Truman's Public Inquiry PM - Tuesday 21 October 2025, 2:00pm

Truman's Public Inquiry PM
Tuesday, 21st October 2025 at 2:00pm

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local resident, what you're interested in the case is,

whether you're in favour of it or whether you're objecting,

that sort of thing, that sets the scene.

And then you can tell me whatever you want to tell me.

It's as straightforward as that.

I haven't got a list that says who's gonna go first

or anything like that, so I'm really just gonna invite

whoever wants to go first to come forward

and address the inquiry.

Mr. Don, you don't need to sit there if you prefer to be up the back or something like that.

That's fine.

So who would like to go first?

Come along, go ahead.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, sir.

Give me the opportunity to talk in here.

At least somebody is trying to listen to us.

I think in the past, we've been asking for lots of things,

but we never been answered by anybody.

So thank you, sir, again to you.

I've been living in this area for last 62 years.

I believe this is my community

who is living surrounding this area.

We are in one community.

any development or anything goes wrong, we should know first.

This is our area, this is where we live, and at least we should do it.

It's such a big project going on.

Last one and a half weeks I've been in here and I haven't been consulted by Truman or any organisation in here.

So therefore, I'd like to thank again the inspector.

He's around and he can see how many people coming in

and how many local people they're concerned about it.

And they're really, because this is where they live.

This is where they're home.

And somebody come and build the buildings

and things like that, never been consulted.

This is not right.

but I feel they should be represented by the council and things like that.

This is where we are now.

Thank you, sir. That's all I wanted to say.

Can I just take a note for your name?

My name is Akiko Romang.

I used to live in Old Moldova Street.

Now I live in Globe Road. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir.

Who would like to go next?

Thank you.

My name is Abdushakur.

I've been a community worker here since the early 60s and have worked in this community

with all different groups, mainly looking at local issues.

This is the largest part of the Bengali community in the UK.

And a lot of the developments and local businesses that have been in that area, so what we'd

like to see is small business units for local businesses

along the frontage of Brick Lane,

thus keeping the Brick Lane -Banglatown identity,

rather than dissipating it by putting up totally large scale

shops that very few local people are able to use.

So that's a major issue.

The other thing is that it's the single largest

plot left in the area of land where some local social housing needs to be put up to ensure,

yes, to ensure that local people, because the housing demand, Tamlet has more than 20 ,000

people waiting on that list and it's getting bigger. It's not getting smaller, it's getting

bigger. And we need to make sure that people are housed rather than living in homeless

units, costing the local authorities substantial sums rather than putting up housing.

That's all I would like to say.

Thank you very much for listening.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Mr. Harris, I'm not going to ask you if you've got any questions, people, but if you could

just let me know if you do.

Yeah, I will.

Well, maybe this is the best way to do it, which is to say to the members of the public

here that almost all of the issues that I've seen raised

by third parties are covered in evidence elsewhere

in the inquiry.

And I'm not going to cross -examine them

unless it's a new point.

I don't mean any disrespect at all by that.

And so since you asked, that's what I say.

And I'll let you know if there is any exceptions.

Good afternoon.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Abdul Mookie Churnu.

I'm living in Raun here in Spitalphile in Bangladesh from the late 60s.

I've been involved with all the campaign about the problem we had, especially the ethnic

minority community facing equal opportunities and also we had problem with the housing issue,

health and employment opportunities.

We have been running the voluntary sector like shepherds,

special field planning and rights of the housing

associations, but nevertheless, the problem we have here,

we have about 28 ,000 people in the waiting list

in the town council, and we are always concerned

about the people's social housing.

So my concern is mostly because of due to the problem

of housing, we have demand of social housing in the area.

Particularly, sir, if you look at the situation

about the business sector in the Brick Lane,

we had the brick, after the four nation from Hugonac,

the Irish, the Jewish, then fourth community,

the Bangladeshi was here.

When I said was means the business we had developed

in the brick land is declined because of the because of the high high rents and

the all the demers we don't have the properties the owners however because of

those situation at this moment the development improvements development

this is the only the land at this moment we have in the area and I believe that

from that development the planning we as a community we are demanding to have

social housing, which is very important, as well as the businesses.

The small businesses we have, we are concerned, we have the SSB,

which is Spitalfield Business Association, and we have organised that in early 70s.

But it's not helping that much at all because of the rent and the

at recent problem of the situation of the economic stability in the area.

Therefore, we are asking that we must have some opportunity for the small business,

small businesses for the local community,

as well as the social housing for the local community too.

Thank you for listening. Thank you very much.

It's my pleasure. Thank you.

Thank you, good afternoon everybody.

Thank you for the lunch.

I don't know why I should thanks because I didn't pay for it there.

Anyway, this is after 54 years.

I see that someone is asking me, say what you want to like or what you want to see.

Last 54 years, every day we are begging to the authorities, to the enforcement authorities

that we want this, we want that, please help us, all this, please bless us, all this.

But I'm sorry I don't mean to offend any one of you, I'm sure none of you live in Tower

Hamlet, that's guaranteed. Therefore you don't have any experience of living in Tower Hamlet.

Living in Tower Hamlet, in an overcrowding situation, unless one lives here, you won't

understand. Unless you live here, you do not understand the racial harassment and racial

problems. I have witnessed a pregnant mother who was pushed by a non -Bengali mother at

the school gate move I am first.

I have witnessed sitting on a bus, empty bus,

at the front seat on the second floor.

Couple of people came and said,

well, well, I said what, get up man,

we want to sit down there.

You have an experience on any of that.

And I don't want you to ever experience this.

Boss is here.

The reason I am here, I have been living in Taarhamlet for the last 54 years.

I don't know whether it is right or wrong. Some people call me anti -racist campaigner.

It doesn't mean I hate all of you. I hate you when you are doing something wrong, and I will always.

Today I am here to give you to your knowledge. I don't know how you will take it or you will understand.

Living in a drug affected areas is not very pleasant to live.

And why these areas are drug affected?

The reason people are living in overcrowded condition.

They are living in very overcrowded condition.

We don't have enough housing.

Currently, Tower Hamlet has 28 ,000 housing waiting

for these people living.

Now, one might ask or say, what is going to do with drugs?

Those living in overcrowding conditions don't have enough room, spending time on the streets,

spending time on the staircases of the buildings.

That doesn't help them.

Automatically, they are pushed to that situation.

Today, I am asking you kindly, bring an anti -racist campaigner in Tower Hamlet, asking and requesting

and begging for housing.

Today I'm retired, I'm pensioner.

In the evening I always wonder where do I go?

Where can I go and socialise?

No friend, nobody.

I'm feeling lonely.

So I am here to argue in this local development what you're doing.

First we need more social housing and above all we need a community cafe

where we can sit down, socialise with each other

in the evenings, and it will be helpful for our health.

And those, not only me, those of you and others

who will be reaching to Pelton Edge,

you can come and join us too.

So, for kindly, don't think of only business,

business, business, think of people health,

think of people like, think of people living.

Please develop more housing and a community copy

is very important.

Thank you very much.

Thank you and I probably ought to clarify

that if I did live in Tower Hamlets,

I wouldn't be able to do this case

because we're not allowed to do cases where we live

for obvious reasons.

So no, I don't live in Tahembet,

or indeed I don't live in London.

So there we are.

Thank you.

So my name is Jalal Rajonuddin.

I'm speaking on behalf of the East London Community Alliance,

ELCA.

I have got a written script, and I

will be happy to let you have a copy of it,

as well as the relevant legal representatives

on both sides.

That would be very helpful.

Thank you.

I am speaking against the Truman States appeal.

I make this submission based on my personal storey

and my enduring connexion to Brooklyn,

the speed of wheels in Bangladesh

onward for the last 50 years.

I have had first -hand experience of dealing

with the socio -political, cultural, and economic dynamics of the area.

In the mid -1970s, I was homeless and was provided shelter by a white working -class family in

the area.

I worked within the area's catering, retail, and drug trade as an employee.

I was a youth activist organising and fighting against the far right national front and defeated

them through the Battle of Brick Lane in 1978.

Later I worked in the public sector based at the Brady Arts Centre as an employee of

the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and the Bethnal Green City Challenge Company which

which was based within the Truman Brewery complex.

This project was funded by central government.

Subsequently, I played a key role

in the regeneration of the area as an elected counsellor,

regeneration committee chairperson,

and deputy leader of Tower Hamlets.

In particular, I played an instrumental role

in implementing the Banglatown, Alta Bali Park,

Sohid Minar, Boishaki Mela, Curry Festival,

and other regeneration projects

by attracting public sector funding

through the City Challenge Company,

resources from the central government,

Europe, and private sector companies

from the City of London.

I also played a key role in attracting funding

for projects to implement community empowerment schemes

and protection of vital community assets.

The housing crisis, poverty, and lack of economic opportunities

that I witnessed half a century ago continues to impact

on the lives of those living on low income today.

This is why I have an affinity within the area

and continue to campaign for social, political, and economic change.

This submission is a response to the presentation made

by the Truman Brewery site's developers

to the public inquiry, which started on 14th of October,

2025.

The current offer of only six social rentable flats

in the J -Block development is an insult to the local community

and needs to be treated with content.

All the brownfield lands and other spaces within the Truman Brewery sites

need to be prioritised for low -cost social housing, workspaces and accessible

community spaces to improve health and well -being for the residents in

conjunction with the local council and local housing associations. In my opinion

the proposed data centre hub should not be located

on Brickline due to its harm

and inappropriate use of the site.

The Truman Estate is the largest

commercial round, landlord in Brickline.

There are very few shops who own their own premises.

Most are tenants on leases and are not freeholders.

These local businesses in the area

have already been suffering rent increases in recent years.

The proposed 10 acres of office and commercial complexes

will drive further gentrification and be the final nail

in the coffin of these small businesses.

The type of catering, retail and hospitality outlets

proposed within the Truman Brewery sites

will be out of the reach in terms of affordability

for the average residents as most are on low income.

The type of commercial activities does not cater

for our local community but targeted to transient tourists

and effect we already see within the Truman estate

and on the north end of pre -clean.

The expensive and modern Truman Brewery development will lead to further demise of the remaining retail outlets,

which are catering to the residents.

Spital Vuensal Banglatown is known as the spiritual, cultural, and heritage heart of the Bengali community in the United Kingdom.

And for this reason, this segment of the local population should not be.

forced out or displaced.

Instead, cultural housing and economic opportunities

should be created and fostered so that the local community

can thrive in this part of the East End of London.

I vigorously advocate that responsible and careful thoughts

are needed to implement a more relevant

and less harmful development on the Truman Brewery sites,

especially it is one of the largest 10 acres

of land available in the area.

There must be equality and justice to provide

opportunities for all communities,

majority of whom are suffering from poverty,

low income, and the cost of living crisis.

We need to stop the decades of encroachment

into spaces belonging to the local communities.

There is a prevailing gap between big money and local needs.

And we need to wake up to the reality and rebalance the local economy to serve the interest

of the local communities.

I wholeheartedly support the current Save Brick Lane in Bangalatown campaign and the

past five years of consultations with residents,

communities and businesses.

The same brick -lane involvement of the community

is reminiscent of the time when I was heavily involved

developing a similar community plan compiled

by the former Community Development Trust, CDT, in 1989.

I want to point out this community plan to you,

which was devised by the Community Development Trust

back in 1989.

This was following a consultation with the owners

of the Truman Brewery site.

The owners wanted to leave the site and the complex

for the local community,

but we were not able to raise the funding

that was needed at the time, which was around 4 and 1 2 million pounds to buy the sites

from the Truman Brewery owners.

From then till now, our local community strives to be hard. We want the spittle fields in

Bangalatown area to have more local social housing, genuinely affordable amenities, and

community spaces to support our health and well -being. These priorities have been expressed

repeatedly by the central government,

GLA, and the emerging local plan endorsed by the mayor

in his cabinet meeting on 15th of October, 2025.

Finally, I would like to show you this book,

which has been written by a child of a homeless person

who used to live down the corner from here.

from Silhe to Spital drills.

This is an account of the housing crisis

that has been confronting the local communities

over the last 50 years and how the impact

on the social and economic life of the community.

It tells you about the storey of homelessness,

housing crisis, and of course poverty and deprivation.

And I am happy to give this to you as a gift

If you are allowed to accept it, the monetary value is only £16.

Thank you very much.

Well, thank you for the very kind offer.

I probably can't accept it if I'm very formal about it, but I have made a careful note of

the book's title, so I'll leave it at that.

If you could leave a copy of your note with the council representatives.

I think if you do have a speaking note, it does help if I can circulate it to everybody.

So thank you.

Who would like to speak next, please?

Good afternoon.

Thanks very much for the opportunity.

I'm Chris Cooper, the connexion being with the surname, I've got a slightly vested interest

just from familial reasons.

I broadly support what has been said already.

I think the points have been very well made about the site as a whole.

I live on Calvin Street and have lived there since 2012 and used to live further down on

commercial street in Tower Hamlets back in 2003 but we're diagonally opposite

Block A which is the proposed data centre site so we're a few metres away

from that. This land has been derelict for all that time that I've lived there

and much longer as I think has been stated. I would welcome something

positive at that location. I am not convinced that a 29 metre tall data

centre is the best use of that space, particularly in the conservation area.

Just because there are already three data centres nearby, this does not

logically infer that more should follow. And in fact it could be instead

considered that another one should not follow. It has been argued that is

unreasonable to demand that the site should focus on homes just because

housing is needed in London, but I think it is similarly unreasonable to argue that a

data centre should be located there just because of an urgent national need for data centres.

Many individuals and groups have pointed out that the nearby area is in fact largely residential.

This was misrepresented in the site analysis in the Design and Access Report, CDC 02, Section

3 .7 where three nearby buildings are wrongly labelled as either workplace or retail

Rather than live work or residential for the majority of their floors

There are in fact two dozen residential flats immediately opposite the site in a single block alone at Alpha Court 20 Calvin Street

Community benefit for this site could be much greater through housing

small businesses or pretty much any other business or service that local residents would use

Truman brewery did hold a form of consultation regarding the development

I attended a consultation event in December 2023 and completed a consultation response including providing my details

By email or street address nine months later

I received a copy of the planning application notification and a paper flyer that hadn't received any of the interim updates

Which I saw were then on the consultation website

So this is just a briefly log that the way that the consultation was set up did not really allow for any further meaningful

contributions before the submission of the planning application

Several phrases have been repeated by the appland

optimising underutilised site

Responding effectively to the current and emerging heritage and townscape high -value jobs

employment opportunities

enhancing the biodiversity value of the site.

Repetition does not necessarily make these true.

A responsible development of derelict Block A could have taken place at any time in the

last three decades.

So again, the argument put forward in support of this development that the site is derelict

and harmful to the heritage area is somewhat suspect.

Briefly, to provide some background on the existing data centre, which is very close

by, in 2001 to 2002, planning permission was granted, PA01 685 and 687, to Interaction

Data Centre, Grey Eagle Street, on the basis that noise emissions to be controlled so that

between the hours of 7 p .m. and 7 a .m., they do not exceed the ambient noise levels as

measured at the nearest adjoining properties.

with the reason given to safeguard the amenity of adjoining occupiers and the area generally.

Unfortunately, Local Government Ombudsman Report 1513304 details that over many years that condition was not honoured.

In fact, many more chillers were installed without planning permission, causing noise above acceptable recommended levels,

which impacted negatively on local residents,

and it was considered a statutory nuisance by a court.

As well as these unpermissioned units,

having been installed by the existing data centre,

the local government ombudsman found a series of faults

occurred with the actions taken by environmental health

and planning departments during this period,

and ultimately a retrospective certificate of lawfulness

was granted in parallel to remedial installation

of three -metre high acoustic screens to bring noise levels down to just about acceptable

recommended levels, which they have been for the past few years, but almost certainly still

not honouring that original permission condition.

If you are walking down Grey Eagle Street or Calvin Street, perhaps as some of you may

have done on the site visit, the background noise from the chillers is still audible at

all times.

This is loudest during the summer months when they need to be on maximum for a data centre

Because Calvin Street is a very narrow road the building height is very

So whatever further development takes place at this site

It would need to be noise neutral to prevent further breaches and negative consequences that would inevitably follow. I

Believe this needs to be crystal clear before any development

In summary, as you have probably guessed,

I am against the proposed plans in their current form

for these reasons.

This is an opportunity for something a bit more positive

than a data centre at this site, as others have already described.

But at the very least, whatever happens cannot be a repeat

of previous well -documented local noise problems arising

from data centres.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Cooper. Can I just be absolutely clear about your objection? Is your objection

just about Block A? So I tried to describe that I think some of the issues I've spoken

about relating to Block A, as in there are better uses of the site, do apply more generally

across the broader site, yeah. That's helpful, Mr. Cooper. Thank you.

Do you have, are you able to give the council a copy of your speaking notes for circulation?

I can and I am very happy to do so.

That would be brilliant, thank you.

Thank you Mr. Cooper. Who would like to go next?

Go on.

Good afternoon.

So I'm counsellor S myself and I'm submitting an objection today as a local counsellor for weavers board

Which board is the proposed development site and as and also as a representative of residents across town Hamlet's

So the redevelopment of the Truman brewery site is not only misaligned with both national local priorities

It poses a direct threat to the cultural economic and social fabric of brick lane in bungalow town

This scheme disregards the borough's acute housing crisis,

undermines community cohesion,

and contradicts the principles set out

in the government's planning and infrastructure bill,

which prioritises housing delivery

on brownfield developments.

Brick Lane is a place of historic significance,

economic resilience, and cultural identity.

Any development here must be rooted in collaboration,

respect, and long -term benefit for the community

not driven by speculative commercial interests.

and I've got six grounds to discuss today.

The first one, Brick Lane and Banglatown,

a culture and a historic anchor.

Brick Lane is the cultural heart of Tahemlus

and the historic centre of Banglatown,

home to the largest Bangladeshi community in the UK.

It is a place of migration, resistance, and resilience.

From the 1970s onwards, Bangladeshi families

transformed Brick Lane into a thriving hub

of restaurants, shops, mosques, and community life.

It is where Alta Bali movement was born

and where generations have fought for recognition and belonging.

The proposed development threatens to erase this legacy.

It risks accelerating gentrification, displacing longstanding communities, and replacing cultural

vibrancy with corporate stability.

The planning inspectorate must consider the public sector equality duty under the Equality

Act 2010, which requires public bodies to advance equality and foster good relations.

This scheme fails on both counts.

So number two, housing needs and national planning reform.

Tower Hamlets has over 26 ,000 residents

on the housing waiting list.

The government's planning and infrastructure bill

sets a target of 1 .5 million homes

and prioritises brownfield land for housing.

