Residents will scrutinise council plans. Photo: AIESEC

Local residents will mount a challenge against Tower Hamlets Council’s vision for future development when its fifteen year development plan is scrutinised by a planning inspector tomorrow.

The council’s Core Strategy is due to be looked at by specially appointed inspector Sue Turner at a series of hearings starting at the Town Hall on Tuesday 13 April.

Representatives from Mile End Residents Association, Jesus Hospital Estate Residents Association in Bethnal Green, Spitalfields Small Business Association and Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park say they will challenge the validity of the document which will dictate planning in Tower Hamlets over the next decade.

Group spokeswoman Lucy Rogers said that the plans in the document for 43,000 new homes in the borough will result in a population increase of more than 80,000, or more than a third.

She said: “The Strategy will encourage and permit too much development in what is already one of London’s most densely-populated boroughs.

“It will not deliver the improvements most needed by people who live here already, including affordable housing, local jobs, protection of small and independent businesses and open space provision.”

The campaigners say they are putting forward a range of additions and improvements to policies, including the need to carry out further consultation with residents.

Miss Rogers said: “There is nothing in this new strategy to deal with the ongoing challenges in the borough, and the council isn’t saying how a borough full of tower blocks and Tesco’s can improve the overall quality of life for all its current and new residents”

The campaigners are inviting other residents to comment on their proposals by emailing all@residents-first.co.uk.