BQA Refutes the City’s Carbon Analysis of London Wall West

The BQA has commissioned two reports by leading UK experts: Simon Sturgis of Targeting Zero and Bob Stagg of Conisbee Structural Engineering. They demonstrate that the Court of Common Council has been misled about the carbon footprint of the London Wall West scheme.

We presented these findings to the Councillors at a webinar on Monday night and then sent every Councillor a hard copy of the report. You can read the report in full here and you can watch the webinar here.

Simon Sturgis is the UK’s leading expert in delivering a low carbon, resource efficient, built environment. Most recently he has been responsible for the review of the plans to demolish the M&S flagship store in Oxford St, as a result of which the scheme has been called in by the Secretary of State.

Bob Stagg is a structural engineer specialising in the appraisal, repair and refurbishment of buildings. He was involved with the final dismantling of Ronan Point after its partial collapse in 1968.

Their reports clearly show that the City’s own report is misleading. That report is built on the assumption that Bastion House is at risk of disproportionate collapse. The review by Conisbee Structural Engineers emphatically contradicts this.

The City’s carbon assessment falls short as it does not consider the retention and retrofit of Bastion House and ignores the impact of its demolition on the scheme’s carbon footprint.

Sturgis states “National legislation sets out a net zero trajectory to 2050 with demanding interim targets for 2030 and 2035. The demolition and new build approach proposed for this site will not meet these targets. A more comprehensive retrofit approach than the one proposed, with Bastion House retained and retrofitted, would have far lower carbon emissions, and help meet these targets.”

The City’s justification for demolishing the existing buildings does not stand up to peer review.

Our website has more information about these reports as well as interviews with our local MP, Nickie Aiken; with the prospective Labour MP for this constituency, Rachel Blake and with Zack Polanski, the Deputy Leader of the Green Party and member of the GLA – all of who are opposed to the LWW scheme and have offered this campaign their full support.