The Truman Brewery site is a brown brownfield location,

yet the proposal offers only 44 homes

with just six at social rent.

a token gesture in the face of borough -wide crisis.

This is a missed opportunity to deliver hundreds

of genuinely affordable homes.

The developer is well aware of the borough's needs,

the mayor's political steer,

and the government's housing agenda.

Their decision to prioritise office space over housing

is not just misguided.

It is arrogant and dismissive of public interest.

Number three, declining demand for office space.

The scheme allocates 86 % of floor space

to office and commercial use,

despite clear evidence that demand for office space

is declining post -COVID.

Businesses have embraced remote and hybrid working

with midweek office occupancy,

averaging just 40 % across the UK.

This trend is not temporary,

it reflects a structural shift in how we work.

The proposal risks creating underused commercial blocks

that do not reflect current or future market realities.

It is speculative, unsustainable,

and fails to meet the test of long -term viability.

Number four, threat to local businesses

and high street recovery.

Brick Lane is one of the few high streets in the UK

that just recently have seen signs of post -pandemic recovery

driven by independent shops, markets, and cultural venues.

The proposed development will raise commercial rents, introduce chain stores and display small businesses that are lifeblood of their local economy.

This is not regeneration. It is economic displacement.

The developers approach undermines the council's efforts to support local enterprise and

contradicts the government's own goals for levelling up and supporting high streets.

So number five is developer conduct and community relations, which I think is extremely important.

The Truman Building has operated into Tower Hamlets for decades.

It has benefited from public subsidy and community goodwill.

Yet despite 7 ,500 objections to its previous scheme in 2022 and an enormous rejection by

Tower Hamlets Council in 2025, the developer has chosen to ignore community outrage, bypass

local democracy and force through a scheme that serves its own interests.

This is not how a responsible local business behaves.

The developer should be collaborating with the council,

stakeholders and residents, not working against them.

It is a rare occasion in Tahemlitz

to see cross -party political consensus,

but this scheme has united all parties.

That speaks volume.

Number six, I want to talk about

conservation and heritage impact.

The Truman Brewery site lies within the Brick Lane

and Fournier Street conservation area, adjacent to Allen Gardens, and includes Grade 2 listed

boiler house. The proposed massing, particularly Blocks 3A, 3B and J, would cause less than

substantial harm to conservation area and the setting of heritage assets as acknowledged

by Historic England. The development introduces bulky modern structures that disrupt the fine

character of Brick Lane and Spitalfields.

It fails to respond sensitively to the area's

architectural rhythm, historic streetscape,

and cultural significance.

Under paragraphs 199 to 202 of the National Planning Policy

Framework, any harm to design heritage assets

must be clearly justified and outweighed by public benefits.

In this case, the public benefits

are minimal and speculative, while the harm

is tangible and irreversible.

Brick Lane is not only a conservation area, it is a living heritage site, deeply intertwined

with the history of migration, anti -racist struggle and cultural expressions in East

London.

The planning inspector must consider the cumulative impact of this development on the area's identity,

heritage and long -term sustainability.

And to conclude, the Truman Brewery redevelopment as proposed is incompatible with the borough's

housing needs, the cultural integrity of Brick Lane and the economic sustainability of local

High Street.

It disregards national planning reforms, community voices and the principles of inclusive development.

I respectfully urge you all to uphold Tahamut Council's rejection and support a future

for Brick Lane that is collaborative, community -led and culturally rooted.

Thank you very much. If you do have speaking notes that we copied, that would be very much

appreciated. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Thank you. I think firstly I would like to introduce

myself Abdul Shukr Khalisidar. I am the grandson of a migrant that came here back in the 1920s

on a ship working for the British Merchant Navy. I want to share with you all my lived

experience growing up in Tower Hamlets, the challenges that

come with all of that being the son or grandson of a migrant.

You have heard from elderly members of our community

from the 60s and the 70s their struggles, their difficulties.

I want to kind of pick up from some of that.

I grew up in, I was born in 1978.

So I grew up during the 80s in Codrington House,

a council estate on Brady Street,

just off Brady Street on Scott Street.

Like many of my generation, I came of an age,

or of age in a time marked by hardship.

Growing up through the deprivation of the 80s,

struggling with racism, discrimination,

and limited educational opportunities in the 90s,

and only beginning to find my footing in the 2000s

as our community slowly started to rebuild itself.

The living conditions in our estate were extremely poor,

overcrowded, damp, and in many cases,

unfit for human habitation.

They were so bad that the council eventually demolished the block and rebuilt new housing

on the site.

So my earliest memories of poverty and squalid living conditions come from that childhood

environment.

In 1990, my family was moved to MacLashan House on Hunton Street, where our balcony

We overlooked Spital Street and the eastern wall of the Truman Brewery.

That imposing wall formed the physical boundary between our community and the brewery site,

a constant reminder of the industrial dominance and social divide that characterised the area.

So the place I grew up in, Spitalfields Ward, which later became Spitalfields and Bangletown

Ward, was at the time officially recognised as one of the 10 most deprived wards in the

whole of England and Wales.

On multiple, and it suffered across multiple indices of deprivation, overcrowded housing,

Poor literacy and numeracy, low educational attainment,

scarce mainstream opportunities, and high unemployment,

with most local employment limited to the rag trade

and garment workshops.

Added to this was the everyday racism that many of us

from the Bangladeshi community endured.

Opportunities were few, barriers were many,

and the environment we grew up in was defined

by social exclusion rather than aspiration.

So from the balcony of the Glashan House on Hunton Street,

I spent my childhood looking directly at what we,

as children, called the Eastern Wall,

referring to the Truman Brewery.

It was tall, imposing, and unbroken.

A physical and psychological barrier

that separated our overcrowded homes

from acres of vacant land beyond.

Even as a 10 -year -old, I understood instinctively

what that wall represented.

On one side was deprivation.

families like mine, living in cramped council flats,

struggling with poverty and poor housing.

On the other side lay vast empty tracts of land,

almost 10 acres according to some estimation,

lying unused, underutilised and largely closed off

to the community.

To me, even as a child, the solution felt obvious.

Why not bring that wall down and use that space

to build homes for local families?

It seemed only logical that an area so deeply affected

by overcrowding should see housing

as its natural priority.

That wall became, for me, a constant reminder,

not only of exclusion, but of possibility denied.

Four decades on, that feeling has not changed.

The wall still stands, and so does the deprivation.

Tower Hamlets now has over 28 ,000 people or families

on its housing waiting list,

and it's the second highest in London.

The shortage of affordable housing

remains as severe as ever.

Yet instead of seeing developments that reflect

the needs of the people who live here,

we are seeing plans for world -class workspaces and offices,

proposals designed to compete with the city,

not to serve the community.

What we are witnessing is not regeneration,

but encroachment.

The City of London continues to push eastward

while the communities of Spitalfields and Bangalowtown

are squeezed further.

In fact, even in the early 2000s,

I remember the Boundaries Commission considering

whether parts of Commercial Street

should fall under the EC1 postcode,

rather than E1.

a symbolic gesture of how the city was expanding,

claiming ground once firmly ours.

In many ways, it feels as though time has stood still.

The deprivation remains, the war remains,

but now, instead of opportunity,

what expands is exclusion, gentrification,

pushing ever eastward, eroding the last vestiges

of affordable living in one of the most overcrowded boroughs in London.

Four decades on, I stand here still,

and I stand here today to present the simplest, most logical

and most humane conclusion that anyone could arrive at.

This land should be dedicated to the community,

to housing and to sustaining a thriving neighbourhood.

Throughout this inquiry, we have heard experts from experts

about the rich and layered history of this area.

But for those of us who have lived it,

this place is not just a historical footnote.

It is a living storey of resilience and renewal.

Spitalfields has for centuries been the home of migrants.

It was here during the reign of King Louis XVI

that the Huguenots, the first wave of religious refugees

in European history, found safety and belonging

after being exiled from France.

They brought their craft, their skills,

and their enterprise, and in return,

this area gave them what they sought most, a home.

They were followed by the Jewish community,

who also came seeking refuge and opportunity.

They too made this area their home, living and working side by side, often under hardship,

but building a life that combined craft, dignity, and community.

From their tailoring workshops and market stools emerged a local economy, built not

on speculation, but built on solidarity.

Then came the Bangladeshi community, who took up the same mantle of survival and self -reliance.

Many of our fathers and uncles worked in the garment and textile industries, often in conditions

not unlike those of earlier generations.

The Jewish landlords and factory owners became the primary contractors.

The Bangladeshi men, the subcontractors, the faces changed, but the pattern remained.

Deprivation, perseverance, and the pursuit of prosperity through honest work.

For every wave of migrants, home was the anchor.

The one constant through hardship and renewal.

Work was secondary.

It existed to sustain that home.

The heart of this area has always been residential.

The economic life of Brick Lane and its surroundings

was born from its people, from their homes,

their kitchens, their workshops, and their streets.

It was never intended to be

a world -class commercial district,

competing with the City of London.

One of the most powerful financial centres in the world.

It was and should remain part of East London,

diverse, working class, and human in scale and spirit.

And we have heard during this inquiry expert witnesses

speaking from the developer's side,

representing the Truman Brewery.

We have seen even from the earlier stages of the community consultations that when local

residents raised legitimate concerns, their voices were dismissed as political.

I want to make it absolutely clear today, our objections are not political.

They are far deeper, more profound, more respectable, and more relevant than politics.

To characterise this community's concerns as politics

is actually a deep wound.

Not just to those who live here now,

but to generations who built this neighbourhood

from hardship and hope.

This is not a political movement.

It is a human plea.

Our arguments are grounded in lived experience,

in policy confirmed evidence of housing need

and in the moral right of every family to have a home.

What this attitude reveals sadly is a clear disregard

for the substance of those objections.

It shows that somewhere along the process,

the developers chose to reduce genuine hardship

and community insight to a matter of political convenience.

And once that happened, everything that followed,

every design choice,

Every submission, every justification

became rooted in a fundamental flaw,

a dismissive attitude towards the very people

most affected by these plans.

So throughout this inquiry,

we have seen members of this community come and go,

Muslim women and mothers in hijabs,

members of the Jewish community,

the white working class families

and others who have lived side by side here for generations.

What has been most striking is the constancy of that community.

A steady flow of people representing every background, every faith, and every walk of life, united by one thing.

This is our home.

Despite the external pressures, the global politics, and the differences of opinion that exist elsewhere,

here in Spitalfields and Bangor Town, we've always resolved our differences within our community.

We have never allowed outside forces to divide us.

The respect we share, Muslim, Jewish, Christian,

and secular -like is rooted in something profound,

a deep sense of belonging.

We all know we may have different lifestyles,

beliefs, and faiths, yet what unites us is far greater

than what divides us, the shared desire

to continue calling this place our home.

And it is precisely that, our sense of belonging,

that feels under threat today.

Many of us feel that a wedge is being driven

through our community, designed not to unite

but to disperse and displace.

That is why we are here today in solidarity.

We are not against prosperity.

We are not against progress.

We are not against development.

We embrace change.

We embrace prosperity.

Who better than the people of Tower Hamlets,

from the Huguenots to the Jewish tailors

to the Bangladeshi garment workers,

to demonstrate prosperity through perseverance.

We have done it time and again.

We are for development,

but for the right kind of development.

One that reflects the needs of its people,

that preserves our homes and that honours our history.

We ask you, sir, to help us strike that balance,

to give us hope, to allow us to continue holding on

to what we cherish most, our homes,

to ensure that our children too can build a life here

in the same streets where generations before them

found belonging.

We are not against those who come here to work,

to experience or to enjoy what this community has to offer.

From our curry houses to our boutique retailers,

our cultural walks and the hidden gems

etched into our urban architecture.

We welcome all of it.

But we ask for one simple thing, balance.

Development that adds to the storey of this place

rather than erasing it.

So, sir, as I stand before you today, I do so not merely as an individual, but as a witness

to four decades of continuity, of families, friendships, and faiths that have shared the

same pavements and skylines of Spitalfields and Bangor Town.

This inquiry is not simply about architectural planning conditions.

It is at its heart about who we are as a community

and what kind of future we are willing to protect.

I grew up behind that eastern wall of the Truman Brewery,

dreaming of the day it would come down

to make way for homes, for families like mine

who needed space, dignity and stability.

40 years later, that wall still stands.

And today, the proposal before you, in many ways,

wants to build it higher.

So the question is not whether development should happen.

Of course it should.

The question is what kind of development and for whom?

If this site becomes another glass and steel office complex

competing with the city and catering to transient wealth,

then it will mark the beginning of the end

for a neighbourhood that has already given

more than its fair share.

But if this site is allowed to evolve into a place for homes,

community, and continuity, then you

will have honoured centuries of shared heritage,

from the Huguenot weavers to the Jewish tailors

to the Bangladeshi garment workers who followed.

So you have the authority to help decide

whether this community continues to live and grow together,

or whether it is pushed aside by forces too powerful for it to withstand.

We are not asking for charity.

We are asking for fairness.

We are asking for the kind of development that serves the public good,

the kind that makes it possible for ordinary working families

to continue living in the area they built.

You have heard evidence, you have heard the history.

What stands before you is not just a planning application.

It is a choice about the direction of one of London's most historic and diverse neighbourhoods.

And yet, after all that has been said, I find myself here today, four decades old, seeing

not progress but digression.

The only parable I can think of is a Dickensian London, an Oliver Twist moment.

I stand here metaphorically, of course, in hat in hand.

Hat in hand before the authority,

before the wealthy and the powerful,

saying softly, please sir, can I have some more, sir?

But I say this not out of despair,

but with the same humility, aspiration,

and hope that I have carried since my childhood.

The same hope I held as a 10 -year -old boy

staring from my balcony at that wall,

imagining a better future beyond it.

That hope has stayed with me all my life.

It has not been broken by deprivation or discrimination

because I remain an optimist.

And it is that same optimism,

that same belief in possibility that brings me here today.

And so I make this plea not on my own behalf,

But on behalf of the 28 ,000 families on the Ta 'amilis

waiting list, still dreaming of homes they can call their own,

many of them may never read a Dickens novel

or have had the privilege of reading a book

their entire life.

Yet they live a Dickensian struggle every single day.

With that, sir, I bring my humble submission to a close.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

If you do have your speaking notes and concerns, that would be very helpful.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Hello.

My name is Mohammed Ahmedullah, and I am one of the persons responsible for founding an

organisation called Brooklyn Circle.

It emerged in the 1990s through debates and discussion in cafes in Brooklyn and surrounding areas informally.

Then from 2006 we formalised and we have been organising seminars, discussions, hundreds of them until now.

And we ran many projects. And many of our projects have been on history and heritage.

I want to say something about heritage history

before I go on to the main thing that I want to talk about today.

If you look at near Liverpool Street,

Pettigott Lane, going all the way to Leydon on the street,

you know, Lloyd's of London building, the steel building,

you had lots of East India company warehouses.

this, right?

And many of those warehouses stocked goods from Bengal.

Textiles, tea, opium, and all the lot of jute came,

but they were in East India docks.

So we have a long historical links

between this area and Bengal.

And it was also from Leiden Hall Street, the East India

Company captured Bengal, and they ruled the whole of India

until the mutiny in 1858.

And it was from here they ruled India

through their capital in Calcutta,

which is also Bengal.

So we have got a long history going back.

Not only then, the first direct contact

between Englishmen and Bengal, 1586, through Ralph Fitcht.

I don't know how you pronounce his name.

He left account of Bengal textiles,

one of the finest in the world, which is the India company,

from 1860s, 1660s, increasingly bought from India.

Bengal was their main source of textile.

And all around here, a lot of those textiles

were stored and sold.

And later on, tea came from Silate and Assam.

And a lot of the sailors recruited from there

brought those items and served on British ships.

So Brick Lane is special and surrounding area

for longer historical reasons.

And we have discovered this recently

from many of the historical projects that we have done.

This report has been referred to community plan produced

by the Community Development Group.

And there's a picture of me, actually, in 1989.

It's this one.

Consultation held in St. Hilda's Centre in Shoreditch.

Is Shoreditch?

The end of Brick Lane.

I was involved.

I was employed in that project.

So I will start from there.

I think Alan Shepard was the chairman and chief exec

of Truman's Brewery, or part of a group.

He was the chairman and chief executive

of the he came to talk to us back in 1989 in Montefiore

Centre, just across the road, where he promised a packed room

that this regeneration, because we were brought

into this regeneration process

through the Spitalfield Task Force set

up by the Thatcher government initiative

and business in the community.

And Alan Shepard promised the community that the regeneration

in conjunction with the goods -eared space would benefit

the community.

He doesn't want to replace the community.

When he retires, he would like to come back

and see the community thriving, right?

So what happened, Spitalfield Task Force in 1989 initiated a process to involve, encourage

the Bengali Bangladeshi community to develop leadership skills because that time, although

Spitalfield had 75 % of the population from the Bengali community in 1899 when we were

looking at the figures, there was massive unemployment.

It happened because of all the industries living in the area,

because in the 70s, there were hardly any unemployment

in the Bangladeshi community.

They were all employed in working from home,

the women working from home, and men working from the factories.

So there was massive unemployment.

And one of the intervention idea was

to develop leadership within the Bengali community.

So a task force came up, and they encouraged us

and helped us to take, to develop a stake in our own future,

to help regenerate through becoming involved

with the mainstream.

And there are lots of promises made, you know,

from the Truman's Brewery, Prince Charles came,

business in the community supported and so on.

So from that moment, 1989,

for two decades, you know, this area,

So several central government initiatives.

So Spitalfield was tasked with the Backing Green City Challenge in the early 1990s.

Then you had several single regeneration budget programmes.

You had an EU urban initiative.

And then you had a New Deal for Communities programme.

In all those programmes, Bangladeshis were involved massively in helping to regenerate the area.

You know, as Jalal said, through council leadership, the people on board,

There are lots of people who are trained by the process of

partnership to become more involved with the process,

but develop entrepreneurial skills and so on.

So they played a major role in regenerating the area,

hoping that this area will serve them.

But when this area is regenerated,

they find they are being kind of replaced.

This is how they feel.

In the late 1980s and in the early 1990s,

Brooklyn actually became quite derelict and abandoned.

And some places, especially if you

walk from the Truman Brewery until the end,

it looked a little bit like ghost town.

It's scary sometimes.

Nobody's there, right?

But obviously, it started to change slowly.

But Bangladeshi community from Truman Brewery until the Algid

Station kept Brooklyn alive by developing many more

businesses.

But as regeneration started taking off,

they found themselves unable to compete

with the new situation, even though it was they who

helped bring the regeneration.

