Charlton – Page 22 – The Charlton Champion

Charlton Athletic mark 100 years at The Valley

September 13, 2019June 19, 2023Darryl Chamberlain

Valley pitch invasion — Going up: fans invade the pitch after the play-off semi-final win over Doncaster Rovers in May

Today marks 100 years since the first Charlton Athletic match at The Valley. The centenary will be marked at tomorrow’s match against Birmingham City, with Lee Bowyer’s side hoping to continue its excellent start to the Championship season. The first match in what was then known simply as the Charlton Enclosure, a 2-0 win for Charlton’s “A” team against Summerstown, took place in the South Suburban League – league football was still two years away.

The Addicks were founded as a boys’ team at Siemens Meadow, by the present-day Thames Barrier, in 1905. They became a senior team in 1913 – capitalising on Arsenal’s move to north London – and took over a ground at Horn Lane, east Greenwich, roughly where Ikea is now. But the club closed during the First World War, and the Angerstein Athletic Ground was requisitioned as a petrol dump. After the war, a reborn club played friendlies at Charlton Park and the Rectory Field while the club’s board prepared for its future.

In case you've not visited the museum before here's a colour map we lent the comms team for the 100th birthday of the Valley. We're in the top left hand corner : – ) Lots more museum content and articles in the special #cafc programme tomorrow and we're open 11 to 1. pic.twitter.com/Fbp1rxNDoa

— Charlton Athletic Museum (@CHATHMuseum) September 13, 2019

The earliest evidence of Charlton at The Valley is a letter found in Greenwich Council’s archives, dated January 18, 1919, asking to borrow a steam roller from the local council as the club was “engaged in laying out a sports ground in Floyd Road, Charlton”. On May 13, 1919, the club’s newly-elected president, the Conservative MP for Greenwich, Sir Ion Hamilton Benn, told a meeting at the Mission Hall in Troughton Road (now Rathmore Youth Club) that Charlton had been invited to join the Kent League and would be playing at the new ground.

Volunteers did the work of converting the Charlton Sand Pits – known locally as The Swamp – into a usable football ground. Sir Ion, whose influence greatly helped the fledgling club, offered to act as guarantor for £700 of the £1,000 needed to do the work – but all the money was raised locally.

Facilities were basic, as Jimmy Seed, the club’s legendary FA Cup-winning manager, was to write in 1958:

“What a dump it was in those days without a stand or dressing rooms. The players changed in a nearby house and took their meals in a local pub. I recall how dreary The Valley was in 1920 when I played there for the first time for the Spurs reserve team against Charlton in a friendly game… After a cold, wet and thoroughly miserable day we were unable to take a bath or a shower, but had to stroll to a nearby hut so that we could change into our dry clothes.”

The club finished fifth in the Kent League in its first season at The Valley, and went professional in 1920, joining the Southern League. The year after that, Charlton became a Football League club, when it elected ten clubs into its new Third Division South.

But the switch to League football – and the punishing cost of getting The Valley up to scratch – proved costly. An FA Cup run in 1922/23 brought in the crowds, with 41,023 squeezing in for a fourth-round match against Bolton – but fencing collapsed, injuring spectators, and the cost of compensation is said to have wiped out the profit. Crowds shrank again, and in December 1923 the directors wrote off any chance of Charlton being able to draw a decent crowd in Charlton itself – and upped sticks to The Mount, in Catford. That move was even bigger disaster, with even smaller crowds of just a thousand, and the club’s directors moved back home for the following season, tails between their legs.

In the decades to come, Charlton would rise to the First Division under Seed, and attract a record 75,031 to a 1938 match against Aston Villa. The club entered a slow decline after relegation from the top flight in the 1950s, with crowds falling away and the stadium starting to crumble – despite occasional initiatives like bringing camels to the ground…

By the 1980s, and the aftermath of the Bradford City and Heysel stadium disasters, the Greater London Council moved to close the ground’s vast East Terrace. That, and a property row, led the club to repeat its mistake of 1924 and move out of Charlton in 1985, this time to Selhurst Park, leaving The Valley derelict and overgrown.

After a lengthy fans’ campaign – first against the club, then Greenwich Council – the Addicks returned in 1992, and the rest is history. Each side of The Valley tells a particular part of the club’s recent history – the Jimmy Seed Stand, the away end, dates from the late 1970s and is the only surviving structure from the pre-1992 ground. The East Stand, completed in 1994, was the first permanent stand to be finished at the rebuilt Valley, the west stand came at the time of Charlton’s first promotion to the Premier League. The huge Covered End, finished in 2001, which faces Floyd Road, is probably the biggest reminder of the club’s spell in the top flight.

