Leader – Town Hall’s inconsistent line on Stoke Newington supermarket

In April councillors on Hackney’s planning sub-committee said no to developers bidding to build a contentious new Sainsbury’s supermarket and flats in Stoke Newington. But three months later they said yes.

What had changed?

Little, according to campaigners, hundreds of whom attended a raucous planning sub-committee meeting on the last day of July.

The new plans by developers Newmark Properties – submitted so soon after earlier ones were thrown out by councillors – sparked a sustained and noisy campaign of opposition from residents who fear they will have a detrimental impact on ecology around Hackney’s most important nature reserve, Abney Park.

Stoke Newington Central councillor Louisa Thomson, who spoke against the scheme, said the development was the “single issue I have received the most correspondence about.”

And Cllr Barry Buitekant, the only member of the five-strong panel to vote against the application, told the meeting: “The differences between this scheme and the last one are so inconsequential that it is important that the committee be consistent.”

But despite this Newmark Properties now has won the go-ahead for its scheme, which it says will benefit Stoke Newington.

It is unclear how.

Cllr Buitekant was right to warn against inconsistencies in the decision making process. Newmark Properties was in the midst of appealing against the decision to reject its earlier plans, but had pledged to halt this process if its new plans were approved.

Fighting appeals can be expensive for councils, but the councillors on the sub-committee should not have felt any pressure to approve the new application because of this.

They should have stood firm and voted no again.