What I want to say is that the last thing is that, you know,

as I said, going back to the 1630s

when East India Company officers first arrived in the shores

of Bengal, right, and then obviously 1857, 1757,

when they took over and then they extracted a lot of wealth

from Bengal, made us poor and impoverished us

And x, y, and z.

So there's a lot of that as well, you know?

The British state, British system owes to us

for all the extraction, all the impoverishment.

But we are coming out of that now.

But we have very rich traditions of culture, textiles, crafts,

arts and spiritual and intellectual, all kinds of traditions and potential.

So if we are replaced from this area, kicked out from this area, so this area is going

to lose out from the benefit, future benefit that we can bring from our rich heritage and

historical, spiritual, intellectual, artistic and creative and political tradition.

and you see how effective Bangladeshis are also

emerging politically in this country.

So what I would suggest is, let's not squander.

Let's keep the Bangladeshis here and work with them

to find a solution that works for everyone.

Thank you.

Hello, good afternoon.

Thank you, good afternoon.

My name is Bart Gell -Roth.

I have used a Quranic verse which simply means begin in the name of your Lord.

The reason I started by saying it is because I'm a proud local diverse

community member. Tower Hamlet has always been regarded a place of constant

arrival and departure or a proud and safe place for successive migrant

communities. I am a local resident and I will be speaking in my capacity as a

local resident as well as a trustee of a local charity which has been advocating

and supporting communities in Tower Hamlets for the last four decades. First of

I wish to express my strong objection to the proposed planning application for

the Truman Brewer site. It's widely recognised both locally and nationally,

including by the Greater London Assembly and Central Government that Tower Hamlets

is amongst the most overcrowded areas in the country with very limited land

remaining for social housing or affordable housing. As a result, thousands

of families have been forced into temporary accommodation across the

London, maybe across the country, costing public sector millions of pounds each

year and again, fact of the matter, is an ongoing cost to local authorities. I

reject Roman Brewery planning application as it fails

completely to address the acute shortage of social

and affordable housing within the borough.

The proposal is centred entirely on commercial

and retail development for private gain,

providing no meaningful or lasting benefit

to local residents or the wider community.

And again, obviously some developer can afford to employ expert, so -called expert or consultant

to offer their what we call desktop research about what the community wants and not.

But in this case that expert -led research or desktop analysis appeared and found to

be totally futile and unacceptable.

The council currently has a housing waiting

list exceeding more than 28 ,000.

And again, you have heard each and every participant

are kind of stated and reiterated

that it's an ongoing problem, many of whom

have lived in overcrowded conditions for five years,

10 years, probably 15 or more, and in some cases,

why take more than two or three decades to be rehoused in a larger family

accommodation? Because the council is running the way, there appear to be a

huge shortage of family housing that's not becoming possible at all. The Truman

lies in a dense urban area surrounded by home, shops and other commercial properties.

Despite this, the current application offers no tangible or community value to the people of Tower Hamlets.

We have experienced and witnessed many developers in the past promising ABC and DN effort,

But whenever their planning application is gone through or succeeded,

they happen to forget about whatever promises were made.

And again, they come up with barriers of excuses and unacceptable issues,

saying it is not possible because of ABC.

And again, we have had enough of those difficulties in the past.

Over the past several decades, the borough has lost numerous key sites

to private and corporate developers.

Most notably Canary Wharf, we all know the financial hub, is one of the most successful

emergence and development in Tower Hamlets.

At the same time we need to recall the fall of tobacco dock in Wapping, which was one

of the most disastrous development and investment of government went through, I would say, in

in vain, benefiting no community at all.

So we need to bear that in mind.

Some of the developments, some of the regeneration

have benefited, but not as it was widely forecasted

and featured and promised.

And therefore, we strongly again support the reasons

based on which the Hamlet Council rejected the Truman Brewer Development Plan.

Over the past several decades, I think we talked about that, given the seriousness of

the current housing situation, I urge the government consider existing its CPO, compulsory

a bipartisan order to acquire the site for community use, perhaps something to do with

housing.

We have experienced, and again some of the speakers have highlighted, the government -led

expertise in the cities by both successive governments.

The next part led approach failed to do anything significantly good to the community when it

comes to dealing with their actual and social needs.

Housing is of course one of the most important ones.

Finally, I respectfully request that planning is inspectorate, carefully consider the possible

needs, prioritise the aspirations of the community, local community and support the community

plan that suggests that safeguards and supports social housing and affordable housing development

in the borough.

I think it would be a missed opportunity if we don't prioritise housing for the barra

because we talk about community integration, we talk about community growth, we talk about

community peace and aspirations and economic regeneration until unless people are comfortable

in their own housing, in their own home, they will not be comfortable, they will not be

in a position to promote and support peace

across the neighbourhood.

And therefore, on that view, I would propose and strongly

support a community development which

is very much featuring a lot of social community

and affordable housing.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Did you have speaking notes?

To everyone else, if you do have them, if you can let the Council team have them and

we can circulate them.

It does help me enormously.

Go ahead.

Hello, thank you very much for letting us speak.

Public inquiry.

Well, thank you.

My name's Lucy Rogers.

I've been living, I lived near Spitalfields north of Brick Lane for 23 years.

And in about 1999, I had a studio space in the Truman's Brewery in a building in the main site yard.

that's the yard on the east side of Brick Lane. The contract I had was with the landlord,

the Zaloof family, of course, who were here I think, and it was a 24 hour notice contract.

So I was always aware that things were quite temporary at the Truman's. I had the sense

that they were just waiting to do a major redevelopment.

But now things have changed.

The Zalu family are not the principal owners

of Truman Estates, as I understand it.

I'm not sure who is the owner.

But at the time, throughout the 90s,

the Spitalfields Market nearby, which I'm sure you know,

was in the middle of a struggle over its redevelopment plans.

because it represented the first step over the boundary of the city and into Tower Hamlets,

with a very large office building to occupy the space and the other half of the market,

which wasn't demolished, would be filled with more expensive shops and restaurants.

The empty wholesale market at the time provided a large open space that was used by the community,

football, swimming pool, a theatre as well as the market. And the Spitalfields Market

Under Threat campaign commissioned a survey about the local use of the market and the

very well liked across all sections of the community and performed an important role,

in particular mixing people together in fact. And it was the kind of space that one of the

speakers was mentioning by just asking for a coffee shop. It was a place you could go

and meet. So there was a loss of strong opposition to the loss of the market.

When the demolition of the market and the redevelopment of the rest of it was complete in 2006,

I walked in there with a man who worked for the Spitalfields Small Business Association,

and Mr. Muckett, the third speaker, referred to this.

The Spitalfields Small Business Association still exists to provide affordable workspace in the area against all odds.

It is a very difficult job.

The man I went in with from the Imran said that he no longer felt that this kind of space

was a place he would go into as easily. He was a local man who grew up there. In fact,

his mother still lives nearby. And some of the Bangladeshi restaurants that were promised

spaces in the new development, that never happened. And subsequently, all the existing

shops and businesses around the edge were priced out, the ones that were there at that

time. The property changed hands. It passed to a sovereign wealth fund in Amman. This

is what happens and what will presumably happen with Truman's.

I heard the architect, Mr. Yeoman, on day one refer to the Truman's plans as a campus,

and to me I felt very worried to hear that word because it's the same issue as the Spitalfields

market case or problem, which is that it brings these large office blocks even further into

the residential area east. And the size of those blocks is very much equal to the Spitalfields

office blocks. It's comparable, and the footprint is a comparable footprint, and the height

is extremely high.

The other architect on day one said

that the blocks, the Truman blocks proposed overlooking

Allen Gardens will give an enclosure to Allen Gardens.

Well, yes it will, but because they're

going to be so tall that they will create a giant shadow

over the gardens, which would be extremely detrimental

to people's enjoyment of the green space, of which

There's a very noticeable lack here.

In fact, Tower Hamlets comes 29th out of 33 in boroughs,

in the hectares of space per person.

And people, local people, will lose another asset,

a simple piece of green space.

And the idea of a campus is a homogenous zone

building with one owner and things like curated art.

As we heard from the architects, the tenants

may be headquarters building.

So that's one owner and one headquarters.

So this will move the area far from being a local place

to being effectively another extension to the city.

This campus is about large scale ownership,

which has consequences for the way

that the neighbourhood will operate, as you have heard.

It's a continuation of the struggle about where does the East End stop and the city starts

and whether the existing community gets any benefit from it.

And I would just like to add finally that the writing of the opportunity area planning

framework, city fringe opportunity area planning framework, ignored all the community input

which did highlight this precise issue of the East End versus the city.

The opportunity area was basically steered by the City of London for its own benefit.

And in general, all opportunity areas lack proper consultation and a transparent process.

That's just a side note to the opportunity area planning framework.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Again, if you can make your speaking notes available, that would be helpful.

Hello.

I'm Deena Zimmerman. I

Live on Calvin Street right behind the proposed data centre on Grey Eagle

And while supportive of all the save Brook Lane and the community plan. I'm specifically

opposed to the data centre

project

So I wanted to go through my my husband and I moved to the area

Just under a year ago. So we're new residents and spittle fields and we chose the area because it's a vibrant community

there's a lot of art and

Restaurants and people who really connect with one another and I volunteer at the spittle fields farm

So we're still learning the community. I'm also a member of what we call cage

So the Calvin Street and Grey Eagle residents

And this has probably brought us together faster than anything else could the opposition to something like the data centre

But I wanted to go through a few of the points

That I hope you've all heard before but just to reiterate what's really important to those of us who live right near the data centre

The first thing is this as Chris mentioned is a residential area

It was misrepresented and the proposal that they put through and there are at least

150 flats that are not listed as residential in there.

Probably more, but they have it listed

as a highly commercial space, it is not.

We are also unfortunately an antisocial behaviour hotspot

and spend much of our time talking to the police

about incidents in the area.

I think a part of that is because of the facade

on Grey Eagle Street and the things that that allows

in terms of antisocial behaviour.

As we look at this proposal, I don't see that changing the situation in our area at all in a positive way.

I don't walk on Grey Eagle at night, which maybe says something about me,

but the proposal really isn't going to help us in terms of a data centre.

It's a blunt façade. It has no active frontage, no public access, no engagement with the community, and very few jobs.

My second point is around noise and I think we've already heard about our history with one data centre that backs on the Grey Eagle Street

So they they have not historically brought us a positive experience around noise

But the site analysis that they did they said was a hundred metres

Around the site which is probably a minimum requirement

It should probably be 300 but my bedroom window is 30 metres from the facility

And our area was not included in the sound assessment and the sound survey.

So we went out and ran our own, got a professional in to take a look at it.

And our noise levels are significantly below what Truman has put as the baseline here.

Their proposal doesn't actually specifically address how they're going to keep the noise

levels down.

And we know that's been a problem in the past.

But given that they've not looked appropriately at even a hundred metres around the site

It seems impossible that they would put up a facility that's going to respect those levels

The third thing is operational impact and an ongoing basis

it's obviously

It's going to be no matter what goes in a lot of construction noise and disruption

But the way the design currently sits their loading Bay actually is out on to Calvin Street a commercial road

Calvin Street is a six metre wide one -way residential street

With a choke point of less than three metres where Calvin Street and Jerome Street meet

So you have a very small access point that doesn't allow for large trucks to go through and is not suitable for high volume traffic

So putting in a site there that's going to require them to run heavy machinery through and a constant flow of vehicles

Really isn't appropriate and both on the street

Because of its size and because it's residential

And my last point is really about environmental impacts and the use of land so

I'll be honest. I'm not sure many of us can imagine a worse use of the land than a data centre

So there are a lot of proposals that I think I'd be much more supportive of

But when you look at land use, right,

this provides very few jobs.

It doesn't alleviate any of the housing issues

we've heard about.

It doesn't deal with any of the issues around

disruption and the social aspects of it.

And it draws resources from our community

while giving nothing back.

So I did a little bit of research on data centres,

which hopefully is all just reminders for your group.

but a data centre of the size that they're putting in will use 50 kilowatts of electric power per hour.

As compared, an office building of the same size will use 3 to 5 kilowatts per hour.

And a flat uses 5 kilowatts per day.

So you can see the amount of electricity that another data centre would pull from our community is fairly excessive.

You add to that that we already have a history of power outages in our area.

The grid cannot support yet another data centre.

And that's probably true of most of London.

This kind of issue is exactly why now most data centres are being put up in an area where they also have access to renewable resources

so they can create their own energy. That is not the case for us.

The heat and carbon emissions that are going to come from this project and from the data

centre are pretty significant.

And while I saw in the proposal they're willing to pay credits towards that heat and pollution,

that doesn't fix the problem in our local community.

And finally, the life cycle of data centre assets, so all of the racks of servers that

are going to be in there have a two to five year lifespan.

So once a data centre is in, within two years,

they will start producing electric waste

or electronic waste that will be a constant flow from that point

on to the end of the data centre.

So once again, putting a strain on our resources

around both recycling and rubbish, the city of London

and London in general does not recycle much electronic waste.

Know that's certainly one of their goals, but it's not something that we're doing overly

Well on which means most of this will end up in a landfill

So if we put putting pressure on our resources for both garbage and recycling

While ending up in a landfill and then having the waste

Seep into our water and our ground. So overall not a lot of benefits to the local community

so when I look at

Overall in this this is not the right kind of proposal for a residential neighbourhood. It's just not

It has a very negative

Impact on what is a vibrant local community. You've heard a lot of voices

People are very passionate about where we live

It has you know unacceptable levels of noise air pollution sunlight impact and traffic impact and

It's

Definitely is going to have an unsustainable

Energy usage especially for our area where our grid is not overly strong and an increase in pollution to the area

Really the absence of almost any benefits the community and let's be realistic

Most of the jobs in the data centre are not going to come from our community

It is the reason that I strongly oppose this I just I can't think of a worse use of the space than a data centre

So, thank you

Thank you.

And thank you for the notes.

It's just a useful reminder to me whether I'll be able

to read mine is another question.

Who'd like to go next?

Okay.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Oh, sorry, there's anyone.

Go ahead, go ahead.

Oh, I'm sorry, sir.

That's fine, no problem.

Okay.

Hey, guys.

You'll all get your turn, don't worry.

I'll be quick.

No, it's okay.

Take your time.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

Well, I was just coming in, I was thinking if I was going

to say something or not, and then I told my neighbour, Chris,

I don't think I'm the most qualified person to say that.

But then I thought a little bit, and I guess I am,

because like many other people behind me, I've been living

in Calvin Street, which is the street

where Block A is allegedly located,

for about six years, seven years.

I've known Chris for that long and it got me thinking also listening to the speeches

of my neighbours, some terms that have been used that I think are very important to actually

highlight.

One of them is arrogance.

The fact that we're even here discussing such a project for such an area cannot really be

described with many other terms.

Calving Street as, remind me your name.

Dean, she was just so good at it,

such a good speech by the way.

I wish I could do that, but I tried to wing stuff I guess.

She was very good really at describing

what Calving Street is.

And it's a very small street.

Narrow, quiet most of the time,

unless they're selling some drugs,

which is not really ideal.

But it's really ambitious and really arrogant as well, that there was such a development.

Some people think that that place could even be considered appropriate.

On top of that, I guess that we can receive questions, right?

And I guess that you guys are here to support this development.

Am I correct?

Yeah.

That is right.

I was just asking.

I was just waiting for an answer, but I guess they are.

But maybe I have a question for them.

I was wondering, do they live close to a data centre?

Is that a no?

Well, we'll make it a rhetorical question.

Okay, okay, fine.

I mean, I will be happy to hear their experience with it, because maybe it's a different thing.

different from ours.

Because we, as my neighbours have stated, we have this issue.

And there is precedent for such a construction being built

and being very disruptive.

We're not even talking about the building being ugly,

which is not pretty.

But we're not talking about that.

We're talking about actually being

disruptive to the community.

But if they don't live close to a data centre,

maybe would they like to?

And I guess we can make this a rhetorical question as well.

To me, what we're doing here, it's very simple.

There's one thing that will be appropriate to do,

and there is another thing that can be argumentated and

supported via very good speeches, very nice suits.

At the end of the day, where I live, it doesn't reflect this.

And it got me thinking, also looking at these photos,

you know, in these renderings, they are very nice, by the way,

very good renderings.

The colour palette is very calming.

But the issue with these renderings

is that they don't really depict what is going on in the area.

These people are not us.

These people are not happy in these photos.

They're not.

And I can tell you why.

Because they live close to a data centre at this point.

Well, sorry, another data centre.

So I think there is a very good job here

at selling an idea.

And I can tell this and people do this professionally

and they're probably very good at it.

And I can understand for a project of this scale,

there is the best people working at it.

But sir, this is not our neighbourhood.

But once you leave this centre, if you want to walk on Calvin Street, I'm going to go

that way anyway, I'll show you what site we're talking about.

I'll show you what Calvin Street is.

I think that's it.

I appreciate everybody's time.

Thank you.

I didn't take a note of your name, sorry.

My name is Nicola Cola.

I live on Calving Street.

Thank you very much.

And thank you.

Just...

Here's some.

I got it.

All right. Where shall I start? Good question.

Well you could tell us your name.

I was going to.

I think you read my mind.

Good start.

My name is Terry, T -R -R -Y, McGrennera, capital M,

small c, capital G, R -E -N -E -R -A. I'm a troublemaker.

Sorry, correction.

I'm a journalist, which is maybe one of the same things.

but I actually believe that the real troublemakers,

what I'm saying is I'll go into my intro

and then I'll get into my main.

I said I don't believe I'm a troublemaker,

more of a canary in a mine.

There are three bodies who I believe should be seen

as troublemakers, governments past and present,

the President Mayor of London and Tower Hamlets Council. Rather appropriately last night,

the Panorama Programme investigated the housing crisis and the Government's claim to build

a million and a half homes by the end of this Parliament.

It is impossible to do so, it concluded, if it relies solely on the private sector, the

developer -based approach, without massive public investment.

The Mayor of London, when he launched his re -election campaign last year, promised he

would build 40 ,000 new homes by the end of his third term.

Last week, the AI newspaper, the front page storey, was about the government's plan to

cut the affordable homes target.

The Tower Homeless Council, after the local elections in 2022, asked residents to nominate

any sites that might be suitable for housing.

I replied, nominating my own block, as it failed to reach the decent home standard set

by the previous Labour government. I received no reply.

Also twice within the last year I have presented petitions to Tor Hammit's Council as it

ignored not only the local plan but the London plan in planning applications, plus the method

methodology used to calculate affordable homes does so by counting rooms, not homes.