Around 2000, the club flirted with the idea of a move to the Millennium Dome site, and in the early 2010s a move to Morden Wharf on the Greenwich Peninsula was mooted by the club’s then-owners. But despite the anniversary falling under the shadow of Belgian electronics tycoon Roland Duchatelet’s eccentric ownership, there are no plans for a third move away. 100 years after the first match, it is very hard to imagine Charlton without The Valley.

Come back on Monday morning for KEVIN NOLAN’s report from the Birmingham City match. Acknowledgements: The Jimmy Seed Story by Jimmy Seed (Sportsmans Book Club, 1958); The Story of Charlton Athletic, 1905-1990 by Richard Redden (Breedon, 1990); Home and Away with Charlton Athletic 1920-2004 by Colin Cameron (Voice of The Valley, 2003)

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Metro Bank plans drive-through branch for Charlton – despite housing plans

September 11, 2019June 19, 2023Darryl Chamberlain

Metro Bank design — The bank plans a glass-fronted building

Metro Bank is planning to open a drive-through branch in Charlton – on land designated by Greenwich Council for long-term housing development.

The bank has agreed to take over the McDonald’s branch on Bugsby’s Way, and plans to knock it down and build a new building with drive-through facilities, so customers can do their banking without the bother of having to leave their cars.

In its planning application to Greenwich Council, the bank – which already has a drive-through branch in Southall, west London – says planning law already allows it to use the existing McDonald’s building. However, this would be “a missed opportunity to significantly enhance the site”.

The Charlton Champion has contacted McDonald’s to find out the fate of its current outlet; however, the fast-food giant’s lease runs out in October 2021. This website also understands that Metro Bank has been interested in moving into Charlton for some time, and at one point was in talks about moving into the Sainsbury’s M&S development on Woolwich Road.

Now Metro, which has high street branches in Bexleyheath, Bromley and the City of London, has opted for a drive-through branch – a concept common in the US, but which failed to catch on when introduced as an experiment by British banks in the 1950s. One remained in Leicester until the late 1980s, closing shortly after a car crashed into its entrance gate.

As reported on From The Murky Depths, the bank’s plans do little to improve the miserable and intimidating pedestrian environment on Bugsby’s Way – and how Greenwich Council deals with this could be an indicator of just how serious it is about plans to transform the Charlton riverside from a collection of retail barns and industrial uses to a new, mixed-use neighbourhood with 7,500 new homes.

The Charlton Riverside masterplan, published in 2017, states that the Bugsby’s Way retail strip does not conform with the council’s “policy to promote Woolwich as a metropolitan town centre”.

It adds: “There is potential for some of the retail activity to remain, potentially embedded within new neighbourhood or local centres, but with a significant change to a mixed use form of development.”

However, as many of the retail barns have recently been built, the council does not envisage development starting on this part of the riverside until 2031.

Prudential, the insurance company, bought the whole Peninsular Park [sic] retail park – which sits between Asda and the Angerstein Wharf railway line and opened in the mid-1990s – in December 2016 for £38 million. Most of the leases run out next year or in 2021; the leases for the Smyths Toys and Tapi Carpet branches last until 2028.

Metro Bank, which rather optimistically refers to the area as “North Greenwich”, says it is aiming for a 25-year lease on the site – putting a spanner in any plans to rework the site for residential use until the mid-2040s. It says it will create 25 jobs with the proposal.

A letter from council officers submitted with the plans says: “The use of the building as a bank with drive-thru facilities will maintain the attraction of the retail park to customers and continue its economic contribution.”

In its transport statement, the bank claims most customers will use public transport or walk. The council’s transport officer raises no objection, saying there is an “abundance of parking available”.

To see further details, and to comment on the application, see reference 19/2781/F on Greenwich Council’s planning website. Comments need to be submitted by 30 September.

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White Swan freeholder plans to shrink beer garden for new housebuilding plan

September 4, 2019June 19, 2023Darryl Chamberlain

The road to the house’s bin store would run through this outbuilding and the beer garden behind

The company that owns the freehold to the White Swan pub has made its fourth application to build on land behind the pub’s beer garden – taking a strip off the pub’s beer garden in doing so.

