remain “live” and be re-visited after the election. He did this despite his own planning experts in the Greater London Assembly reaching the conclusion that it breached their regional planning rules as well as Hammersmith and Fulham Council’s.
In March, GLA member Nicky Gavron (Lab) asked Mayor Johnson why he hadn’t refused it (as his officials had clearly advised) or even conformed to the usual Mayoral planning processes? Mr. Johnson refused to respond to her point underlining the wide held belief that this was nothing other than a re-election strategy.
But Mr. Johnson has now been caught out in what Hammersmith MP Andy Slaughter (Lab) says “looks like a squalid deal to try and win popularity and then approve the scheme once the election is over."
Local residents will view this as a serious blow to Boris Johnson's integrity and it comes off the back of his less than honest approach with the Fulham Super Sewer and the Shepherds Bush Market demolition. Mayor Johnson and H&F Conservatives should now release all the minutes and records of the secret conversations they had about the Hammersmith Town Hall office scheme and tell the public exactly what was plotted last December.
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