At the Strategic Development Committee meeting on July 31st, which announced that a planning

inspector had been appointed to decide the future of Brick Lane, I was verbally accosted

by the committee officer and accused

of trying to influence the outcome of the meeting,

lobbying.

She was joined by another officer, a lawyer,

who repeated the accusations.

Since the inspector was to decide the outcome,

what difference would I make?

It was immaterial.

What I was trying to do was to read each councilor's nameplate

as there are eight members of the council whose name is either Chaudhry or Hussain,

but with different spellings. There's my notebook.

I was surrounded by security staff who had been hired for the meeting, a long -time member

of staff who knew me, ushered them away. I wrote to the chief executive about the incident.

Two weeks later I received a warning letter from the head of the legal department. I asked

to appeal the decision. I was told there was no appeal. It was then that I wrote the latest

issue of my publication to highlight the authoritarian nature of the matter. At around the same time,

ironically, an illegal migrant appealed to the High Court against its proposed deportation.

Tarhamlet's Council has become increasingly unpleasant. Ironically, a Love Tarhamlet's

marketing campaign has been launched with posters and billboard. It is Orwellian.

I'll get on to my main point.

But basically, this is the publication I put out.

It says, Tarhammett's Council shows its nasty side

to Tarhammett's officers, verbally abuse

a member of the public before the start of the Strategic

Development Committee to decide Brick Lane's future,

but one which will destroy its past.

OK?

OK, they're there.

And there's the warning letter.

That's that out of the way.

OK, like the previous speakers, like many

of the previous speakers, I've lived here 40 -odd years,

like the other speakers.

Tor Hammers was a rotten burrow by the time

I came to live in the 1970s. This was true economically, politically and culturally.

The ducts, which had hitherto provided thousands of jobs for thousands of the male population,

had closed and the gleaming steel towers of Canary Morphe and the other financial companies

had yet to rise in the skyline.

Shipping cranes were in due course replaced

by construction cranes.

Torhamlets politically was a one -party state.

Local elections were decided on the day nominations closed

and not at the end of the day in which elections were held,

as so few seats were contested.

London as a whole was in decline.

white flight was at its height from the city. It created a housing crisis with a difference.

Buildings had become derelict, the situation became so dire that the Greater London Council,

in order to fill their empty homes, and at the same time increased revenues,

offered homes to single people who normally would have been excluded from the housing list.

That is how I came to live in Torneymitz.

In the intervening years, I can't claim, as has been the case last week, to have a

glittering career littered with trophies and awards from my peers. I did stand for local

council in order to restore democracy to the borough, as well as the London Assembly and

after Parliament. I was unsuccessful in all attempts.

Culturally, Tower Hamlets became known as the place where every weekend at the top of

Brickline supporters of a political party sold their newspapers. There were regular

reports of clashes between them and the new inhabitants of the area who were increasing

increasing in numbers and were able eventually to see them all.

Academically, I studied for a master's degree in journalism.

My dissertation was about affordable housing in London and losing battle, I concluded.

Later, I studied for a master's degree in housing.

My dissertation this time was about the policy of stock transfer of local authority council

estate to mostly housing associations, as the new Labour government wasn't prepared

to finance the cost of repairs which had been neglected by previous governments. I financed

my studies by qualifying as a soccer referee. My intention was to become a sports journalist,

but that change from my home was due to be transferred from local authority control to

that of a housing association. So began my involvement in housing. I started my own publication,

The Housing Times, to highlight the housing crisis as the mainstream publications were

interested in the effect the right to buy legislation was having on the public rent,

et cetera.

They were more interested in highlighting

the rise in housing prices.

I founded a political party, the House Party.

And I defunct it to change the narrative

from getting on the property ladder

to just providing homes for people to live.

Last year, I presented two petitions to the Townhammets

Council about their housing policies.

In the first, I accused Townhammets

of lying regarding the number of cancelled homes they proposed to build and a new development.

It was only half what they stated in the press release.

Secondly, I highlighted their failure to adhere to conditions of the funds provided by the

Mayor of London to build mixed and balanced communities by excluding homes for single

people from their plans.

My position is best described by Roland Moore,

the architect critic of the Observer,

at the end of his book, Property,

the Myth that Filled the Word.

Anyone read it?

Chairman?

No?

You read it?

Yeah.

Oh, OK.

I should have gotten one.

Where was I?

He wrote, �Private property is a means to an end, shelter, security, freedom, prosperity

and happiness. It is often effective and partial, but it is the ends that matter most. Where

property fails to do its job, it has to be challenged, reformed and, where necessary,

be replaced with more useful alternatives.

The aim of the book is not to sweep it away,

but to prosper, but propose how its beautiful promises might

be fulfilled.

That, in essence, is why we are providing an alternative

to the proposed plans.

In November 2015, the owner of the Truman's Brewery and its planning consultants sent

a letter to Tarhammouth's council with a list of objections. The neighbourhood forum, in

criticised the letter, stated that it was riddled with misrepresentations and baseless

claims.

There were also reports of the brewery's owner orchestrating a campaign to challenge the

neighbourhood boundary passed by the Forum.

In April 2016, the Talamet Council met to decide the proposed planning boundary in the

Council's Director of Planning and Development

wrote a report to aid councillors with their decision

regarding the bounty.

There were 608 objections made against the proposed planning

area that included Truman's Brewery,

and only 23 in its support.

The Director of Planning recommended in the report

the approval of the brewery as part

of the forum's jurisdiction, dismissing the high volume of the objections as they came

from the same sender. Many of the objections, he explained, were received as part of a submission

by the owner, and that many of the representations repeated and reflected the same concerns,

using the same forum and content on differing in respect of individual

addresses and signatures. At the same meeting in April 2016, the applicant, the

application to officially accept the Splittlesfield Neighbourhood Forum was

passed and it was also designated to be the neighborhood's business planning

authority.

Being designated as a business neighbourhood area

meant that there would be two separate referendums.

In 2017, the owner of Truman's Brewery

was hold off the neighbourhood forum committee.

According to its secretary, it was believed by other members

of the forum that he was using his place on the committee

committee to gather information to undermine the work of the Forum. At the 2018 AGM, he

returned with about 40 acquaintances and with their help was able to rejoin the committee.

At a meeting of the Forum in July 2020, the policies for the plan were written and endorsed

by members.

In February 2021, Truman's brewery

sent a letter to Tower Hamlets Council challenging the draught

neighbourhood plan.

In the letter, he argued, as on feasible, on deliverable,

the draught neighbourhood plan proposal

to force developers to provide 45 % discount on workshop

allocations and new large commercial developments.

In July 21, it was agreed to submit the forum's plans

to Tarham's council to be decided to bear public vote.

In August 2021, an independent examiner

gave the plan his approval for a public vote to decide the outcome.

On 11th of November, 2011, two referendums were held, one for local residents and one

for local businesses.

In the residential referendum, only 54 percent voted in favour of its adoption.

The business referendum was rejected by a surprising 80 %

voters.

Cormac Kehoe, spelled K -E -H -O -E, a journalist,

in his account called Spitalfields Neighbour Plan

and Stroom Burley, a silencing of a community voice,

wrote that a number of curiosities

wrote from the business referendum, which raised

doubts about the validity of the vote.

Firstly, the percentage of registered votes

in the business referendum was much larger at 91

McLean than anywhere else.

46 of the business votes came from the same address.

Another curiosity was the level of votes

in the business referendum rejected by the council.

10 % reject compared to only 0 .4 in the vote by residents.

It is clear that efforts were made to also influence

the outcome of the residents' vote.

It is believed that by failing to abide by the spending

limit outlined by the neighbourhood regulations,

it explains why supporters against the neighbourhood

neighbourhood plan, Sputnik's neighbourhood plan,

managed to garner so much support.

Plus, section 143 of the Referendum and Elections Act

states that certain details, such as names, addresses,

failed to be included in such a leaflet

put out against the plan.

The leaflet was misleading.

It claimed that the plan was put together

by a handful of people, when in fact there

were 200 members of the Forum from a range of backgrounds

who had drafted the plan.

Leithard claimed that the plan excluded the Bangladeshi

community, and that they should vote

against the proposal for a Spitalfields Forum

to save the Bangladeshi identity.

It was a lie.

The independent examiner commenting upon the plan

said that he or she was highly impressed

by the plan's level of detail and professional scrutiny,

as well as labelling exemplary the measures to consult

and engage with the local population.

A second leaflet was circulated in the day

of the vote, which did include the required details, names,

and addresses.

It was drafted by the members of the Bangladeshi community,

as well as the help of a couple of counsellors

from Tarham, this council.

The content reiterated the content of the first letter.

The strategic development committee on 31st of July

this year, as regards the planning application,

regards the planning application for the site

under the paragraph heading publicity states.

The council has recently received 82 representations

in support of the proposals.

These were professionally prepared and feedback forms

that appeared to be prepared by the applicants' communication

consultants.

The saga over the future of Truansbury

It was happening in a semi -void, as the local newspaper had

reported on events for over a century,

had moved its offices out of the borough.

And the result, many residents were unaware of what

was happening.

Last page.

It is no surprise that the police

were asked to investigate allegations of election fraud,

citing possible conspiracy to subvert the referendum.

In October 22, the Crime Prosecution Service

was granted an extra 12 months by a judge

at Westminster Magistrate's Court

to complete their investigation.

Detective Constable Melissa Gillum,

giving evidence to District Judge Michael Snow,

said that the unusual occurrence of a business referendum being rejected had raised suspicions

originally. Detective Constable Gillan identified suspicions of multiple voting as well as possible

breaches of lethal and spending rules in the mean vote. The 18 -month investigation by the

Special Inquiry Team of the Metropolitan Police concluded in May 2023 that there were insufficient

evidence that any criminal evidence had taken place.

Final paragraph.

As Cormac Keogh writes, the vote took place amid a sordid online campaign, including a

video which alleged that the plan's ultimate aim was

a power graph from the community and would render democratically

elected councillors useless in their own ward

by empowering a group of outsiders in gated communities

making the decisions.

For whatever reason, the Bangladeshi community

was encouraged to believe that the Splittlefield neighbourhood plan would result in a power

ground. They were mistaken. As a result of the inconclusive outcome of the two referendums,

the matter was referred to Toram as council for a decision. When councillors voted against

the plans at the cabinet meeting in October.

The result subsequently allowed the owners of Trumansbury to bring forward plans which

would exclude the Bangladeshi community for their proposals for Trumansbury site, as well

as other parts of Brick Lane, which would not only change Brick Lane, but the character

of the surrounding area.

The thinking of the council's voting

against the plans proposed by the Spitalfied Forum

was that having won par in the local elections in May 22,

they weren't going to concede par to a rival body, especially

one that was perceived as unfriendly to the people who

voted for them.

The mayor of Tarhamlets, in his appearance before the inquiry, is likely to say that

Tarhamlets Council is the best body to determine the outcome of any proposal to protect the

Bangladesh identity of the area and persuade the inspector accordingly.

Following the vote by councillors on October 22, it is best that the planning inspector

should decide the outcome. Last sentence. The mayor's outlook is understandable. An

imitable lecturer at the University of East London, an author of Big Capital, who is London

and four, anyone read it?

Rights, housing and home are not just about bricks and mortar,

but about identity, emotional security,

and a sense of place in the world,

a sense of order and continuity in relation to experiences.

When individuals lose their home,

They can lose not just physical shelter, but their entire world.

Nothing is more devastating to people than losing their identity, which is very closely

tied up with home.

Finally, the owners of Truman's Brewery submitted an application for the redevelopment of the

site on 19th of August, 2024.

On June the 2nd, 2025, the applicants

submitted an appeal of non -determination

to the planning inspector.

And that is why we are here today.

End of storey.

Thank you.

Can I just ask, you've covered a fair amount of ground there about the neighbourhood plan

and that's not anything that I knew about.

I don't mean this unkindly but what relevance is that to me?

Can you explain?

It basically gives the context and the background to what has been happening over the past 10

years.

And I think it's a question which my colleague Jonathan would be best more experienced in

answering than I am.

There was another neighbourhood plan adopted by Tar Hamlets and that was in the Isle of

dogs, because people there were worried

about the overdevelopment of the island of dogs

being near the waterfront.

And also, you mean, sir, the tall middlelings,

they were worried that the supply of water

would not be possible.

So it was, you know, if, and I'll get a little political,

political here.

The Isle of Dogs has always been different from, you know,

I mean, Banglatown and Bow and the rest.

It is more residential.

And that was originally with Canary Wharf,

with the London Planning Authority.

It was an empty space.

And where redevelopment gentrification took place.

And it was worried that in the rest of the borough,

represented by people politically different from them,

that they would be over...

be swamped, basically, by developments which were on their doorstep.

So they got together, they were educated, erudite, articulate, etc.

et cetera.

And they arranged themselves together

in a neighbourhood forum, and they got it through.

And now, they were successful.

Unfortunately, in this particular case,

certain parties influenced the Bangladeshi community

that what was proposed by the neighbourhood forum

was a sort of backdoor way of overlooking or overruling

elected representatives, which they had voted for.

So there was a conflict of interest.

The Eile Dogg's incident was a united front.

And here, whether by whatever means, certain people from the Bangladesh community were influenced by the proposal

against the neighbourhood plan. Does that answer your question?

Yes, I think so. Thank you.

And thanks for what you said. If you can, I know the Council had a copy.

I've given the gang the sort of thing and have it, you know. I've got enough.

Okay, well, thank you.

We're at 10 past five.

Gosh, can I just have a show of hands for anybody else who wants to speak?

All right, so there are still quite a few of you.

The mayor is here at 5 .30, as I understand it.

Let's do that.

The person who needs to leave.

What I'm going to suggest is that we have a short break before hearing from the Mayor.

Good afternoon.

Can you hear me? Right. Before I introduce myself, I have a bit of a cold, so I do have

a little sweet in my mouth just so it doesn't disrupt my speaking and my coughing. Good

afternoon, everyone. My name is Dr. Fatima Regina, and I will be speaking against the

development plans.

I am a senior lecturer at the Stephen Lawrence Research

Centre at De Montfort University.

I have been researching the East End for over a decade now,

and I have published extensively on the Bangladeshi community

in the UK with a focus on Tower Hamlets,

but I've also extensively published on Bangladeshis

in Birmingham, Luton, and my upcoming book with UCL Press

will be looking at Los Angeles in particular.

Now, if people are interested in reading more research

about the Bangladeshi community in the UK,

I also recommend the works of Professor Claire Alexander,

Professor John Eade, Professor John, sorry,

Professor David Garbin, Professor Katie Gardner,

Dr. Shabna Begum, Dr. Amunul Hock,

Dr. Victoria Redcliffe, and many, many others.

And what you will find in common in all this research

is how profoundly impacted the Bangladeshi community is

when it comes to its sociopolitical economic positioning.

In addition to being a researcher and a lecturer,

I am also one of the founders of an organisation called Nijomanush,

which means our own people in Bengali.

We have been a part of the Save Brooklyn campaign since its inception in 2020.

One of the highlights of the campaign so far,

when we posted our objection

and encouraged others to submit their objections on Instagram,

was when our Instagram post was shared by Asa Butterfield.

Anyone know who Asa Butterfield is?

Noyes.

Sorry? Noyes.

Nope, so Asa Butterfield plays Otis, Otis Milburn in Sex Education on Netflix.

So that was one of the highlights early on in the campaign.

Now the East End, particularly and especially Brick Lane,

is a breathing archive capturing the resilience, reinvention

by all the different patterns of migration we have seen.

This area is a cultural and historical landmark,

not a blank canvas for corporate development.

I wish all of you in this room and those of you behind me

could see my students when they learn about the East End,

the history, the social fabric, the changes, the shifts,

and the way this place has come to be what it is today.

And what is even more striking when I bring my students

to the lane is just seeing their faces from the textbook

to the lane and how they see these transformations

and have seen the different changes.

Now, the other thing that's also striking about what

the students pick up, who are primarily sociology

or social anthropology students, as these are the disciplinary areas I am trained in,

they recognise also the glaring absence of local amenities available to the local communities.

So and I'm going to highlight some of those shortly.

So these applications don't represent progress.

It represents or rather they all represent erasure, an erasure of community, an erasure

of identity, and crucially, the erasure of a rich textured history that belongs to all

of us.

Now, going back to some research, analysis by Trust for London identified 53 of the most

gentrified neighbourhoods in London and the top three were all in Tower Hamlets, Spitalfields,

Allgate and Bethnal Green South.

Manny Hauty, who is the Trust's chief executive, said, this research points to something that

many Londoners have suspected for many, many years.

The city is becoming increasingly unaffordable for low -income families.

We're witnessing families and longstanding communities being priced out on a scale we

have never seen before.

London's diverse blend of communities is what makes it one of the best cities in the world,

but the current trend shows the city is at a tipping point at risk of being a homogenous

place where only people above a certain income bracket can afford to be."

End of the quote.

Similar research has been conducted by the research think tank called Commonwealth.

And if we look at the research produced by Runnymede Trust,

called Beyond Banglatown,

which was led by Professor Claire Alexander

at Manchester University,

found that a lot of businesses being run on Brick Lane

with a focus on the curry houses,

have closed extensively in the past two decades

as a result of various shifts in the economic policies

in the way this particular area is approached.

Now the East End isn't just studied in history.

... diversity degrees, not just sociology.

We see it in history, degrees, urban studies, cultural geography, architecture,

urban planning, and many other degrees.

Students from across the world walk down these streets to learn about immigration,

class struggle, post -industrial Britain, and the role

of multiculturalism in shaping modern London.

And it's a conversation that is ever more present in our modules and teaching because

of the changing landscape in politics, which many of us, I'm sure, are privy to.

So in the grand scheme of things, the East End is a classroom, and the Truman Brewery

is simply one of its textbooks.

Turning that textbook into a corporate façade is vandalism, and I call it an intellectual

vandalism.

You can't teach the lessons of Brick Lane from a glass -walled office complex that's

been scrubbed of all memory.

You can't understand the storey of the East End if you remove its storytellers.

Facades do not tell storeys. So this position I take is not anti -growth. This

is not nostalgia for nostalgia's sake. This is a fight for meaningful progress

that respects heritage, conservation, empowers communities and leaves space for

everyone and not just those who can't afford it. Change is the only

constant around us and this constant ought to take the community along rather

than disparaging it and binning it. So to repeat what others have already said,

housing ought to be a priority and specifically social housing and I'm not

talking about affordable housing which is only affordable to the few not the

many. The other amenities that I would like to see when I come through the

side streets of Brick Lane and Brick Lane is to see more GP facilities being

made available, GP surgeries, more green spaces, community spaces so our elders

don't have to go around looking for a cafe to sit in and including which is

important particularly for the women in this borough is access to even more

childcare and those of you and those of us in this room with children we know

what how much childcare costs it's almost like taking on a second mortgage.

