Hammersmith & Fulham Council have claimed hundreds of low income families will be “denied a chance to get on to the property ladder” after last week’s decision by Mayor of London Ken Livingstone to block an application to redevelop the old Prestolite factory in Larden Road, Shepherds Bush.
Last week the Mayor announced he had instructed the council to reject the entire appliication in a row over the number of affordable rented homes to be included in the scheme.
Council Leader, Stephen Greenhalgh called the Mayor’s decision “a shameful abuse of his powers to interfere in local planning decisions for purely political purposes. It is political sour grapes and flies in the face of his own officers’ advice.”
The council claims the Mayor’s own officers advised him that “the application will deliver substantial numbers of affordable homes, significantly above the overall strategic target for boroughs.”
Damian Hockney, leader of the One London Party on the London Assembly used the row to highlight the Mayor’s lack of accountability.
Speaking today Mr Hockney said “because the Mayor’s constituency is citywide, he can afford to ignore local concerns, and because the London Assembly has no power to curb the Mayor’s decisions, there is little Assembly Members like myself can do.”
Hockney called on central Government to give the Assembly a greater role in holing the Mayor to account saying “there should at least be some counterweight to investigate and if necessary overturn the Mayor’s decisions.”