Isle of Man-based Mendoza Ltd, which makes money through buying pubs and turning part of the land into housing, again wants to build a three-bedroom house on land behind the pub, although with a new design that takes inspiration from the Swan’s neighbour, The Bugle Horn. The plan eight months after a planning inspector threw out its last attempt.

In an application submitted to Greenwich Council, it says that planning officers are now supportive of the scheme, which would see the house face the Torrance Close service road behind The Village.

This access route would be extended to the new house

However, the new plan involves using the yard at the side of the pub – and part of the beer garden – as an access route so council bin lorries can collect refuse from the new house by driving in from The Village. Plans submitted by Mendoza show the road running through an outbuilding and the east side of the beer garden. Greenwich Council had told the developer that its bin lorries were too big to use Torrance Close.

The beer garden will be used on Sunday for a Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival screening of Life of Brian.

While Torrance Close had been seen as unsuitable for new homes by many, the planning inspector who dealt with the last application did not agree, saying: “The local area to which the site belongs [Torrance Close] has an air of neglect and to my mind is capable of successfully accommodating a bespoke form of new development.

“The conservation area itself has no single unifying architectural theme and there is no obvious reason why it could not in principle readily assimilate a variety of new dwellings in terms of size and style.”

The access route to the bin store can be seen on maps submitted with the planning application

The developer says the design of the home is informed by “a visual analysis of the area”, citing the Bugle Horn and Charlton Assembly Rooms. “The immediate site context is interspersed with Victorian outhouses, chimneys, single and gable- pitched roofs, brick ornamentation, linear facades and window surrounds,” it says. “There is a sense of establishment with most buildings with specular geometries added to address function and enhance the parent form.”

Mendoza render of new White Swan home — How Mendoza says the new home would look

Mendoza bought the pub from previous owner Punch Taverns in March 2015, evicting the then-management three months later. A first attempt at development, to build two homes, in October 2015, was thrown out by Greenwich Council planners. That decision was upheld by a planning inspector. A second attempt was rejected earlier in 2017. The third attempt, for one three-bedroom house, was rejected by council planners in December 2017 and again by a planning inspector in January. The pub was declared an asset of community value in March 2014, although this has now lapsed.

It is four years this month since the once-tatty pub was taken over by Geoff Keen, owner of Greenwich’s Pelton Arms. It recently launched a new menu on Tuesdays to Sundays, with a vegan pop-up, Rocket, in place on Monday evenings.

Plans can be seen on Greenwich Council’s planning website, reference 19/2600/F. Comments should be sent to the council by 2 October.

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Westcombe Hill to get new bus to North Greenwich from October

August 30, 2019June 19, 2023Darryl Chamberlain

Route 335 map — The new 335 service will follow the red route to North Greenwich

Bus users who live on the western side of Charlton will get a new service to North Greenwich from October after Transport for London confirmed its new route, the 335, will run via Westcombe Hill.

The new double-deck service will run between Kidbrooke and North Greenwich every 12 minutes during Monday to Saturday daytimes and every 15 minutes during evenings and Sundays. TfL hopes to begin the service, which will provide relief to the often-overcrowded 108 route, on 26 October.

Two options were presented in a consultation, with the possibility that the route could run straight down the A102, as the current 132 service does now. TfL – backed by Greenwich Council – opted to for a route via Kidbrooke Park Road, Shooters Hill Road, Stratheden Road and Westcombe Hill, to follow the 108 to North Greenwich.

The Westcombe Society – an amenity society for the Westcombe Park area – had led objections to the route serving Westcombe Hill, which has been a bus route for over a century. According to TfL, the society said running via Westcombe Hill was “unacceptable to residents who already suffer from frequent buses on a residential road”. It claimed the area was already “well served for buses to Greenwich Peninsula and North Greenwich”.

Another group, the Westcombe Traffic Group, complained about noise and pollution and called for buses on route 132 to be given double-decker buses to serve passengers from Kidbrooke. Double-decker buses have operated route 132 for ten years. TfL plans to use hybrids on the new 335. (Read the full consultation report.)

While the new route will be of huge use to those who have struggled to squeeze onto routes 108 or 422 to North Greenwich, it remains to be seen whether buses will already be crowded by the time they reach Westcombe Hill. The service is being funded by money from Berkeley Homes, which is developing the Kidbrooke Village development; while Transport for London – which has been cutting services in recent years due to financial problems – says it is using business rates income to bring the introduction of the bus forward.

It will also add to crowding at North Greenwich bus station, which already struggles in the evening rush hour. Plans are afoot for a new bus station, but a dramatic design with 24-storey towers has reportedly been dropped.

