Save Elephant and Castle's diverse community!
Save Elephant and Castle's diverse community!
Latest: Feb. 27, 2020
We're fighting on! Court of Appeal next stop.
Many thanks to everyone who has supported us in our fight for a fairer regeneration of the Elephant and Castle shopping centre. Thanks to your help, we have won concessions - more social housin…
Read moreWe are a coalition of local people and groups fighting for fairer regeneration at the Elephant and Castle – a regeneration that was supposed to deliver jobs and homes for local people, but is doing the exact opposite.
The regeneration has already lost us over a thousand council homes, from the Elephant’s demolished Heygate estate, a scandal in a borough with desperate housing need. Now, shopping centre owner and property developer Delancey has won permission to demolish our local shopping centre. They also have permission to build new shops and nearly a thousand homes, but only 116, at best, will be social rented – and we will have to wait nearly ten years to get them.
Southwark's Council’s planning committee was misled as to the maximum amount of affordable housing the scheme could viably provide. While Delancey said it could only afford to provide 116 social rented units we now know that with Mayor’s funding they could give us another 42. That’s 42 families deprived of somewhere decent and affordable to live.
Even the 116 social rented homes promised could be at risk; the devil is in the detail and Delancey has managed to pull the wool over the Council's eyes with a deal which could leave us with little or no social rented housing if Delancey doesn’t deliver the “West site”, not due to be built for another 10 years.
We are challenging Delancey’s planning permission through the Planning Court. We want the permission quashed and then we want a development scheme that provides homes and shops that are truly affordable for local people.
Our legal challenge is supported by the Public Interest Law Centre and Southwark Law Centre. We will be represented by barristers Sarah Sackman of Francis Taylor Building and David Wolfe QC of Matrix Chambers.
But we must raise at least £5000 to be able to mount this vital challenge and for that we need your help. All funds will go towards the legal costs of the case. If we lose the case we will have to pay the other side's costs. If we win, we will be able to pay our own lawyers!
Please donate to our appeal, any amount big or small!
Please share this page with you friends and contacts!
Any donation you can make will help in this crucial fight to make London a city where the needs of our diverse communities come before the profits of offshore property developers.
http://35percent.org/uptheelephant
Get updates about this case
Subscribe to receive email updates from the case owner on the latest news about the case.
Be a promoter
Your share on Facebook could raise £26 for the case
I'll share on Facebook
Jerry Flynn for Up the Elephant
Feb. 27, 2020
We're fighting on! Court of Appeal next stop.
Many thanks to everyone who has supported us in our fight for a fairer regeneration of the Elephant and Castle shopping centre. Thanks to your help, we have won concessions - more social housing and a better deal for the traders.
But much more is needed and our campaign continues. Our new appeal page is here - https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-the-elephants-diverse-com-appeal
We took our fight to stop developer Delancey's disastrous redevelopment plans, with next-to-no social rented housing, to the High Court. But despite the justice of our case and the hard work of our talented legal team the decision went against us.
But we believe this case is too vital for the local community to end here. So, we are taking our case to the Court of Appeal.
To do this we have mounted a new funding appeal - our target is £3000. All the money raised will go towards meeting legal costs.
You can read more and donate here - https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-the-elephants-diverse-com-appeal
Jerry Flynn for Up the Elephant
Aug. 13, 2019
Case rescheduled for 22 and 23 Oct
Update on Save Elephant and Castle's diverse community!
Dear Friend and Supporter
The judicial review of the shopping centre redevelopment was not heard in July, but has instead been rescheduled by the court for the 22 and 23 Oct 2019.
This is an unavoidable delay, but has no effect on the case itself. We will still be having a demonstration of support, at 9am, 22 Oct 2109, outside the Royal Courts of Justice, the Strand, London.
Thanks for your continued patience and support and I will keep everyone updated!
Regards
Jerry
Jerry Flynn for Up the Elephant
April 29, 2019
We've got a court date
Dear Friend and Supporter
Sorry that it has been awhile since our last update, but justice grinds slowly, if finely...
We have now have court dates for our judicial review - 17 and 18 July. This will be for what is called a 'rolled-up' hearing, which means that both the decision on permission to apply for a judicial review and the case itself, should it proceed, will be dealt with together.
The order for the hearing noted that the application was “…one of those exceptional cases where the public interest in the issue which the claimant raises is such that if permission is refused this should occur after a hearing.”
While the hearing is some way off we have plenty of campaigning to do, including fundraising, so please do share our CrowdJustice link, and if you can, contribute once more - we could not have got this far without your support!
We also continue to fight for a fair deal for the shopping centre's independent traders. We had a great 'Love the Elephant!' event a couple of weeks ago and have started a petition to Keep Tesco at the Elephant! Please sign and share!
Regards
Jerry
Love the Elephant celebration 14 April 2019: photo ©Emile Scott Burgoyne
Jerry Flynn for Up the Elephant
March 7, 2019
Reached our initial target! But please keep sharing and giving!
Thanks to your terrific generosity we have reached our initial target of £5,000. However, we will have additional costs, such as court fees, so we have increased our target to £10,000, to make sure these can be covered.
All funds raised will go towards the legal costs of the case. If we lose the case we will have to pay the other side's costs. If we win, we will be able to pay our own lawyers!
Our case can halt a development that will displace and destroy the local community at the Elephant and Castle.
Local business Distriandina, one of London’s oldest Latin American dance and music venues, which also has a restaurant, coffee shop and bakery, says “Any development scheme in Elephant and Castle should seek to mitigate the impact on the existing community as much as possible,”
“As it currently stands, this development scheme fails to do this, due to its limited relocation fund for traders, lack of suitable relocation options for larger traders and complete disregard for the Latin American cultural institutions in Elephant and Castle.”
You can help Distriandina, and fight with us against developer Delancey's destructive plans.
Please -
- Post a link to Facebook - facebook.com/Up-the-Elephant
- Tweet in support - twitter.com/UpTheElephant
- Pledge a donation!
Many thanks!
Jerry
PS Some press coverage of our campaign here and here
Get updates about this case
Subscribe to receive email updates from the case owner on the latest news about the case.
Recent contributions