Now someone I wish to cite here before I conclude, absolutely not my role model,

but a significant figure who's changed the landscape of British politics,

particularly the housing landscape, Margaret Thatcher. Margaret Thatcher,

known for her visceral policies that changed particularly the housing

policies, famously said in an interview in The Times in 1981, the economics are

the method, the object is to change the heart and the soul of the people. What

this means is there was a desire to dismantle society as she did not believe

a thing called society. These applications are persisting with this

particular ideology thereby creating further divisions. So with what we're

seeing here today with the people stood behind me who've spoken before me and

have been here since day one of the inquiry is that this is a community with

its heart and soul in Brick Lane wanting to assert its role in demanding economic

methods that considers its needs and not one that continues to displace or

dismantle. So on that note, Brick Lane tells a storey that cannot be written by developers.

And that is not a storey I wish to take to my modules, to my degrees, to my undergraduate

students, postgraduate students, and my PhD students. What I would like to see is that

we do not allow this to proceed and consider the needs of the community. So let's be a

part of shifting this change for the community and not for profit. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

If you are able to share your speaking notes in some way, that would be most helpful.

You can email them to somebody from the Save Brick Lane group, and then they can find their

way to me and be circulated around.

Is that okay?

Thank you very much.

Do you mind if we have 10 minutes before we hear from the mayor?

Yes.

Yeah.

I'm going to have a 10 -minute break then until 5 .30.

Thank you.

I want to resume.

I think we're hearing from the mayor next.

He will be after two speakers.

Okay.

I'm content.

Everyone ready to continue?

Okay.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, everybody.

My name is Abul Khaya Ali.

I'm an individual that's been born and bred here

in Spillafields, Bunkertown, brought up

in the Petticoat Lane area of this constituency.

Over the years, through my childhood and teens

and latter teens, I've worked locally in market stalls,

worked as a youth and community worker, outreach worker with local drug users,

and progressed into social work. Currently I'm a management consultant

within the social care industry. This, like my colleague Shukur earlier, he used

an analogy of Oliver Twist. The analogy I would like to use is the analogy of

David and Goliath.

From my left of this room, over the last week and a half,

we have seen very expensive suits,

well -funded, well -resourced campaign that

has been there over the last several years,

undermining the community and looking

at a bottom line, which is mainly

for profit and self -interest.

Contrast to this, we from the Save Brick Lane campaign, we have banded together.

We are a rainbow of various different people from various different walks of life.

We have got the Bangladesh community, we have got the white middle class community, we have

got the local working class community, and to set the record straight, we have got many

businesses as well.

I myself own businesses here in the local area

and in addition to the work that I do within the community.

For us to be partaking in this process,

it has been a hard struggle.

Our legal team, the campaign team

have been very charitable towards us.

Nevertheless, still it has been very, very difficult

for us to get our pebbles together

to for the struggle against Goliath.

Now, the Truman Brewery proposals, what are they?

They are entirely focused on large floor space for offices.

They prioritise only commercial return on investment.

That is it.

Even with the proposal of four affordable homes

on such a vast land space, land mass,

is beyond a joke.

The brief for the architects, yes, very nice designs,

very nice architecture, nobody can doubt that

or critique that, but the brief has been to,

for the maximum amount of office space

and whatever needs to be done can be justified later.

Brick Lane, I don't wanna repeat what previous speakers

have said, it's not just the Bangladeshi community,

We're a mosaic of different communities,

for different people from different walks of life,

different ethnicities, faith backgrounds,

non -faith backgrounds.

And as you would have seen over the last week and a half,

the differences, the mosaic of the people

that have been attending have been here

from different walks of life, different communities.

So it is not just a Banerjee community.

Although, as Shukur very eloquently stated

and described the impoverishment and desperation that our community has

endured over the last four or five decades. Here we want to see some bright

hope for our next generations and we hope through this exercise we can

achieve that. Now I want to touch on a little bit about the consultation that

that was done from the Truman's.

And my question is, what consultation?

Certain consultants were hired,

but my point here is that many were misled.

Many aspects of this whole project was misrepresented.

Businesses have come and said the same thing to me,

as well as many, many local residents.

Selected individuals were targeted and taken

to these orchestrated consultations that

happened via the Truman's.

And I say this very strongly because I am personally

aware of some of the shenanigans that have happened

in the background.

Publicity materials were circulated in certain circles.

some individuals or some so -called organisations

that have not been present here today

who received sponsorship,

spoke positively on those particular consultation sessions.

We from the community felt the first time we was listened to

was when the council led consultation process

for the master plan that was done.

This was the first time we felt that we was listened to.

And sadly for use of resources, unlimited resources, and the legal process, my understanding

is that that master plan had to be shelved.

We are aware of the new local plan that has been proposed, and we hope that the council

approves this and we hope whatever decision is made from this inquiry that

elements of that local plan are also incorporated into the decision -making

process because whatever is decided here will have ramifications for our

community for years and decades to come.

To conclude, we request that the inquiry prioritises not just

the planning regulations and the frameworks

that you have to operate within, but also

the needs and the wishes and the detrimental impact

that such a development would have.

One of my colleagues earlier mentioned,

does anybody on the team to my left

live next to a data centre?

I highly doubt it.

Such a densely mass kind of massing of this new development will totally decimate the

local area.

Businesses are worried in Brick Lane and around Brick Lane that it will have a significant

knock -on effect on their business rates as well as the rent demands from their landlords.

So our request would be for the inquiry to be our pebble against Goliath and stand with

the community to defeat this struggle that we have all taken on board for ourselves.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Carry on.

Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak today. I also

spoke at the strategic planning committee vote at the town hall on the 31st of July.

My name is Faisal Ahmed, and I was born and raised in Brick Lane. My family, like many

others here today, laid down our roots in this area over half a century ago. Three families,

including my own, began their lives in the UK in one small flat above 130 Brick Lane,

just four doors away from the Truman Brewery. We went on to open one of the very first Bangladeshi

restaurants on Brick Lane, the Nasru, in the 1970s. My first Sunday job at the age of 11

was running a stall at the world famous Sunday Market

on Cheshire Street.

I learned to play football in the Ghat,

another iconic brick -lined landmark.

I attended Thomas Markson Primary School

right next to Allen Gardens.

As a teenager, my friends and I would sneak

into the derelict Truman Estate,

exploring the vast neglected buildings

and imagining the possibilities they held.

So in Shrew, I grew up in the shadows of the Truman Brewery,

dreaming of what it could one day become.

But today, unfortunately, I'm here to oppose

the Truman Brewery.

If their plans go ahead, they will do nothing

to address the housing crisis or meet the local needs

of local residents.

Instead, they will accelerate gentrification

and displacement, pushing out the very working class

families like mine who helped make Brooklyn

what it is today.

The site holds enormous potential.

Yet their plans offer very little to the people who live

and work here, the people who are struggling every day

just to get by.

We're told this development will bring economic growth,

regeneration and investment.

But what does that really mean?

Luxury apartments that local people will never be able

to afford?

Thousands of square feet of office space that will stand

half empty while families sleep on the floor in overcrowded flats just metres away.

Community spaces making up less than 1 % of the total site.

Controlled access to their state.

Truman will decide who can enter and when.

More boutiques and chain stores that will drive out small independent businesses already

struggling to survive.

a growing nighttime economy, including clubs, bars, and events, adding to the anti -social

behaviour already plaguing our neighbourhood. And finally, just six social homes, six homes

on a 10 -acre site. In contrast, the proposal put forward by the

Save Brooklyn campaign, along with the Council's own emerging local plan, offers a genuine

alternative. Over 200 homes including 44 family -sized social units, more public

squares and green spaces open to everyone, more community facilities for

local residents, a 24 -7 through route open to all, and preservation of Brick Lane's

unique heritage and character. Let me be clear we are not against development or

regeneration, but development must serve the community it claims to represent.

What use are world -class offices when families are living in overcrowded homes

just seconds away? Why should we compete with a city for world -class data centres

that offer no real jobs in one of the country's highest unemployment boroughs?

Why do we need more retail chains and supermarkets when they threaten the

local businesses that have defined this area for generations? This community and

the generations before us built Brick Lane, not the Truman Brewery. It will be a tragedy

to see its legacy destroyed by the greed of one developer. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Okay, good afternoon.

And, sir, thank you for giving me an opportunity

to address the inquiry today.

I speak not just as the elected mayor of Tarihambeles,

but as a lifelong resident in the borough.

My father came here in the 50s, and he, in fact,

lived in Old Montague Street, where I also live

and I grew up in on the Chicks and Statons

paedophiles on Montague Street.

And I have experienced firsthand the impact of gentrification

on our communities.

I have seen my neighbours forced out

whose families have lived here for generations because

of rising prices and lack of social and affordable housing,

while thousands of us lived in overcrowded conditions

and many found themselves lingering, languishing on housing waiting lists.

We saw developments approved, which often did not provide any social housing,

affordable homes or homes large enough for our families.

These developments contributed to the rising costs in the area,

pricing many people out of the communities where they were born and bred.

I have made it my mission to do all I can to tackle the housing crisis by building thousands

more social and affordable homes and protecting against developments which cause such gentrification.

That does not mean opposing developments.

I am for regeneration.

It means ensuring that developments benefit the very local community and meet residents'

needs, rather than taking away from what makes our borough so special, driving up prices

and pushing people out of their homes.

Developments must be rooted in the needs of residents, not simply for profits for developers.

We support regeneration for the people and developed with the people, with the community

of the borough.

That is why I have stood with local residents in opposing this particular development, which

would gentrify the area and, according to independent experts like the Randami Trust,

push out local people, particularly working -class residents and ethnic minority residents.

Brick Lane and Bangalatown are the heart of our community.

We often say we have many crown jewels in Tower Hamlets, not only the actual crown jewels

in the town of London, but other crown jewels, such as the world famous Brick Lane in Bangor

Town.

Turning Truman Brewery into a commercial mall with just office spaces risks making this

culturally and historically significant site unrecognisable.

Our Spiritfuls and Banglatan Master Plan and our

Supplementary Planning Document as well as our local plan,

which have been developed with the community,

sets out our vision for regeneration,

which reflects and celebrates the unique history and vibrant

character, vibrant character of Rick Lane and meets the needs

of local residents rather than putting them at risk of displacement.

Like many in our community, I am a product of social housing.

I lived in overcrowding housing. I know what it means.

I've benefited from security in a council home provided to my family,

and I firmly believe in the right of every resident to a decent, warm and affordable home.

This is a principle which keeps communities together,

promotes inclusion and diversity and celebrates cultural heritage.

Across much of London, we are seeing gentrification drive families out of the places they have long called a home,

with schools closing across the city because there aren't enough children in those boroughs to attend in them.

A disproportionate number of new homes being built in London are just one or two -bed apartments, not family -sized homes.

Thousands are living in homes unfit for human habitation with pests, damp mould and overcrowding.

Overcrowding is not just a housing problem, it is a public health crisis, often having

a severe impact on physical and mental health.

It turns the homes from a sanctuary into a source of constant stress, often leading to

psychological distress, anxiety and depression.

It contributes to poor sleep and facilitates the transmission of infectious diseases, illnesses,

which can erode the wellbeing of the entire family.

For our young people, it hinders their education and development before they are even – before

they have even had a chance to start in life.

The Truman Brewery development would see only six flats built for social rent.

only six flats for social rent.

This is simply not acceptable in a borough like ours

within which so many are severely affected

by the housing crisis.

We are on track to, we as a council and my administration,

we are on track to exceed our target,

manifesto target of building 4 ,000 genuinely affordable

homes by May 2026, as well as the mayor's accelerated

housing programme to fast track up to 3 ,332 new homes across 37 council -owned sites in

the borough, with a focus on affordable and larger family homes.

And our new local plan goes even further.

But the housing crisis is so acute in Tahel, we cannot afford for a development of this

size not to address the community's needs for social housing, especially in the heart

of the densely populated Chik -Sung estate, which is facing particularly extreme overcrowding

pressures in its middle fields.

According to the Office of National Statistics, Taohamless is the fastest growing local authority

in the whole of the UK.

Our borough's population is projected to rise from over 323 ,000 in 2022 to nearly 390 ,000

by 2032.

Nearly 29 ,000 households are on a housing waiting list.

Over 13 ,000 households live in overcrowded conditions, with 2 ,600 severely overcrowded.

3 ,220 households are living in temporary accommodation.

Over 600 households require rehousing because of medical needs.

So it would be scandalous.

It will be an affront to democracy and to human values for a development of this size

to go ahead in the face of overwhelming community opposition, which is providing only six homes

for social rent.

When our borough is in such critical need of more social housing and affordable homes,

a need which is constantly growing with our rising population.

If this planning provision is granted, we will never get this opportunity back to build

homes on this site in the densely populated Chikin estate and we simply cannot afford

to miss out on these homes, on those homes for our residents.

It's once in a lifetime opportunity.

Building this commercial mall would not only be a failure in our duty to residents who

who are in desperate need of social housing,

independent experts have also assessed

that it would drive up prices,

which put our local people

and predominantly working class

and ethnic minority residents at risk.

When the council cannot keep communities together,

families have to be placed in temporary accommodation

outside of the borough,

often on the outskirts of the city,

far away from their workplaces, their children's schools,

their local GP, their family and friends

causing upheaval in their lives and devastating those communities.

Replacing this development with one which meets the community's needs

would enable us to keep this community together.

It would be a tragedy to miss that opportunity.

The brewery facilitates higher prices, will not be affordable for many local people.

This inclusion of a cinema and a performance venue within the brewery clearly does not

justify the lack of social housing.

We already have many affordable cinemas and events and performance venues across the borough,

such as this place, the Brady Arts Centre, Genesis Cinema, the Rich Mix, Montefiore Centre,

Centre, Twombay Hall, Kirby Nasrul Centre, Alton Hall, among many others.

Regarding office space, there are plenty of empty offices available across the borough.

Kenil roof is a good example where buildings are empty and failing to let in the current

circumstances.

And the proposed data centre hub in the city fringe areas or empty warehouses, buildings

in the docklands are a tragedy too. As well as gentrification, changing the demography

of an area in terms of class, ethnicity and age. These changes often strip away what was

so unique about that community, making high streets across the country indistinguishable

from one another. It will be a travesty for that to happen to the famous Brick Lane, a

truly iconic site and one of our top tourist destinations.

People come from all around the world to this cobblestone street and the side streets to

take in the vibrant street art, to join a walking tour, to learn about our rich history

and to experience our cultural and culinary diversity.

From the historic bagel shops,

which reflect these dense Jewish heritage,

to the Bangladeshi curry houses

in what has been dubbed the country's curry capital.

We must preserve this unique character

and rich history for future generations.

We recently brought back the Brick Lane Curry Festival.

Over 22 ,000 people came to Brick Lane

to join in this joyous celebration

with South Asian culture and East London's rich history,

which has been shaped by centuries of migration

from across the world.

This is under threat from gentrification,

which risks the bagel shops, the curry houses,

and other iconic brick lane institutions

been priced out of the area.

This would not only affect those independent small businesses and local residents, it would

also significantly drain the revenues the wider community receives from tourists coming

to the – coming to our borough to visit this destination.

I cannot believe that tourists and visitors will come to see a commercial mall, the likes

of which we see everywhere, including in other parts of our borough, for example, in Kenilwolf.

We do not need another mall in the heart of the Chichén State, and the changes this development

would bring about risk and the risks making Big Lane and Banglatown unrecognisable.

And we would lose what makes this world -famous destination so unique and iconic, which attracts

thousands of visitors each day.

This development also raises fundamental questions about representation and democracy.

The Safe Britain campaign represents a diverse coalition of different groups from across

the borough, with over 7 ,000 members of the community objected to this development.

Voters also expressed their views on this in the last local elections in 2022, electing

me on a manifesto which committed to work with the Eastern Trade Guild to protect small

businesses on Brick Lane and the local community from this development, and a manifesto which

pledged to prioritise social housing and affordable homes.

And almost all of the elected representatives on the Strategic Development Committee voted

to reject this development.

If such a controversial proposal were to go ahead, which has devastating consequences

for local residents in the face of overwhelming community opposition and a clear mandate from

voters, what message does that send out?

And what does it say about our democracy?

What message does this send to people living in their overcrowded homes that their lives

don't matter?

I think of the families who have come to my constituency, to my surgeries twice a week,

who are living in a nightmare in their homes.

To give one example, sir, a family with two parents and five kids confined to just two

rooms, living on top of each other in extremely overcrowded conditions, with horrific damp

and mould which is causing the children such severe asthma and they can't breathe, and

such severe eczema on their skin that they are in constant agony.

How can this development, with only six flats, yes, six flats for social rent, be explained

to families like that who are waiting for decent homes?

I support all of the grounds upon which the Council's strategic development rejected the

Truman Brewery development.

This includes the adverse impact its proposed scale, mass and design would have on the character

and appearance of the historic area, with there not being public benefits to outweigh

this harm to heritage assets, and the fact that the proposal fails to meet local housing

needs.

Furthermore, there are seven principles which underpin the Spitalfields and Banglatan master

plan which have emerged out of the local existing local plan and the council's strategic plan.

These seven fundamental principles are, one, prioritise the development of social and affordable

housing, two, embed community services, three, support local businesses, four, retain historic

and cultural identity, five, develop and enhance green space, six, be culturally sensitive

to residents' needs, and seven, provide a space for all stakeholders to have their say.

These are the principles which underpin a home -building programme.

I do not believe that this particular development meets a single one of these principles, and

indeed this development actively undermines them.

To conclude, sir, the proposal to turn the Truman Brewery into a commercial mall is not

just a planning issue, it is a social justice issue.

It is one of fairness.

It fails to meet the needs of our community.

It undermines our cultural heritage

and threatens the very fabric and the future

of Brick Lane in Bangalow Town.

Other developments in the borough show how effectively

we can work with developers to ensure that inclusive,

community -led projects rooted in the values of equality and inclusion which can unite

us into our hamlets.

That is what the people of Chikseum State and the entire community in Brooklyn and Bangalotown

deserve.

Finally, I urge the inquiry to listen to the voices of local residents, uphold the principles

of our new local plan, and reject this harmful proposal.

Thank you for allowing me the time.

Thank you.

Go ahead when you're ready.

Good evening.

Right.

Okay.

My name is Dan Cruikshank.

I'm a trustee of the Spitalfields Trust.

I've lived in the area since the late 1970s

and have enjoyed every moment.

The trust was founded 50 years ago

to fight to save spitalfields and find

beneficial uses for the historic buildings of spitalfields.