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Charlton Riverside: Stone Foundries site sold with 1,500 more homes planned

August 7, 2019June 19, 2023Darryl Chamberlain

Stone Foundries, Charlton — Stone Foundries was founded in Deptford in the 1830s

One of Charlton’s longest-established industrial concerns, Stone Foundries, is to close after a developer bought its land for a development of up to 1,500 new homes.

The sale of the Stone site to Staines-based developer Montreaux marks a key turning point in the slow transformation of Charlton’s riverside from an industrial into a residential area.

Montreaux recently won approval to turn an old margarine factory in Southall, west London, into a high-density development of 2,000 homes; while more locally it has also bought the old Lamorbey swimming baths in Sidcup for a mixed-use development.

Stone’s sale marks the end of nearly 190 of years of business in the local area. In 1831, founder Josiah Stone set up a business in Deptford casting copper nails for the shipbuilding industry. Part of the business moved to Charlton in 1917, where it continued to make castings for ships, and still produces fittings for the aerospace industry. The Deptford works closed in 1969. The firm was bought and merged into UK-based parts maker Aeromet last year.

An Aeromet spokesperson told The Charlton Champion yesterday that it was in the process of moving the former Stone operations to its sites in Rochester and Sittingbourne, both in Kent.

At its height, Stone even had extensive sports fields stretching out onto the Woolwich Road, now the site of the Stone Lake retail park.

Stone has outlasted many of its industrial neighbours by decades – the huge United Glass Works on Anchor & Hope Lane closed in 1968, Johnsen & Jorgensen’s glass works shut in 1981.

One challenge for any developer will be that some of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s Stone buildings – though unseen by most locals – are now locally listed, with the site covered by a conservation area. According to Greenwich Council’s heritage list: “The site qualifies on the grounds of historic interest mainly due to its high importance for the British Royal Navy during the C20, especially during WWI and WWII and as a notable site of employment heritage. The buildings described above are of architectural interest, especially the Offices, the Laboratory and Odeon Buildings, being substantially intact and evocative surviving examples of an engineering foundry that was of national and strategic importance. This suite of buildings is also notable for quality of materials and décor, given their construction date when so little was being built.”

The land sale means there are now five major redevelopment sites on the Charlton riverside, mostly adjacent to one another, and all at various stages in the planning process.

The other four schemes, from west to east, are:

the Rockwell scheme for 771 homes at Anchor & Hope Lane was refused first by Greenwich Council last summer, then by the Mayor of London in January.
500 homes are planned by developer Komoto at what it calls Flint Glass Wharf, the former Johnsen and Jorgensen glassworks which closed in 1981, between the Tarmac works and the Thames Barrier;
Hyde Housing is planning to build 1,250 homes over eight years on various plots of land, including the Westminster Waste recycling depot at Maybanks Wharf. A planning application is expected within weeks.
U+I plans 500 homes on the old Siemens glassworks site on the Charlton/Woolwich border, along with a co-working hub for local businesses and space for light industry. A planning application is also expected within weeks.

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Crime in Charlton: What’s being done?

July 12, 2019June 19, 2023Darryl Chamberlain

The tailor’s showroom in Charlton Village was ram-raided in April

Greenwich Council is to set up a working group aimed at combatting the recent increase in crime in and around Charlton.

Worries about crime in the area have escalated in recent months following a number of high-profile incidents, including the ram-raiding of a tailor’s shop on The Village in April. In addition, there have been a number of anecdotal reports of incidents in streets close to Charlton station.

The Charlton Champion does not regularly feature crime reports – but we would like to play our part in combating crime without whipping up fear, so we have asked the local police if we can be sent crime advice and alerts.

We’re grateful to Charlton ward councillor Gary Dillon for passing on these briefing notes from a meeting held by the council last week to discuss the issue. We’ve edited them slightly for clarity and to remove information that may be sensitive.

If you have concerns about crime in your area, you can contact your ward councillors.

On the Met Police website, you can see current stats on crime for Charlton ward, get advice and voice your concerns. (See also Peninsula, Woolwich Riverside and Kidbrooke with Hornfair wards.)

And you are the victim of crime or have any information, you can contact the police online or call 101 (999 in an emergency).

The Charlton ward has seen an increase in crime and disorder over the last few months. Businesses in the locality have been particular targets. As a result, the incidents have had a significant negative impact on the community.

This briefing will address:

– Activities undertaken to date in response to crime incidents and concerns.

