Moor Lane – why such a poor relation to London Wall?
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By BAWebmaster
Published in Planning and Licensing News
The long awaited greening plan for Moor Lane is being put in jeopardy because the developer of 21 Moorfields wants to install bollards and a wider pavement, thus leaving a much restricted space for any greening.
Different parts of the City are dealing with the different projects and residents are trying to get the City to understand there is a problem and seek a resolution – such as the use of security planters – that would enable the greening project to go ahead while accommodating 21 Moorfield’s security needs.
The original Greening Moor Lavne porposal was very good; I trust Deutschebank’s security coincerns will not jeopardise this,.
So far only two objections – from the Heron Residents’ Committee and Willoughby House Group – have been posted on the planning portal for 19/00717/MDC, although the Access Team’s Advisor raised a number of issues in 2019. If the number of objections is increased – the more the better – the Planning and Transportation Committee might be persuaded to consider the application rather than leaving the decision to the Planning and Development Director’s delegated authority.
Incidentally, the greening “box ticking” is doing very little for enhancing biodiversity, particularly as maintenance becomes a problem. That might not be so with the proposed occupier but diverting greening funds into the. City’s own gardens would do a lot more for biodiversity than a few dead twigs hanging off the side of a building. The so called “Community Garden” on the west of Moor Lane has simply added another site to the City gardeners’ work load. The £100,000 or so it cost would have been better spent enhancing CoL’s existing gardens. Further public realm greening, as proposed in 2011 will mean more maintenance at a time of reduced resources through the year on year cuts.