At that time, many were under grave threat.

Many were abandoned.

And so the trust fought for the fabric,

but also sought to save the area's very

special diverse communities.

And it's very special and distinct character

that was apparent at the time that I first

got to know the area.

I should say when I first got to know Spitalfields intimately,

which was the late 1960s, like many Londoners, I suppose,

it absolutely fascinated me.

the activity, the sense of, partly

was the sense of abandonment.

But it was really the kind of the life thriving

in challenging circumstances.

I suppose as a place defined by migration and by diversity

since the arrival of the French Huguenots,

French Protestant Huguenots in the late 17th century.

It was a place of once a grave merchant wealth,

then of poverty, a place of mesmerising contrasts,

but always with a sense of vitality and life.

I suppose that's the kind of the thing that I found most,

well, found until find most enthralling.

History of the area in the last 350 years

is a demonstration of the creative interrelationship

between different people coming to London often

in search of better lives, of sanctuary, and in Spitalfields,

forming communities that were and are rich and varied,

that have and continue to give much to the life of the city,

to make London into a world class, a world important city,

a place to visit, a place to reflect upon what it means

to live in a city, what it means to have an urban life.

In Spitalfields, you know, these communities have strived,

often desperate circumstances, but they ultimately

have thrived.

So it's very positive lessons to learn,

to apply, to be inspired by.

I mean, this building, for example, the Brady Club,

found in 1896, relocated here, these 1930s buildings,

funded with philanthropic funds.

And the aim was to educate, to inspire,

and to motivate the children of the areas and the Jewish poor.

This was then the dominant community here,

Jewish families escaping, of course, persecution.

For me, it's in Eastern Europe by Tsarist authorities

in Poland and Russia, Lithuania, settled here.

And this, you know, during the 1870s and 1880s,

and this building is always, to me,

is a wonderful reminder of how communities

could help themselves and could find better lives, you know.

So Brady Centre, now what it's now called,

was the Brady Club, those for boys and for girls.

It's a wonderful community effort,

and it transformed, for the better,

the lives of so many people, community working together

with an aim, a beneficial aim, not to make profits,

but make life better, to educate and inspire the young.

In Spitalfields, of course, this historic sense of community survives,

characterises, I mean I say this because I've lived here for so long, by

tolerance, by harmony. These are very precious and of course very fragile, very

fragile. I mean recognising this special quality where buildings and communities

are mutually supportive, which I suppose in a way,

that's how the trust saw its challenge in the 70s,

dedicated to regeneration,

not just to regenerating historic buildings,

but creating within those buildings homes for people.

We've talked about regeneration,

but most of these buildings, gentrification,

but most of these buildings were not occupied,

they were not, they were abandoned,

and they were not for rich new outsiders.

The trust was involved in creating homes of various sorts

and places of work to sustain the community of the area.

So we sought to return historic buildings, houses,

to residential use and to, of course,

recognise and protect those things I say

that are special about this area.

The area's mixed -use character as a place where people live and work, used in small -scale buildings or varied designs.

I say this is a place, these are the conditions in which communities flourish and which self -help is manifest.

Very important to recognise this, to protect it.

Now, as many people have made clear, I realise I'm repeating sentiments already expressed,

But now all is under threat.

I mean, the old Truman's Brewery site

stands in the very heart of Spitalfields,

an historic site, Truman's Brewery

from the 17th century.

And of course, it embraces the centre

of the area's most vibrant street, Brick Lane.

What happens on this crucial site

will define the future of Spitalfields

for good or for ill.

New buildings can be added to the brewery site.

No one has challenged that.

But it is important that they reflect the area's distinct character,

I say small scale, mixed use for social housing.

Social housing, very important, people need homes,

not more office space, and many have made already.

And it's very important that the development serves the particular needs

of the long -established and vibrant Bangladeshi community.

If that happens, then development on the site could benefit the area,

help being regenerated again.

And indeed, you know, the special character enjoyed

by Londoners and people from the world,

if the development is sensitive and thoughtful,

you know, would reinforce and continue

what is special about Spitalfields.

For as I can see, the proposed development

does not offer these things,

but instead introduces large scale architecture,

ungainly large floor plate offices

and bland commercial uses,

all of which are alien to Spitalfields.

I mean, certainly Spitalfields, in my view,

would become a place that few would want to visit.

And its wider economy, especially, I

suspect, the Bangladeshi economy of Brick Lane

would be diminished.

It would become a less interesting and less

attractive place.

This is an historic moment for Spitalfields.

If the wrong decision is made, then a place most of us love

and many of us call home, will become but a memory,

another milestone in the storey storey

of the erosion of London's identity and character,

with yet another character and important community

that offers great public benefits being lost

in the quest for private profits.

So this is another battle to save Spitalfields.

I was involved in a battle 50 years ago to save Spitalfields

and goodness me, I find myself not back

in fact the same place, but in a sense, the pressing issues

for the future of this very special part of London

are once again at stake.

So I urge the inquiry to reject the scheme

and to promote all those things that it can to protect

and enhance what is special about Spitalfields.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

How many speakers do we have left?

Who would like to go next then?

Okay.

Can we just ask, no one recorded from here, please, yes?

While this, well, in the forest.

From there, sir, yes.

From the audience.

Was that a request for no filming?

Yes, please, yes.

Yes, yes.

Yes, can you please observe that?

Thank you.

Can I just raise quickly, sir, we talked about the potential finishing of the heritage witness.

I don't think it's likely or indeed fair.

So might we make that decision now?

Yes.

There may be another decision to be made further

along the line as to what time it is tomorrow,

but shall we wait for that?

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, if Mr. Dunn is still here, then off you go.

You can go home.

We'll deal with you.

Are we starting at 30 tomorrow?

Yes, I'd assume that, yes.

So it's assumed, thank you, then.

Okay.

Good evening everyone. This is the storey of how I, Mohammed Rahman, came to stand by you

before you today. It's also the storey of my family, but also the storey of many Bengali

families who made East London their home. We didn't all arrive here at once. We came

Gradually, generation by generation, each separated for part of our lives, but always

connected by this place.

My great -grandfather came from Bangladesh in the 1950s.

He managed to buy a small property next to Allen Gardens, and that became our family's

first home in London.

His son, my grandfather, joined him in 1965 when he was just 14.

I never met my grandfather but I've heard so many storeys about him from my father,

storeys of struggle, pride and hope.

My father also spent his early years in Bangladesh before coming here with my grandmother in

the early 1980s.

Today my father is well known in our area.

When I walk down Brick Lane with him, people stop him every few minutes to greet him.

he's respected, he's loved, but sometimes I find a bit repetitive, but I also know this is what

community really means, but there's one place where that feeling disappears, the Truman Brewery.

I walked there once with my father and it felt like another world. No one spoke to him,

no one even looked at us. I would like that to change. I would like the brewery to open its doors

to become part of our community, not by building offices,

but by building homes, spaces, and opportunities

for the people who already live here.

My great -grandfather, my grandfather, and my father

were all immigrants who found a home in East London.

I was born here.

This is my home and my identity.

Woo!

Hello, everyone.

Nice to meet you.

So I ask you mr. Zalu, let me shake your hands and let's build a future here together one that honours the past

respects the few respects the present and truly belongs to the people of brick lane

Thank you

Good evening. My name is Mohammed Miah. I've lived here for about 50 years. And I want

you just to talk about the supposed economic effect of this development. So to understand

why I think this will have virtually no important economic development, I would like to talk

It's because we have effectively over capacity in office space.

The City of London is about 10 % capacity vacancies,

and Canary Wharf is struggling.

They said, the company I work for is about to leave Canary Wharf.

HSBC was looking for properties to leave Canary Wharf,

and it's probably likely to leave Canary Wharf in the next few years.

So, and the other thing, everybody is looking to downsize the property because people nowadays

work maybe two to three days, you know, a week and therefore they require less capacity.

As Lisa's goal, people are going to reduce office space and everything.

So what we have is in a Canary Wharf, which is part of Tahan, which is part of our community,

which is really struggling and is really going to struggle for property.

And we, you know, for people, you know, struggle with office vacancies, sorry.

And adding more office spaces will not have any effect, economic effect.

What it literally does is a substitution effect.

Because the new office spaces, people on subprime properties

would just move to this property. So there is no economic value from this property.

You know, it's not like we require more office space because we have over

capacity office space and we'll have continued over capacity for the next 20

to 30 years. You know, this office space won't, you know, add to the economic

well -being of the local community because there's going to be very little

spillover effect because it's next to the city of London.

So it effectively becomes an extension

of the city of London.

If Canary Wharf development has significant spillover effect,

and other developments in regeneration development

in Liverpool and everything like that

had a significant spillover effect,

partially because for those in Liverpool and other areas,

it is because they increase the quality of the knife life

or they increase their anchor properties

of government movement.

So we're looking at, you know, property development,

which is not going, you know, it's just subtracting,

you know, getting people from lower quality

city of London office moving to a slightly higher London

or city of London office.

office. And so there'll be no, you know, to that. And it should have no effect on

the economic growth of our country. The economic growth, you know, comes from

either, you know, productivity, you know, entrepreneurship or the

velocity of money. You know, because, you know, we don't have an economic growth, we

don't require any office space when you already have a capacity. You know, office

space doesn't add, it's all got standard office space.

One person is moving from a standard office space, which

is slightly just nicer.

I'm not going to say it's done in the 70s to now.

It's just nicer, nothing else.

So there's no productivity issue.

And the more important part here is

because there is lower spillover effect,

because just simply an extension of the city of London,

effectively becomes just an extension

of the city of London, there is no change

in the velocity of the money in the local community. Without that change in the velocity

of the money going through the local community, it will have literally no economic impact.

People will come either from Liverpool Street into here or Guedes into here, they'll come

form areas not related to this area generally.

And people who are in the city of London, a few hundred years

to this area, and there is no impact.

But if we looked at the economic impact, say, of social housing,

right, as a comparison.

So current rent, according to Google,

I'm not 100 % sure, I searched up Google to find,

it's 200 ,300 pound.

And if the properties there were social housing,

I believe social housing would be around 600 pound.

So that will give effectively 1 ,700 pound

extra income to that household.

And that extra income to that household

would be disposable income.

And they will use that disposable income

to spend in the local community.

And that spending in the local community

will actually increase local employment, increase local wages.

And because what it do is effectively,

because people are poorer, they will spend all that income.

And it will lead to greater economic activity in the area,

including the velocity of money.

So the economic, you could look at this and say, OK,

this building will increase regeneration, but not really.

Because what it does is it has no effect of economic activity.

It's just simply a movement from one particular building

to another.

While social housing, because of the fact

that it increases the disposable income of people,

will actually have significant economic benefit.

Economic benefits are probably far greater than those properties, just building those properties.

Because economic impact, because the rent goes probably go to some place in Caymans like all the rents in all the places in the city of London.

People get it because we don't have an economic growth.

So people are just moving from one office

to another place a few hundred years.

There's nothing like that.

They're slightly more likely to spend the lunch money, lunch

here.

But it's actually going to be reasonably minimal to do that,

compared to the extra velocity of income that, I don't know,

to do that. The other thing, you know, so I just want to express strongly that there

is no economic benefit at all to do with this housing. What it's literally doing is moving

what they call gross value added from the city, other side of the commercial road to

here. But this gross value added doesn't stay in the community. It just, you know, either

goes via to North Shore Fund by renting stuff,

or it goes to people living in Chelsea and other areas.

And if the person who lives in the Hamlets

is going to get a job in that property,

they'll still likely to get that job if it's in Canary Wharf

or if it stays.

But reducing the amount of actual property space, what we

do is save Canary Wharf as well.

Canary Wharf is going to be in a very depressive situation.

It's already struggling.

People are looking to leave.

We are incredibly lucky that the HSBC could not

find another property.

I think HSBC is going to leave.

Credit Suisse is going to leave.

Barclays is going to leave.

So we are looking at the three of the largest buildings.

I think HSBC is nearly as big as the actual Canary Wharf

building, the Green Hall famous, are leaving.

My company is leaving.

I'm afraid I can't tell the name just for privacy.

It's also leaving, and that's also a huge property.

And so what we need to think about

is all the growth in property space for the Hamlets

needs to go to Canary Wharf if we're just simply

thinking of the Hamlets.

And if you're simply thinking of the greater eastern side,

we also have got Stratford.

And we've got to think about, you know,

Stratford has significant vacancies, if I'm correct,

if I remember correctly, or had at least when I last looked

at it, and so we need to get, you know,

and the Stratford economy is, you know, is divided into two,

you know, the poor people and the rich people.

And so if we can get more local people in Stratford,

a more office space in Stratford,

and would get a better economy in Stratford

outside the Stratford Westfield Centre.

That will have a greater effect to do that.

So there is absolutely and utterly no economic benefit

locally.

There's absolutely utterly no economic benefit

at the time, not as a whole.

And there's absolutely absolutely no economic benefit

as London or the UK economy, as I said,

because it's just simply a substitution effect.

And the other thing, so this is the building site.

The other thing I want to challenge on

is the economic effect of data centres.

I came last Tuesday and heard the speeches from the gentleman

on the left.

and they talked about the economic effect of data centres and the necessary

and the necessity of economic for economic development to that. This is

absolutely not true. Data centres are absolutely essential for AI but data

centres are you know but we don't have any AI presence and will not have any AI

presence in this country at all. It's just simply not going to happen and the

presence that we do have, I've congregated around King Cross area with open mind and

stuff like that. They're not going to move out to here. So data centres, I don't exactly

know, but the most important thing is data centres have no value. Data centres are full

of computers generated, you know, built in China, full of programmes written by people

in Oxford and Cambridge, right?

People in Oxford and Cambridge aren't going to come here,

all the people in the city of London to do that.

And in particular, the data centres that are likely,

the people who are likely to use the data centres in,

excuse me, in this building

are gonna be financial service firms.

So they are not AI, so they will not add any economic value.

So the financial services centres who want data centres like this, they want to be near

as possible to the London Stock Exchange.

And the people who generally want to be near as possible to the London Stock Exchange are

the quant traders, you know, the high frequency traders.

High frequency traders add little to nothing to the economics of the City of London.

High frequency traders, you know, have worked for one,

and worked for one, are effectively the roaches

of the financial centres.

They're the people who are trying to make pennies

in a thousand trades, doing a thousand trades.

They're not private discovery, they're not looking

to hold positions, they're not asset managers in that sense,

They're not anything.

They're just thinking, look at inefficiencies in the system.

If we got rid of high -frequency trading,

there will be little to no impact

on the finances of the city of London.

I don't want to say there is no importance

of high -frequency trading.

The advantage of high -frequency trading

does in such a high -volume environment

is that it reduces the bid offer spread.

So it makes it slightly cheaper for huge financial institutions.

And it increases the profit.

But high frequency trading, they're not done here.

High frequency traders are in Green Park.

High frequency traders are in Oxford.

High frequency traders are in Cambridge.

High frequency traders are in Boston and high frequency traders are in New York.

You know those are the places where they are. They might have you know data centres

there in around those kind of properties but they're not here. They have their

higher space put us some you know really fancy you know ten thousand dollar

servers but they're not built here or anything like that here. Just to get

slight access, faster access to the London Stock Exchange.

Moving those high frequency data centres to outside,

you know, to an industrial park, would only decrease the speed

by only two or three milliseconds.

So you're going to understand what they're trying to do.

They're trying to make 10 million pounds a year extra

for extra milliseconds of money.

But that 10 million pound doesn't come here.

At the 10 million pound, nobody employed here gets that 10 million or the 20 or 100 million

dollars in employment.

That happens in those regions where they have the actual traders to do that.

What we need to do is not waste space by having, you know, data centres.

If you're going to have, you know, office space, then don't have office space, have

a lot of space, as an office space, not as data centres.

Data centres are just warehouse for goods for other people.

They're not, you know, they're necessary evil and we don't accept warehouses in Central London.

That's why Dockland doesn't exist.

We don't have food warehouses in any other, you know, in central London or anything like

that.

And also what I want to say is that data centres also waste a significant amount of electricity

and energy.

By having it in London or central London, the capacity required by electricity required

will increase, increasing the general rent, the general electricity bill of the area.

That area in this instance being the City of London, that area being the whole of London,

I think, to do that.

So there is no value at all for high -density centre at all,

and that should definitely be rejected.

And just allowing other thing is like,

so many people in the borough is struggling with housing.

So many people in the borough are struggling,

even at the medium wage, say of 35 ,000,

I think average is like 35 ,000.

They will absolutely utterly struggle

if they're not in social or affordable housing.

So if we give the community the properties they need

and they require that, actually improve the community.

We're not talking about some random place.

We're talking about the place that we,

that we got at the heart of our, you know,

ourself, our community.

We're talking about Brick Lane.

And we've seen two other really, I don't say,

quite good generation projects.

The one behind, I think, behind Orgate East Station,

or around the Lehman Street area, that is reasonably good.

I've known, I know personally several people

who got social housing there.

It's not perfect because there's definitely a divide

between the people who own social housing and not

social housing.

And there's definitely, when you walk past it,

you could see people look at them.

But at least it's a reasonable amount of social housing.

And we also have the property adjacent to a London hospital

that also has a significant, not significant,

but OK -ish amount of social housing.

And those are all supposed proper areas, land, which were derelict.

And we built on the historic land properties.

I would have loved it to be more social housing, OK, you know, due to government's legislation

it's not possible, but it's enough.

There's no reason why we can't have a reasonable replication of either the Orgetese property

or the adjacent London hospital to do that.

That will significantly increase the community,

significantly increase the number

of social housing properties,

but also importantly, it will make the area accessible.

If we make the area that currently is narrow,

it is a city area, it's not part of our community.

If we have enough people, even if you're like 25 %

living there, that's from social housing or affordable housing, then that area becomes

a part of the community.

Outside that, that areas like this just become, you know, separate from our community.

It's the opposite of sick building syndrome.

You know, people don't want to work in an ugly building and people in beautiful buildings

don't want poor people to come.

And poor people feel uncomfortable going into this area

because people look at them

and they don't want to be looked at.

They don't want to be judged for being poor.

But if we had reasonable value of socialisation,

I would say 25 % to be just part of the community,

just be a richer part of the community

that we have to do that.

And that's where I conclude.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening, guys.

Thank you so much for spending your day listening to everyone here.

I can imagine that you must be quite tired, so I just want to perk up your attention right now so you can hear me.

My name is Dr. Farhana Malik.

I'm a qualified clinical psychologist, and I am a child of Tower Hamlets, just around the corner.

and I was brought up here and I actually work here now as well.

So I was invited here to talk about why I don't think the brewery project is acceptable.