– Ways forward to reduce and prevent further incidents to the best of our ability by working in collaboration with key stakeholders.

The aim is not only to decrease crime and disorder but to also enhance reassurance and confidence in those who live, work and visit Charlton.

***

The top three crimes in the Charlton ward are burglary, violence and vehicle crime. There are no specific hotspot areas identified as incidents have occurred across the ward. A recent meeting held on 4 July revealed that the ward has also suffered from street thefts, drug dealing, moped enabled crime, anti-social behaviour and a recent alleged firearms incident at an off-licence. The ward police officers have suggested that some offences are likely to have been linked.

It is recognised residents and those who work in Charlton may not be reporting incidents directly to the police, therefore promoting reporting methods will be explored. It is understood residents feel reporting to police results in little or no action, however an important message to the community is to highlight the fact that if police are unaware of incidents, it is difficult to respond to them.

As a partnership, we want to ensure all incidents are being reported so that appropriate resources and responses are deployed, not only from police but from the Royal Borough of Greenwich and any relevant stakeholder who can contribute to the reduction of crime and disorder.

Crime figures

The safer neighbourhood team produced figures for 1st November 2018 – 4th July 2019. It is evident crimes have shown an increase around March, which correlates with the concerns highlighted by the community. However, figures also show number of incidents have started to decrease, which is positive and the aspiration is to continue with this trend. The decrease may be a result of the work already undertaken in response to the incidents.

Table of crime figures

Work carried out by Greenwich Council

Daniel Bygrave, Community Safety Officer, Safer Spaces Team, has visited several shops following reports of burglaries. Daniel liaised with the business owners and employees and detailed options of how further incidents could be prevented by utilising problem solving methodology.

These options include layout and how the premises can be further secured. Daniel also explored the possibility of CCTV in the area following an enquiry from a councillor. Unfortunately this option is currently less feasible due to the lack of fibre optics needed to support the cameras, however other options for the area were discussed in the meeting held on 4 July, which are discussed in the ‘next steps’ section.

Garry Perkins, ASB Officer, Safer Communities team has issued a number of warning letters to individuals who have caused anti-social behaviour in the Charlton ward. Those who breach warnings issued to them will expect to be pursued with anti-social behaviour enforcement action.

Police activities

Actions undertaken:

Police officers changing their hours to night duties on a voluntary basis.

Home visits to known offenders have taken place, evidential and intelligence gathering and the use of stop and search.

Motor vehicle response tactics employed have been very similar to that used to target burglary subjects. It is suggested they are likely to be the same opportunists therefore crime prevention information is being tweaked for vehicle crime. Messages are not only around leaving valuables in sight but also around locking doors and windows.

The Safer Neighbourhoods Team (SNT) led on a burglary operation in June. Their shifts started at 10pm and finishing at 6am to fit the needs of the ward. The officers have been doing these shifts in uniform to show a high visible presence. Covert patrols have been led by officers from other teams.

All victims have been and are being visited.

A number of warrants were being planned across the borough which should have a positive impact in the Charlton ward. The Gangs Unit are leading on this. The evidence is suggesting the burglary and vehicle crime are drug related.

An image of a suspect was provided to the Police. The individual has been identified and action is being taken.

A two month burglary operation is being carried out.

The violence-related offences have been ad-hoc offences, not gang related.

The SNT have signed up to the phone app Nextdoor where there are already 6,000 members. Police plan to send out crime prevention information this way. Twitter is also being utilised.

Automatic Number Plate Recognition operations have been planned.

The SNT are working with the Charlton Central Residents Association regarding reporting, awareness, prevention information and intelligence gathering.

Smartwater is being rolled out in priority streets and was also promoted at the recent Great Get Together event in Charlton Park on 29th June.

Neighbourhood Watch Activities

The Neighbourhood Watch lead disseminated crime prevention messages to all members in the Royal Borough of Greenwich highlighting burglaries and motor vehicle crimes as the issues.

The message includes vigilance in the community, reporting any suspicious behaviour and submitting any CCTV footage to police.

All the existing Neighbourhood Watch schemes in Charlton had been contacted and volunteers had been asked to carry out a door knocking exercise to provide residents with burglary awareness and prevention messages.

A burglary masterclass was delivered in the ward and there is scope to deliver more.

