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Join the Stokey Local Bug Parade Sat 27 July 12:30pm

We will be staging a ‘bug parade’ on Saturday 27 July. Please give some thought to your costume, but most importantly please make sure you attend, and bring people with you, we need to show that there is an ever growing community opposition to this proposal. This is not a ‘protest march’, it is a ‘bug parade’ – a fun way to show how we feel and to galvanise support while celebrating the uniqueness of Stokey (which after all is what we are trying to preserve). For more details of this and Abney Park’s costume making fun day on 20 July read here.

Date for your diary: The next showdown Wed 31 July 6:30pm

We expect the revised application (see below) to be put to Councillors at a meeting on Wed 31 July 2013 6:30pm, Hackney Town Hall, Mare St. We need you to come along to show your support. It was immensely helpful when 175 people turned up at the last meeting in April. Make a note in your diary and we’ll confirm the week before.

Newmark Properties submit revised application – May 2013

On 8 May 2013, Newmark Properties wrote to neighbours of the Wilmer Place site to tell them a revised planning application has been submitted which they feel addresses the three reasons for refusal of the previous scheme. The changes proposed are modest and our previous objections still apply. A whole new consultation period began, and formally ended on Wednesday 19 June but comments are accepted up until the Committee meeting (probably 31 July). So if you still feel this development is not right for Wilmer Place, it’s important that you write again and ask your friends and neighbours to consider doing the same. For more information on the latest application, click here. For Stokey Local’s response to the application, click here.

Sign the latest petition

We’ve launched a petition against the Summer 2013 planning application. It’s important that you write to the planners directly, but once you’ve done that, sign the petition too as we must demonstrate the community is not convinced by the minor changes to the application that was refused in the spring.

The history of the Wilmer Place Sainsbury’s proposals

Mid June 2011 it was announced that a development was being planned for Wilmer Place, just beside Abney Park Cemetery on the corner of Church Street and the High Street – right in the heart of Stoke Newington. The original application for the proposed development comprised a large Sainsbury’s supermarket of 16,000 square feet (about the same size as the one on Stamford Hill) and 68 flats.

29 May 2012: After public outcry about the proposal the developers revised their plans, scaling back the supermarket to around 44,000 sq ft, removing the underground car park, and reducing the housing to 54 units. They held a second public exhibition on a Tuesday afternoon, on site.

13 July 2012: The applicant delivered their first formal application to the Council which incorporated their revisions. but it still loomed large over Abney Park and threatened it’s ecology. The smaller store would still be a threat to the character of the independent retail in the Conservation Area and would present logistic and strategic challenges to the area.

February 2013: The Council wanted changes to the scheme and sought revisions. A revised planning application which removed a floor from the upper residential part of the development was submitted in February 2013 and a new consultation period opened.

3rd April 2013: 175 Stokey Local supporters packed Hackney’s Council Chamber to observe the council’s Planning Committee. The committee heard the planning officer’s report and arguments against and for the development and, after nearly two hours, rejected the application by 4 votes to 2.

Wide community support

Our campaign has massive local support,from across the political spectrum and from local amenity and user groups. Hackney Labour councillors spoke against plans at the first committee meeting, and both the Greens and Lib Dems actively support the campaign. Stokey Local has the support of a number of local experts and organizations, many of which came together to support each other’s submissions and expert evidence. These include Abney Park TrustHackney Unites, Hackney Planning Watch, Sustainable Hackney, Stoke Newington and Clapton Conservation Areas Advisory Committees (CAACs), The Hackney Society, Abney Park Users’ Group

Existing Supermarkets & Grocery Shops in the Area

This proposal comes as an addition to a raft of existing supermarkets in the area, including the Sainsbury’s Local and Tesco Express on the High Street, the Morrison’s and Sainsbury’s on Stamford Hill (both of which are similar in size to the proposed Sainsbury’s), as well as a Tesco Express and large Sainsbury’s down towards Dalston.

In short the area is already well stocked with supermarkets, but more importantly there is also a large number of small, independent shops which supply an amazing range of high quality, fresh food and which have to compete against these existing supermarkets in a very challenging economic climate.

We encourage everyone to support these independents as much as possible and explore the interesting foods that they have to offer. We have created a map of existing shops which shows the diversity of grocery shops which we have in the local area, many of which would be adversely affeted by the new supermarket.

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