800 new homes in Olympic legacy

How the neighbourhoods could look like once completed. pic: Legacy Company

800 new homes were promised to Tower Hamlets after the Olympic Park Legacy Company submitted a planning application for a regeneration project.

The application for the Legacy Communities Scheme seeks permission for a long-term development to cover five new neighbourhoods in the future Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. They would be built during the next 20 years.

Known popularly as Fish Island, the new Tower Hamlets neighbourhood will be named Sweetwater, in relation to the former sweet factories, which occupied the site in the 20th century.

This follows the ‘Your Park, Your Place’ competition earlier this year which allowed the public to help decide the names of the new neighbourhoods. The other four neighbourhoods have been named Chobham Manor, East Wick, Marshgate Wharf and Pudding Mill Lane.

The five new neighbourhoods will be opened to the public from 2013 and families will be able to move into the homes starting 2015.

Facilities in the new Tower Hamlets neighbourhood will include a library, a three-form entry primary school, a Primary Care Centre as well as retail outlets and food shops.

Chief Executive of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, Andrew Altman, said: “This planning application represents a significant moment in making the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park a reality. This time last year we outlined our vision for the Park, today we are mobilising to make it happen”.

The Legacy Communities Scheme, which will be covering around 130,000 square meters of employment space. The scheme is said to provide at least 8,000 jobs by 2031, many of them in Tower Hamlets.

Altman said: “As one of the most important housing developments in London’s history, these five neighbourhoods will stitch together the surrounding communities of a formerly isolated area through new homes, schools, shops, parks, infrastructure and jobs.”

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “This is an important step towards turning the vision for the development of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park into a reality that will revolutionise the face of East London and deliver a lasting legacy for the capital. Creating a fantastic new community in which thousands of people can live and work, it will be the most important regeneration project that the city has seen in 25 years.”

The Planning Decision Team at the Olympic Delivery Authority has launched a consultation on the application where Tower Hamlets residents will have an opportunity to have a say on the proposals. The consultation is running until November 14th at Idea Store Bow, Gladstone Place, Roman Road and the application is to be determined by summer 2012.

 

Leave a Reply