Meeting on 4 July and next steps

The purpose of the meeting was to obtain fuller understanding of the issues and agree ways forward. The meeting was attended by ward councillors Leo Fletcher and Gary Dillon, Assistant Director Community Safety & Environmental Health Sean McDermid, representation from the DMT Directorate, Safer Communities, Open Spaces and SNT officers.

The actions agreed from the meeting are as follows:

Police and council Officers to review all of the incidents and available intelligence which can be shared

SNT to further roll out Smart water kits with possible support regarding funding from Greenwich Council

The organisation of a Crime Prevention Event, which would involve the SNT, Neighbourhood Watch and Community Safety Officer where a further Burglary Masterclass can be delivered.

Environmental Visual Audit with designing out crime officers to identify Hotspot areas, which could present an opportunity for CCTV or mobile CCTV locations and enhancing visibility of areas by cutting back hedges/bushes and additional lighting.

Adopting a Town Centre approach to Charlton Village.

Disseminating any good news stories to enhance community reassurance via council communications team in addition to SNT communications.

To add Charlton as the fourth tasking priority for the month of July under Integrated Enforcement. This way visibility by Street Services and Warden Patrols would increase.

To devise a detailed action plan/Problem Solving Plan encompassing all the crime types and options for responses for each.

To introduce a monthly stakeholder group forum.

The immediate next step is to arrange visits to all affected businesses and explore problem solving options with council and police representatives. A meeting with the partnership police inspector is taking place on 11 July to discuss the possibility of a formal problem solving process around burglary which will cover the businesses in Charlton and other businesses affected in the borough.

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Morris Walk developer Lovell ‘let down’ Greenwich Council, housing chief says

July 11, 2019June 19, 2023Darryl Chamberlain

Greenwich Council has been “badly let down” by the developer in charge of rebuilding the crumbling Morris Walk Estate, its senior councillor in charge of housing said last night as it approved plans to knock down the 1960s estate.

The council entered into a 12-year deal with Lovell in 2012 to redevelop the Connaught Estate in Woolwich town centre and the Morris Walk and Maryon Road estates, on the Woolwich/Charlton border.

While Lovell has pressed ahead with turning the Connaught – close to the under-construction Crossrail station – into the Trinity Walk development, where 445 of the 689 homes are for private sale, work has not started on Morris Walk or Maryon Road. This is despite the council having spent years moving tenants and leaseholders out.

Now frustrated councillors have agreed to tell Lovell to knock Morris Walk down anyway, to stop the largely deserted estate from being a haven for crime and anti-social behaviour. Demolition had been due to begin in autumn 2018.

‘Build date could not be met’

Chris Kirby, the cabinet member for housing, told the cabinet – the council’s main decision-making body – that the council has been asked for “vacant possession” of the blocks. “When that process had begun, we were informed that the build date could not be met,” he said.

“To say I am disappointed doesn’t cover my feelings towards that. I feel badly let down by Lovell and I have told them in no uncertain terms.”

The agreement was signed off by former leader Chris Roberts and his cabinet, which included current Woolwich Riverside councillors John Fahy and Jackie Smith, whose ward covers the estate.

“If we were writing it now we would design it in a different way, but I’m not here to unpick old agreements,” Kirby said.

“Where we are in is a really difficult negotiation about bringing the build date forward. There’s a huge amount of concern and frustration about the start date – it’s difficult to give a running commentary on a negotiation, but as soon as we have concrete information for residents, we will do.

“We’re looking for that start date to be as soon as possible. We’re working with Lovell, with PA Housing [the housing association involved in the scheme], with police and with residents to mitigate the fallout from where we are.”

‘Not short of a bob or two’

Addressing the cabinet, John Fahy spoke of how Lovell’s parent company, Morgan Sindall, presented to councillors at the Local Government Association conference in Bournemouth last week that it had “£2billion in 2012, and £2 billion in 2019”, “They’re not short of a bob or two,” he said.

Kirby responded: “I just agree with you. Developers are allowed to get away with this kind of activity all around the country and what we need is a radical government that’s going to stop landbanking and restore grants for the building of social homes.”

Council leader Danny Thorpe defended the original deal with Lovell, saying the estates were “exempted” from the Decent Homes Programme, a Blair-era programme to bring social housing up to scratch. “We can’t defend squalor, we want to see a decent standing of housing moving forward, and we will be holding PA Housing to account for their actions as well.”

Councillors also approved a decision to approve compulsory purchase orders on the estate on improved terms, following a government decision involving Southwark Council and the Aylesbury Estate in Walworth. “This is now seen as best practice, which is why it is back before us tonight,” Kirby said.