Neo Bankside: council vetoes attempt to curb evening public access
Southwark Council has rejected a proposal to change the hours during which the public can use the pedestrian routes through the luxury Neo Bankside development next to Tate Modern.
When the Neo Bankside development on Holland Street was approved in 2007, the legal agreement between developers Native Land and Southwark Council provided for two north-south pedestrian routes between Southwark Street and Holland Street.
Under the terms of the agreement, the paths (described in the paperwork as 'Red Public Routes') must be "available for public pedestrian access on every day between the hours of 8am and 8pm throughout the year".
At the end of last year we reported that the Neo Bankside Management Company was seeking permission to bring the hours forward by an hour, with access being permitted between 7am and 7pm, citing "a reduction in staff after 7pm and ... an increase in security-related issues".
At the end of June the application was rejected by Southwark Council on the grounds that the applicant had not provided adequate justification for the change.
In their report on the proposal, Southwark planning officers wrote: "Limited justification for altering the obligated hours of access through the site via the Red Public Routes was provided to support the application, being that there has been a recent increase in antisocial behaviour within the routes after 7pm and there is a reduction in staff looking after the site, and by implication the Red Public Routes, after the hours of 7pm.
"No evidence of this increase in antisocial behaviour was provided to support this justification and no comment was provided on the potential or otherwise to increase staffing levels after 7pm to address the issue.
"This is not considered to be adequate justification for amending the timing of access to the routes, which will have originally been secured by the s106 as 8am to 8pm on the basis of this being the timings that provide the greatest public benefit in addition to being reasonable and practicable for the applicant to manage.
"On considering the impact of the requested altered hours of access, it remains that there is greater public benefit to allowing the routes to remain open from 8am-8pm rather than 7am-7pm."
The council received six responses from the public, with four against the change and two in favour.