And I'm going to use my psychological knowledge around this, but also my personal experiences.

So I'll talk to themes around distress, loss of well -being among communities,

around and this is linked to heritage loss, gentrification, displacement and

community identity. So not everyone might know this but people form deep emotional

cognitive and behavioural bonds with places that hold personal or collective

meaning. Brick Lane is not just a physical location, it's a site of

cultural memory and identity, especially for the Bangladeshi and immigrant

communities who have lived, worked and built social networks there.

Redevelopment that changes its character or displaces local people disrupts this

attachment leading to grief, loss, anger or disorientation. The glass -fronted

offices and upscale retail displace small curry houses, market stalls and

cultural symbols, breaking the emotional continuity of place for long -standing

communities. Part of our self -concepts derives from the social groups we belong

to, including communities, neighbourhoods and ethnic groups. The Brick Lane

Bangladeshi community and others hold a shared identity rooted in mutual

history, struggle and belonging. Gentrification creates in -group, out -group

divides, newcomers versus locals, triggering feelings of marginalisation,

exclusion and loss of group status. When group identity is devalued, for example

when the area's image shifts from bungalow town to a creative quarter or business centre,

it can create or it can threaten collective self -esteem and social cohesion.

Locals may feel their identity as a proud working class migrant community is being erased

or commodified for tourism and profit.

Psychological well -being is deeply tied to having a sense of community, feelings of belonging,

mutual influence, integration and shared emotional connexion.

Redevelopment that prices out long -standing residents and businesses

fractures community ties, weakens local networks and erodes trust. This leads to

collective distress, reduced social capital and the feeling that the

community is no longer ours. Environmental injustice, communities with

less power experience more displacement and fewer benefits from urban projects.

So locals well -being is impacted when their social infrastructures like

community centres, affordable shops, gathering places is replaced by

commercial offices or chain stores. When a group's collective identity or memory

is violated through displacement, discrimination or cultural erasure, they

experience cultural trauma, a shared sense of loss and injustice. For the

Bangladesh community, Brick Lane symbolises migration, resilience and

belonging. Its transformation into a high -end development can feel like a

repetition of historical marginalisation discrimination. People may experience

grief, anger or cultural mourning as their environment ceases to reflect

their identity or heritage. So losing bungalow town to corporate redevelopment

may evoke feelings of dispossession similarly to colonial or class -based

exclusion. The physical environment contributes to personal and group

identity. Disruption of familiar surroundings affects mental health.

Research shows that gentrification is linked to anxiety, depression and loss of

control, especially among marginalised communities. The transformation of

culturally rich but lower income areas into higher -end commercial zones is

experienced as psychological displacement, even if residents aren't

physically moved. Even if residents remain, they may feel like strangers in

community are losing their psychological ownership in the area. And this draws to

my final theory that I'm going to bring up, Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And we

know that at the bottom of our foundational need, it's about safety,

belongingness, and when we go up the hierarchy it's our esteem. So unaffordable

rent threatens safety and stability. Cultural erasure threatens belonging. And

These lower level needs are undermined.

Self -actualization and community flourishing

become harder to achieve.

So displacement or exclusionary development

prevents local people from achieving

a sense of dignity, belonging, and security

in their own environment.

Now I'm going to talk about my experiences now.

I'm a child of child poverty in Tower Hamlets.

We know that Tower Hamlets has the highest child poverty rate.

And we can understand this in the context of social issues,

such as the high unemployment rate in Tower Hamlets,

poor housing conditions, unaffordable housing.

And I know that the project isn't going to bring

much affordable housing, sadly, which can, again,

contribute to social exclusion, low self -esteem,

lack of belonging, lack of cultural identity.

So I implore you guys to think about how this project

is going to impact the community here.

I know that we live really close to the city centre,

but a part of our community is about our heritage,

is about our history, our existence here.

And a lot of tourists do come here to see that cultural side

and we need to preserve that community here

without this project.

The other thing that I wanted to talk to you about

is the mental health of the Bangladeshi community

but the communities that have survived here for so long.

We know that within Taoharmenets in itself,

the housing crisis is a big issue and the poor housing conditions. I see that

within my clinical practise where a lot of my clients are struggling with the

housing conditions, social issues and that could be a contributing factor of

the redevelopment of gentrification. So we really need to think about how this

project is going to impact the psychology and the mental health of the

communities that reside in this borough, in this area of Tower Hamlets.

And that's where I end here.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Again, if you are able to make your speaking notes available,

I would be very grateful.

Thank you.

Hello.

Hi.

My name is Hannah Conham and I'm one of the 28 ,000 people on the

social housing wait list that the mayor and others have mentioned today.

To give some family context, my grandfather migrated here in the 60s to work in the textile

sweatshops in Brick Lane.

And my mom spent much of her childhood looking out from her window on Brick Lane, seeing

the National Front, seeing white skinheads march through the streets.

And I've lived here most of my life.

I was born here.

And as a teenager, I shared a bed

with my mom, my grandma, and my sister.

So I know what overcrowding looks and feels like.

I joined the social housing wait list in 2020.

It is 2025, and I'm no closer to accessing housing

than I was five years ago.

As Tower Hamlets Council regularly tells me,

waiting lists can extend up to 12 years.

And so I question whether this development will bring

about employment for the local community,

whether this will be aspirational for children here,

or whether it will deepen inequality,

foster resentment, feelings of humiliation and alienation,

and disempower and isolate local communities

from their neighbours.

Thank you.

Thank you again.

If you can have a word and you've got some speaking notes, it would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Perumia. I was a local councillor in Tower Hamlet for the Myland Ward between 2018 and 2022.

And also a long -term resident of the Whitechap Ward, which is just across the road from Brick Lane.

So I'm speaking today both in my capacity as a former councillor, but also a long -term resident who regularly uses amenities in the Brick Lane area.

And I'm speaking to oppose the application, mainly on the basis of community harm.

So my arguments will be based on the past, present and future, based on my personal observations

as a resident and a former Counsellor.

So I'm a third generation of my family to walk the streets of Brick Lane.

My father first came to the UK and Brick Lane in 1951 off a ship.

following the footsteps of his uncle, who was also a merchant seaman, and who in turn

was following the footsteps of his father, who was a munshi, which was a notary, a former

mobile title, but they were employed as clerks to facilitate trade between Bengal and the

United Kingdom.

This personal history illustrates the relationship between the people of Bengal, now modern -day

West Bengal, Bangladesh, Nassam, and this area.

A relationship going back almost 400 years

from the time of the East India Company.

I would recommend everyone to look up

the 18th century travel log that was published

by Ehte Shah Modin called the Wonders of Europe

of a Bengali traveller who came here

and wrote about his travels, not just in London,

and also France and Paris as well.

And this history illustrates that Biklain not being just

the port of call for Bangladeshi migrants,

but also for migrants from many communities as well.

So going back to the history of my father,

when he was here in 1951, there were no halal meat shops.

So he used to get his chicken from the live kosher meat

shop at Petticoat Lane Market.

And that illustrates all the different layers as well

of migration in the Brooklyn area,

one migrant community supporting another migrant community.

And you can see those layers not just in the personal history,

but also in the physical fabric of the area as well.

And it's not just a recent history.

It's a history going back nearly 1 ,000 years of London

and being a mediaeval city, but also a city for migrants

as well.

And we have references from the Hundred Years

War of refugees from northern France being in Cheapside,

but also the famous piece written

by William Shakespeare of the Flemish weavers of Sir Thomas

Moore having a go at rioters against the Flemish immigrant

weavers.

Now to the present and the negligent behaviour of the applicant and the community harm all

the application, not just harming the present Bangladeshi community but to this history

as well and extending to the local working class community which consists of many new

migrant communities as well.

And why do I say negligent?

I will focus on my experience as a counsellor.

First, ignorant of the facts that rents in the area,

in the Brooklyn area, are rising higher

than the London average.

And that was illustrated by the Beyond Banglatan report

by the Runnymede Trust, which was published in 2020.

And they dig in terms of the harm

that comes from the development.

Instead of, so like, having a meaningful consultation,

and I'm talking about my experience as a counsellor

from 2018 to 2022, the applicant approach to consultation was basically through words

of cash at elected members through laundered sponsorship deals, even approaching the Brooklyn

mosque with promises of words of cash.

And those are reports that were given to me.

And that just shows the attitude of the applicant, that there was no meaningful conversation.

There was an attitude that money could basically make these, money can buy this system, money

could get the application through. So before I go on to the community harm I

want to remind us all of our obligations which extend beyond planning especially

focusing on the Equalities Act and the duty that we all have here in terms of

the public sector's equality duty. Recent census, the recent census has shown that

poverty levels in the area have actually increased and let me just explain what I

poverty in the area, half of the children in tower hamlets, specifically in this area,

go, are subject to child poverty. I myself as a counsellor has witnessed this fact multiple times,

for example when a mother broke down in tears saying that she told her son that she can't buy

new trainers for him just to put food on the table. However, this poverty is alleviated through

amenities such as that can be found in the Brooklyn area from cheap fresh

fruits and vegetables at the cash and carry to cheap available freshly cooked

food for struggling families and elderly residents. I know because I used such

amenities for example I I lead a busy busy life and the Banglatan cash and

carry is basically a lifeline for me because in some day we don't have any

street market. So on Sunday that is my place to get cheap, freshly available

fruit and vegetable. And what I mean by cheap is if I compare my experience to

the Sainsbury's, Whitechapel, there's more variety available and it's

significantly cheaper, the fresh fruit and vegetables. Also the occasionally

cooked food from the cheap curry houses.

And again, I myself have been a fishery sometimes

when I come late with my wife home.

Instead of her cooking, I say, look, let me just pop down

and get a curry, et cetera.

And it is cheap in the sense that you

can get a freshly cooked curry for about five pounds.

and that just shows the level in terms of our cost of living crisis and the

poverty area how these amenities alleviate the poverty and why are they

now at threat is and because the Truman Brewery application doesn't I don't

think anybody's taken into account what we call the social value of these

amenities. For example, if we if those cheap cafes are pushed out of the area

the council itself will have to add hundred of thousand pounds to its meals

on wheels budget just to facilitate those elderly residents who'd be

deprived of freshly cooked healthy food and also not taking into account the

knock -on effect on the public health budget of basically taking away cheaply

freshly available food. Also the applicant has been negligent of the

increase to the demands of these amenities. I just want to focus on two

dates 2016 when the Brexit referendum happened and the 2020 COVID -19 pandemic.

Both of these have basically caused a labour shortage in the in in the UK

which has resulted in increased net migration and non -EU migration into the

UK. And naturally migrants have been attracted, these migrants have been

attracted to the Brooklyn area and its amenities. For material and non -material

needs, material in the sense of cheaply available food, freshly cooked, also

freshly available fruit, vegetables and other cooking essentials but also

non -materials such as the networks as well and I just want to give an example

of the networks are available just around the corner we basically I was

part of a study looking at the Whitechapel Street market and one of the

we discovered was that it was a network for refugees,

that refugees throughout London came to the market

because there were existing supporting networks there.

And essentially, the street market

acted as a social network.

And you see the same with the amenities in Brooklyn,

in the sense that there is a network there,

which is intangible, which acts as a support

network for these recently arrived migrants.

And I myself have personally witnessed the struggles faced

by these recently new migrants, both as a counsellor,

but also when I was a civil servant at the local magistrate's

court, including the youth court as well,

witnessing the barriers to public services

that they face, the lack of confidence as well

in navigating public institutions and services.

So what we're actually dealing with is basically

a section of our population which is at the bottom,

at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.

And so like, I just want to remind everyone here that the community harm that would be caused by this development would be aggravated because of the protected characteristics of these recently newly arrived migrants of the local community depend on Brooklyn and its amenities which are under threat.

And the reason why I say it's under threat,

it's not correlation, it's causation.

Because the majority of these independent businesses

which provide these social values, networks,

and amenities are not freeholders.

They actually are leaseholders.

And they don't have the luxury like Tesco

or other blue chip tenants to lock in, say,

an RPI increase to their leases.

they're subject to five -year commercial rent increases which is to market value

and what has shown, the Beyond Banglatown report has shown and projections used by

academics is that the Truman Brewery development will increase commercial

land values and rents in the area pushing these independent businesses

that provide these vital social amenities to these migrant communities

not just the existing or historic but to these recent arrivals as well and I just

wanted to highlight so like the negligent nature of the applicant

because you see all these fine words etc but I just want to highlight their

attitude towards the, for example, the Bangla Town

cash and carry, the proposed development.

There is no car park.

How can you have a cash and carry, a South Asian cash

and carry, without a car park?

What do you expect people to do?

Can they lumber up 20 kilogramme rice packs on their bikes

or something?

The cash and carry can't function

without a car park or parking.

And I'd invite everyone here to go and have a look at the cash and carry and look at the goods that are sold, the bulk goods.

That's why the food is cheap because people can buy the food in bulk.

And it's cheap to cook rice. That's the reality. It's cheap. Rice is cheap. Curries are cheap.

Cheap and and you need to buy the quantities in bulk that the onions the sacks of onions because of the quantity you get

At a cheaper price than even the things we value onions

that are

available and

That just shows a negligent attitude to the the facts on the ground that the applicant has been negligent

they haven't

consulted properly you know from from my experience as the counsellor they

literally through these sponsorship deals thought that that you know just

selected few people on board is enough and everybody is a nodding idiot

literally that they that nobody else counts and and and the demonstrated the

proof of the pudding is not just in what I'm saying about the projected harm or

but the attitude towards that cash and carry,

that it doesn't, there's no way for someone

to rock up in a car or a taxi and load up the onions,

the big oil, the bulk items that you need

to make cooking cheaper on a unit price.

So that's my presentation, sir, is that basically

the applicant has been negligent that the community harm is there,

but it's aggravated because of the protected characteristics of those affected.

And the proof in the pudding is the Bangla Town Cash and Carry.

Thank you.

Again, if you can have a word and hand over your speaking notes, that would be...

I'll type it up, sir.

It's all, yeah, I'll type it up and I'll give it to you.

If you can, if you can, liaison, that would be appreciated.

Thank you.

I know it's really late, but I guess I just want to say a few words to give context to

the fact that I am a five -year campaign member of Safe Brick

Lane.

I won't ask you to refer to any documents, but if you like,

I will quote you the numbers.

So I will mostly refer to our rebuttal evidence

of CIMA, Manchanda, CDM 18, and specifically on points 2, 0 .1,

point four about the community's own consultation efforts to raise awareness and

the everything that we have done as well to also raise awareness of the council master plan and

Also the Truman's model when it first came out

So, let me introduce myself, my name is Susanna I'm a first and foremost a resident

living very very fortunately in the oldest council estate in the whole of UK and

to the north of Brick Lane.

Since I moved here about nine years ago,

I'm actually from Singapore.

I'm a migrant contributing to the economy and the taxes.

I fell in love with the area in East End

and decided that I will campaign to save and preserve

its heritage.

I became a chair of the Boundary Tenants and Residents

Association.

It's an association consisting, representing

more than 600 homes. So for the many years, I not only have to deal with the, together

with my colleagues, to deal with the repair issues, etc., and work with the Council, I

eventually become a scrutiny member in the Tower Hamlets Council, Housing and Regeneration.

I've been in this role for the last three years. But first, I want to talk about my

role in the campaign for Safe Brick Lane. For the last five years, we really, I take

you through a bit of a chronology. We started when Truman Brewery first

established its first planning proposal to build a shopping mall in Woodseer

Street. We started really, really frantically printing leaflets, speaking

to people on the doorstep, knocking on doors, and really putting together the

first exhibition on Princes Street on Brick Lane.

It was during COVID and still remember how difficult it is,

you know, that some of us are fearful of getting the virus,

but we still get out there and knocking on doors.

So we have promoted to tell them

about the Truman Estate first proposal.

So the exhibition happened after very quickly,

we gathered together, a few of us, very few of us.

It was really a David and Goliath storey.

We organised ourselves in 2020, 19 of June, okay,

to get a leaflet together to tell people about this.

And the planning language is really out of reach

for most people, we realised, even for myself.

We had to really learn how to object

and what are the grounds of objection.

So can you imagine the educational process of ourselves

as well as to our residents,

whom some of them can't understand the language.

So we actually fortunately have Bengali people

in our campaign and we started trying

to get translation done.

And really initially funding some

of the leaflets ourselves.

And then we managed to get an exhibition together

in December on how to show the model

of Truman Estates first development on Woodseer Street.

By the way, I need as a side comment to say

that when we look at the scheme of your current application,

we need to consider the fact that you've yet

to build the Woodseer Street.

And that needs to be included, because that has also

got its scale and massing.

So the first exhibition, we could only

do it for like 7 to 14 days.

Because of COVID, we had to shut it.

And then we were basically lugging around the exhibits,

I still recall.

And then the summer came, second exhibition.

We put it back again.

It was three months.

We did 90 days, three months,

10 weekends of door knocking and conversation again.

So you might wonder how am I gonna make a living?

So I'm still employed.

I basically steal away from my employer occasionally

and do things like that.

I do it on weekends, do it at nighttime.

So door knocking and I made a lot of new friends

on Brick Lane with the butchers,

with the Cafe Grill, with Zaman Brothers.

Every day they ask me how things.

So I'm really touched with the friendship that I've made,

but it was many, many hours of my life over the five years.

So another 2 ,000 English leaflets,

2 ,000 Bengali scripted leaflets distributed

through the doors on the summer of 2021.

And fortunately amongst us,

there's Jonathan who could do a website.

I personally never ever done social media.

I had to pick up something like Twitter to learn how to tweet.

And then we had the first massive protest,

which was humongous.

If you go into our website, you look at the protest,

there were like thousands of people.

We couldn't hardly count.

We do not know where they came from.

But it was also partly we have, as you heard, other members

in our organisation that some of them, like Nijamanu,

and the other, like even individual, they managed to get a lot of traction with their

own social media channels.

So there were thousands who were there.

And then it culminated in this massive protest that we walked down from Al -Tawali, which

is a really significant place for the Bengali because of the racial, as we hear, the racial

dangers that happened in the 17s and the 80s, which led to the man being killed.

That's the park, isn't it?

Yeah, the park, the park where I think

it's near where Mike Chapel is, which you would know.

And then we marched all the way down,

and everybody started joining us and filling in.

The streets were swarmed with people.

The police came, but we were all quite peaceful,

except we were quite decorated as well.

So I do encourage everyone to look at some of the pictures.

And then second protest, very creatively,

we have people like Saif and Puroo and everyone dressed

as funeral procession.

I don't know where they borrowed the coffin from,

but we had a funeral to signify the death of Brick Lane

should the Woodseer Street be built.

