Communities fight back developers with ‘greener’ plans for UK housing

theguardian.com:

“We don’t think it’s too late. We hope that our vision might reach the offices in Hong Kong where they are deciding the future of our neighbourhood.”

In Deptford, south-east London, activist Marion Briggs is part of a group of campaigners making a last-ditch effort to change the trajectory of gentrification in the area.

Head off the high street towards the river, turn past the Dog and Bell pub and long white hoardings bring the streets of low-rise council homes to an end. This is Convoys Wharf, a huge riverside building site, once a shipyard for Henry VIII and now being prepared for 3,500 homes – the majority for private ownership. Three huge towers of 38 and 48 storeys will dominate the skyline. In the block set aside for “affordable” homes, the majority are shared ownership, the rest “affordable rent”. There are no homes at social rent levels. The development will also contain 1,800 parking spaces.

The Hong Kong-based developer Hutchison Whampoa – led by one of the world’s richest men, Li Ka-shing – has pushed relentlessly over the past decade to get these plans through against local resistance. When Lewisham council said no, Boris Johnson, then mayor of London, overruled it.

Now, at the final hour, as diggers arrive to lay foundations, local group Voice 4 Deptford has produced what it says is a “greener” vision that recognises the climate emergency. With plans drawn up by Herta Gatter, a planning apprentice, as part of her master’s degree, the group has designed a greener, more locally rooted development. It proposes weaving local history and culture into the site and replacing the towers – which activists say use more water than lower density blocks – with homes that have more shared space for children to play.

“All along