And through this effort, we had 556 residents objecting

and 112 businesses objecting.

And then that's not the end, because at the end of this,

the Woodseer Street, to cut the long storey short,

had 7 ,000 objections, huge number of objections.

The previous administration, you saw Mr. Chino

who spoke earlier, he was the only one

as the chair of the committee who objected it.

It was during COVID, it was horrendous

where some of the councillors couldn't vote

and because they had COVID, they couldn't come,

they went on screen and then they were told

that they can't vote, we lost the vote three to one.

Meaning Mr. Chino voted against it as the chair,

the other two Labour councillors voted for it.

So for such a scheme, we were very, very disappointed.

There was this confusion about who can vote, who can't vote,

and this whole process went up to the Supreme Court,

as all of you know.

And when we lost it, it was another devastating blow.

And I'm not afraid to tell you how things are making us feel

because I have no... I declare I have no interest.

I'm only really loving the heritage and the area.

I do not take any briefs.

I do not flaunt my skills as a Nicholas Hogg small

or arts and craft movement.

But yes, it was devastating.

We have really ups and downs throughout the period.

And then for me, it's like I used to be in PR

when I was young in my 20s.

Now I won't say how old I am.

I had to go back to my PR skills

and learn how to generate a press release

each time when my colleague can't do it

or don't have time to do it.

So I started writing press releases.

We have no time to deal with media.

We do what we can.

So I think, in short, these 7 ,000 objections

went through.

The Woodseer Street was passed, unfortunately,

through the Supreme Court.

So that remains unbuilt today.

And then we never stopped.

So in summer 2022, there was a rich mixed music event

by Nijamanush, which led to like 400 to 500 attendees,

very young.

You hear some of them speaking.

They're looking seriously.

They are needing housing.

There was a music event.

They were all there.

It was very fun.

But we tried to raise funds in that music event, which was

attended by at least 400 people.

We had another flyer, which I can't remember how many flyers

we had to do and leaflets dropped.

And then the Trust also had to do some fundraising,

because we were relying on the trust to fund a lot of things

from their own, from the charity.

You saw Dan Crookshan and Charles.

And then we had to do some dinners to get some more money.

50 attendees, not a lot, but it's

because it's supposed to be kind of an expensive dinner, which

some of us can only serve, but we can't eat.

And then 2023, spring, summer 2023,

Tower Hamlets master plan and I have to be quite honest here. We were quite disappointed at initially at the council's lack of

Promotion of the master plan. We then went out of our way to print our own leaflets again to promote the council's master plan

We created an exhibition, you know, we actually created boards to explain the master plan

We try to engage

whenever the council then engaged MIRV,

which is a place making consultant.

And then we tried to make friends with them

and we tried to pull residents to them.

We were literally leafletting on the morning

when MIRV was standing in front of Bangla Cash and Cary.

We were there of course being consulted

and we tried to pull every one of our friends

to the master plan.

So what comes up of the master plan

is truly the community saying what we want.

And when Merv and Daisy Fromme summarised

the outputs of it and I look at it today,

it was exactly the same comments that we analysed

from our own petitions.

So,

there were eight points and I will answer them.

From the master plan, there were eight points raised.

The question was what people want for Brick Lane Central

in the future.

The number one is housing, better and more green and open spaces, safe and more attractive streets, especially for pedestrians,

support for small businesses with a thoughtful wider commercial strategy, strong agreement that smaller local businesses,

we need to seek ways to support and promote them, change that benefit existing population, more community and cultural spaces,

wider services like GPs and local shops,

appropriate development,

and there was this worry about the increasing height

and density and the concern of loss of open skies.

There were more favours shown in slightly higher buildings

if they are to provide socially

and genuinely affordable housing.

And there is this point that you have heard

from everyone today,

which is celebrating the heritage of Bangladeshi life,

preserving the storeys, the history of residents

and the businesses like an ecosystem.

So this didn't come from us,

it came from the consultant that the council commissioned

who then gathered all the feedback and led to this.

And I think, but we will claim some credit

because we literally went round to door knock

to get people out to comment on the master plan.

And then more events in June 2023 of our own

where we created a kind of a massive awareness building event in rich mix.

And then come the winter was a second stage master plan consultation

where we we did a presentation slide and we presented to the public.

So we actually tried to decipher the master plan, presented it back to the public.

And in twenty twenty four spring

master plan consultation from the council, we input as a group.

So you don't have a lot of numbers of input because we all get it together

and then just input as one group, say, Bricklane.

And then we had our own exhibition in autumn 2024,

again, of the master plan.

And John Burroughs' amazing handmade, not machine

cut, there I add, no cost to it.

Yesterday, he reminded me whether his lights are still

working.

I know he's sitting behind.

is probably I need to put some batteries on it.

So I hear the critique from this left side of the group

on his model.

It was done very quickly.

If he had a time, he would have done it differently maybe.

But it's all about housing.

If you notice, there's a little bus going around.

There are human.

There are little trees.

There's a little plane flying across.

It's all the touch of human and the community

and the needs of the community.

So we presented this as an alternative

to visually represent the needs of the community.

And this exhibition actually went on

close to Christmas from October 19th to 22nd of December.

So we were there taking turns actually

for all our weekends,

basically being at Kobe Nasru

and talking to people as they come in

or even grabbing some of them from the streets

to come in and look at the model.

And then there are more

and there's planning workshops that was done

and then we went to the TRA, Chicksend,

as you keep hearing, is the big housing estate just

behind Brick Lane.

We were invited to Chicksend.

I think Jonathan presented to the AGM.

And then a group of us went there to try and tell them.

And this is quite recent, because I kind of come back

into the towards the end of 2024.

So we attended some of the other TRAs

where we tried to raise the awareness with the residents.

And then spring 2025, another kind of quick exhibition

here at the Brady Centre because we were running out of funds.

We don't have funds to actually pay for the exhibition space.

And I still remember us cutting the exhibits, actually.

It was quite funny.

I think we were laughing along the way.

We were individually holding the boards

and moving from Kobe Nasrut to Brady Centre

just to have this exhibition.

Yeah, and then it went on and I guess other campaign members joined us and then we recently

also one of them from New Jemaah, she went to the London Festival of Architecture Workshop

and this is a very interesting one because it brings together workshop, the workshop

brings together activists and community groups and academics.

So I think each of us started doing a bit of our own thing.

We also get into the mosque to explain to them.

We also get into the summer parties

of other tenants and residents association.

And then we protest outside the town hall as well.

So if you think that we are always friends with the council

or there's anything like that, no.

We are who we are, we are campaigners.

So we do not agree with the developers,

but we also hold the council to account.

Autumn 2025, two days, we recently had a curry festival

that you heard from the mayor.

We managed to pull enough strings to get a space

because we don't have money to pay for a space.

So we got an empty shop front,

an ice cream shop just closed down,

and then he lent us the keys,

and then we started telling people about this inquiry,

about the fact that we needed to raise funds.

We actually initially was wondering whether we could even

afford to be a Rule 6 party.

Yeah, and we're still short of funds.

If anybody wants to contribute to our funds,

we're still short of paying Flora.

Flora is sitting here without being paid yet.

So yeah, so I think I just really wanted,

and there are more things happening.

Of course, there are more workshops that I haven't spoken about.

But I just want to say that we...

The few of us, we do our best, we really did our...

We try to do our best to really do a proper consultation

and to inform the residents,

because we really want them to have a voice.

We really feel this place is really special

and it's worth five years of our lives.

And I just want to say that I'm a bit disturbed on the first day

when I hear that, I wish he's here, Mr. Morris,

saying that, oh, I just took a brief, really.

I took a brief to do a data centre.

I didn't take a brief to do social housing.

Yes, it's a brief, but it's our lives.

It's five years of my life, five years of other people's life.

It's 30 to 40 years of people who are living here.

And you see the young lady just now,

she waited five years for a home.

We don't take briefs.

A brief is, we have our lives.

We're not just about a palette of architectural materials.

It means nothing to me.

It looks a bit like cookie cutter to me, really.

So I will end here, but I really just want to give the context of the struggle we went through as an individual, as a campaign group as well.

Thank you.

Is there anybody else who wants to speak?

Looks like you're last then.

That's all right.

Like I said earlier, we're nowhere near my personal best, so not an invitation though.

Carry on.

I'm Jonathan Mobley. I'm Vice Chair of the Boundary Estate Tenants and Residents Association

at the North End of Brick Lane. Also Chair of Weavers Ward, Safer Neighbourhood Panel,

Committee Member of the Shoreditch Town Centre Police Team, Safer Neighbourhood Panel. These

are all voluntary roles. As a founding member of the Sabret Lane Campaign, I have over the

and as we've just heard, spent a considerable amount of time going door to door to meet

residents on the estates surrounding the Truman Brewery site, Chicksand Estate, Spitalfields

Estate and Flower and Dean Estates in particular. I've had hundreds of conversations with residents

about their relationship with the existing Truman Brewery compound and their opinions

on upcoming development proposals. Some notable themes that emerged amongst others were a

a desperate lack of housing and overcrowded living conditions in the area,

a lack of meaningful relationship between local residents

and the existing Truman Brewery site and its functions,

and the already excessive night -time economy disturbance in the area,

with a concern that any expansion of similar activities within the brewery site

will make matters worse for nearby residents.

For now, I will just focus on the last of these three issues.

I have experience of the nighttime economy from both sides of the fence, both as a local

resident and formally as a licence holder, having run a venue in Shoreditch for ten years,

about ten years ago.

There are 65 licences to sell alcohol on Brick Lane.

Twenty -five of those are held within the Truman Brewery properties.

Of the other 40 licences, around 30 are restaurants, there are a handful of off licences and one

fairly small late night bar.

Two -thirds of the licences within the Truma brewery compound are licenced beyond 12, two

have licences to 3am.

The majority of these licences are for entertainment and leisure spaces rather than restaurants.

The cumulative impact of licences in the Brit Lane area led to the council introducing a

cumulative impact zone to their statement of licencing policy in 2014.

A map of the Tower Hamlets cumulative impact policy statement.

Now this is, we have a document on this which is in Seaman -Manchanda's proof of evidence,

CDM 16.

The map's on page 119.

The zone is centred on Brick Lane and stretches from Whitechapel High Street up to the Boundary

Estate in Shoreditch.

The policy undergoes re -evaluation every three years and was re -adopted in October 2024.

Evidence for its re -adoption was provided by police, council, community safety and environmental health officers amongst others.

You'll find a crime heat map evidence and other relevant data from page 193 of CDM 16.

This is the only cumulative impact zone in Tower Hamlets.

There was another one in Bethnal Green which was removed last October.

This in itself evidences that the area is the most problematic in the borough for licencing

and night -time economy issues.

At the top of Brick Lane at the Boundary Estate, the zone borders with the Shoreditch Special

Licencing Policy Area in Hackney.

The experience of residents on that estate, of which I'm Vice Chair of the TRA and very

familiar, demonstrates how drastically lives can be affected when levels of night -time

economy reach a level of excess. This was indeed the impetus to set up the

boundary TRA five years ago. We've had to fight up there at that end of Brick Lane

we've had to fight hard against the licence applications. We forced the

closure of one particularly problematic nightclub and are on constant alert for

new or varied licence applications attending hearings many times a year.

The Brick Lane East master plan includes this is on the east part of the site at

ground level, six cafes and restaurants, two exhibition

spaces, four retail spaces, an indoor market, a microbrewery,

and a cinema.

This is in addition to the two to three restaurants and 18

retail spaces in the yet to be built shopping mall office

development on Woodseer Street, which will

occupy the car park area.

All of these spaces are potentially licensable.

The public benefit statement submitted with the Truman

and planning applications states as one aim to develop a vibrant destination with a mix

of uses which are flexible, changing over the week and into the night time, complementing

the existing local offer. That's in document CDA 26 on page 3. Yet, in the same document,

it admits that the site's strong night time economy has been linked to increased levels

of alcohol -related antisocial behaviour.

That's on the same document, page 15.

The economic and commercial needs statement

for the planning application calls for new night -time uses

to contribute to and support the night -time economy

and to widen the offer of Brick Lane.

That's in CD18, page 12.

With 31 ,400 additional projected weekly visitors

and around 1 ,400 additional office workers,

The increase in nighttime economy uses within the development can be expected to be significant.

These numbers are in addition to the uplift in visitor and office worker numbers that are projected for the as -yet -unbuilt Woodseer Street shopping and office complex.

According to that application's transport assessment, that's expected to add between 500 and 1 ,000 additional visitors per hour during peak hours.

The already problematic issues associated with night -time uses can be expected to increase,

with a shift to the east bordering on the Chicksand and Spitalfields estates. Residents

of these estates already suffer negative effects from the existing night -time businesses, which

will inevitably get worse. Footfall is currently contained within the brewery site, with exit

on that site really only possible onto Brick Lane itself. The new proposals will see visitors

spill out onto Woodseer Street, Spital Street and Buxton Street. The gated

compound is set to open to 2 p .m. which betrays the business ambition to

increase nighttime economy activity just as it moves east. It's been argued by the

appellant that a shift of housing westward towards Brick Lane such as

proposed in the council's SPD master plan and emerging local plan site

allocation would be unacceptable due to the agent of change principle,

suggesting a shift of housing towards an existing nighttime economy area be deemed

unacceptable. By the same token,

a development response that increases and shifts nighttime economy activities

East towards existing housing states should surely be considered

inappropriate. A graduated change of view,

such as we could expect in a sensitively developed housing led mixed

development is surely a far better direction to explore in any development

brief for the site. This need not threaten existing business on the Truman

Brewery compound but would help to ensure that new commercial uses in such

a development would tilt towards benefiting local residents rather than

increasing the level of harm that the existing proposals threaten. That's all I

want to say but I'm just going to I just want to add something about because it

was raised earlier, the neighbourhood plan,

because I think it gives a flavour of where

things are going.

The Spitalfields and Banktown neighbourhood plan

was developed over many years between 2016 and 2022,

with input from 50 or more volunteers.

I was personally only involved right

at the tail end of that process.

Throughout the process, it seems there

was a concerted and ultimately successful attempt

to discredit the plan, some of which

can be attributed directly to Zalouf LLP and Truman Estates.

The response to a public consultation

on the neighbourhood plan area, this is in 2016,

resulted in 23 letters of support,

608 letters of objection, and a petitioning objection

with 654 signatories.

This is all recorded in report to the cabinet, April 2016.

I just want to read a couple of paragraphs from that report

So of the

608 representations and one petition made an objection

I think the reasons were largely to largely to do with trying to exclude the Truman site from the plan area a

A large number of representations rejected to the proposed forum were received.

Many of these representations repeated and reflected the same concerns.

The majority were made using the same format and content,

with the only differences being the individual addresses and signatures.

These representations were received as part of the submission made by Zaloof LLP.

Zaloof LLP and Truman Estates Ltd own Old Truman Brewery, as we know,

a significant site located within the proposed neighbourhood planning area.

The submission from Zalouf LLP included 608 representations and one petition in objection.

The one petition was signed by 654 separate signatures, 484 letters from a total of 288

different businesses located primarily within the landowner's site.

The content of these letters were the same, the addresses and signatures were different.

Of these, 203 letters are from market -store based businesses representing a total of 187

different businesses.

30 letters from 17 businesses located outside the landowner's site.

The contents of these letters were nevertheless the same.

32 letters from residents located outside of the landowner's site.

The contents of these letters were the same.

A total of 61 letters from Zaloof NLP and Truman Estates Ltd, owners of the Old Truman

Brewery.

Ultimately, the neighbourhood plan area was adopted.

it seems that the council officers chose to ignore that level of objection as

perhaps being just one. Subsequently in 2022 when the neighbourhood plan had

been prepared and went to local referendum for adoption there was

opposition to the plan through a business vote in which half of the 80

votes came from one address 91 Brick Lane the Truman Brewery. A very

professionally produced but bogus video surfaced,

source of funding and authorship unknown,

accusing campaigners of any ethnic background

of continuing the racist work of the National Front.

A funded electoral mailing, source of funding unknown,

to residents opposing the campaign, whose source

of funding is opaque.

With the quashing of the Brick Lane Master Plan SPD later on,

it's clear that this landowner will go to any lengths

to prevent any policy getting in the way of their ambitions,

policy which has been developed with and by the local authority

and the local community with the help of many volunteers,

such as ourselves.

That's all I've got to say.

These are treatises for notes.

Thank you very much.

I almost hesitate to do this, but is there

anyone else who wants to speak? Well thank you all that's been most

informative and thanks to both sides for bearing with me and it's an important

part of the inquiry and and it needs to be done properly and people need to be

given the proper opportunity to make the representation so I hope I've been able

to do that. I recognise that there are still some people who have yet to

address the inquiry because they couldn't be with us today and I

recognise that there have been some technical issues with people trying to

join us by a team. So if you bear with me I will I will do my best to accommodate

everybody who wants to address the inquiry however we need to do that.

There's nothing else I want to say. Mr. Harris? Just on that point sir, we have as

we promised have the translator here at all times. I don't think he or she was

needed today but we will continue to have the translation facilities here for

any public sessions as we promised. Thank you very much Mr. Harris. Ms. Curtis?

Just if helpful I've been told that in terms of other people who might want to

speak apparently Councillor Peter Goulves is able to speak tomorrow early

afternoon if that could be accommodated and next Tuesday morning I think Gabrielle

Bloomberg was unable to speak today due to the tech issues,

but can come next Tuesday morning.

And also, there are two others, Michael Ball and Stephen Watts,

who apparently can come next Tuesday morning as well.

That's helpful.

And yeah, I certainly will do everything

I can to accommodate everybody.

I don't want to leave any stone left unturned in that respect.

That's important.

Is there anything else we have to deal with tonight other than when we start tomorrow morning?

Right, we're going to start with Mr. Dunn's reexamination. I take it Mr. Harris.

We're at half past seven. I'm tempted to say, I'm very tempted to say ten o 'clock

because I think all of us will need some recovery time.

What I might do is sit a bit later tomorrow night if need be to make up for it.

Maybe we could, I don't know, it's really important that we make as much headway as we can.

Maybe we could have a truncated lunch, three quarters of an hour?

I could do that, I think.

And yeah, if we need to sit a bit later to recover a little bit of time, but yes, 10 o 'clock tomorrow morning everyone.

Thank you.

We best tell the witness who thought it was 9 .30.

Yes, you better give her an extra half an hour to recover.

Ten o 'clock tomorrow morning everyone and thanks again.

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Truman's Public Inquiry PM - Tuesday 21 October 2025, 2:00pm - Tower Hamlets Council webcasts

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Truman's Public Inquiry PM
Tuesday, 21st October 2025 at 2:00pm