Next victim Battersea Power Station: the cranes

The new owners want to remove the listed cranes in front of the Power Station in order to use the jetty for the removal of spoil from tunnelling the Northern Line Extension ( NLE ). While it might be necessary to dismantle the cranes in order to restore there is no need to tie the timetable to the NLE works. The NLE will take years to complete even if it happens. Like the Euston Arch there is a real danger once removed they will never be put back. There is half a mile of river front where a more suitable purpose built jetty could be situated. It looks like yet another ploy to slowly clear the site of any historic or heritage obstacles to maximising profits- see demolition by stealth.

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Coal was usually brought to the Battersea Power Station by collier ships, and unloaded by cranes, which are still intact on the station’s riverfront. These two cranes were used to unload coal from barges for Battersea Power Station, and despite 25 years of disuse are in remarkably complete condition. But obviously the owners of the Battersea Power Station don’t care much about that. They’ve already got permission to take the cranes down.

The jetty facilities used two cranes to offload coal, with the capacity of unloading two ships at one time, at a rate of 480 tonnes an hour. Coal was also delivered by rail to the east of the station using the Brighton Main Line which passes near the site. Coal was usually delivered to the jetty, rather than by rail. A conveyor belt system was then used to take coal to the coal storage area or directly to the station’s boiler rooms. The conveyor belt system consisted of a series of bridges connected by towers. The coal storage area was a large concrete box capable of holding 75,000 tonnes of coal. This had an overhead gantry with a conveyor belt attached to the conveyor belt system, for taking coal from the coal store to the boiler rooms

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Now, the cranes will be facing demolishing. Even though they’re part of the listed Battersea Power Station and mentioned in the listing description:

”Subsidiary features: To the N on a jetty parallel to the river wall there are two cranes which were used to unload coal from collier boats. While of lesser significance, they were integral parts of the original complex and are now rare riverside features.”

The cranes complement the Battersea Power Station and help to explain its purpose and function. Other industrial archeology has already been lost, notably the travelling coal conveyor (dismantled by Parkview in 1995) and the raking conveyors into the building.

They should receive extra protection given these other losses.

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Licence to Chelsea Bridge Coffee Stall to be revoked?

Wandsworth Council are considering revoking the licence to the 70 year old Chelsea Bridge Tea Stall. Poor owner Vito is on the edge of losing his beloved shop. Watch our 2009 interview with Vito about his stall here. Another attempt to please the rich?

Chelsea Bridge Coffee Stall adjacent Chelsea Bridge, Queenstown Road, London

Chelsea Bridge Coffee Stall adjacent Chelsea Bridge, Queenstown Road, London

The ‘high class’ salesmen seem to look down on the simple and tasty snacks and warming drinks Vito is selling. Before we know it, we will find this stand being replaced by a Michelin star finger food stall.

Susan Ekins, a regular visitor who is fond of the Tea Stand, says:

As you may know, this stand has been there for at least 70 years, and is much appreciated. The residents of the new blocks did not like the biker gatherings, and as I understand it, these have, in general, being closed down and parking kept away from close proximity to the stand. I use that bridge at all hours, but have never noticed any litter or noise – which is not to say that it has not happened.

The application for review has been handed in on the 9th of January 2014. It has been made on the following grounds, according to Wandsworth Council:

”The current conditions on the licence have failed to uphold the licensing objectives of the prevention of public nuisance and the prevention of crime and disorder in the premises is giving rise to unacceptable levels of noise, litter and general anti-social behaviour.”

 

Chelsea Bridge Coffee Stall adjacent Chelsea Bridge, Queenstown Road, London

Chelsea Bridge Coffee Stall adjacent Chelsea Bridge, Queenstown Road, London

Surely the council is not just cooking up excuses to continue to socially cleanse the area around the so called Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea “Opportunity” Area. Seems one person’s opportunity is another’s loss of livelihood.

Find here another objection, from Keith Garner, architect and member of the Battersea Power Station Community Group.

Dear Sirs,

Chelsea Bridge Coffee Stall adjacent Chelsea Bridge, Queenstown Road, London, SW8 2R

I am writing to support the retention and renewal of the licence for the the Chelsea Bridge coffee stall which is a useful local facility for residents and people working in the area, as well as a local landmark and institution in its own right.

I have lived close to Battersea Park for 28 years. As a local resident I know of no grounds for revoking or otherwise refusing to renew or extend the licence. In my experience, the customers of the stall have always been well behaved.  This is not to say that there might not be occasional lapses.  But is it important in an urban situation that everyone goes that little bit further to be tolerant and understanding.

The stall has been there for as long as I can remember.  I went there when the old “Chelsea Cruise” used to happen on Saturday evenings in the seventies and eighties. It certainly pre-dates the riverside flats by many decades.  The owners of the flats would have been aware of the stall before the moved in, and had the option to go elsewhere.  In any case the flats are some distance from the kiosk which is on the bridge itself.

The management of the riverside flats are being too sensitive. I know from my own recent experience that it is not even possible to stop and look at the view from the riverside walk at night time, without their security guards coming out.  The loss of the kiosk would further contribute to the loss of life and vitality on the riverside that these recent luxury flats represent.

The coffee stall makes Battersea more interesting.  It should be retained and valued.

Yours faithfully,

Keith Garner

Hopefully the objections will be taken seriously. All we can do now is wait for a final decision.

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Congress is about to pull funding on the £600m US embassy

We just received more evidence to support the flawed nature of the BPS scheme. The US Congress is withdrawing the money for developing the US embassy, according to a detail contained in the latest bipartisan budget deal. And even more good news: the decision could also affect Boris Johnson’s plan for the Northern Line Extension. As reported on the Financial Times and Buzzfeed. This will seriously affect the Nine Elms Battersea opportunity area.

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The enormous glass cube which was about to become the US embassy is currently being built on the south side of the Thames in central London. It was seen as key to spurring the redevelopment of the Nine Elms area of the capital and led to talk of a new “embassy quarter”, with the Netherlands and China also considering plans to move their diplomatic missions to the same area. Transport for London documents state that the “first major contributor” to the enterprise zone “is expected to be the US Embassy”.

Together with the news that the development officer at the Battersea Power Station Development Company is leaving the project in May. Looks like Peak Power Station has been reached and is already downsizing.

Alistair Shaw, who joined the Battersea development team in February 2013, handed his notice in before Christmas and will leave in May to pursue other development interests in the West End and central London. Shaw previously worked as the head of retail development at Stanhope on projects including Hereford town centre, which is due for completion later this year.

A revised planning application for Battersea Power Station has been submitted and will be heard in April, while a reserved matters planning application for the high street element of the scheme is expected to be submitted in April.

Seems like some positive changes are finally happening.

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Marketing carbuncle on Battersea Power Station

The new Battersea Power Station owners, like all the previous “flippers”, has barely spent a penny on taking care of the Grade II* listed building, which is in such a perilous state it is now listed as an endangered world monument, while gushing out PR about “restoration“.

What they have spent money on is clearing the site of any inconvenient obstacles to untrammeled profitable development – getting planning permission to demolish the listed Victorian Pump House, finding an excuse to remove and mothball the listed cranes, getting the gas holders a certificate of immunity from listing and removed.

They also like to spend money on themselves and their target customers- the rich foreign investor. So while the building rots and the cranes rust away the owners have put in a planning permission application to erect a “temporary” but very expensive and intrusive marketing suite on the corner of the roof of annex B- a decision will be made in January 2014.

Happily from this position prospective buyers will not able to see the adjacent Cringle Street waste transfer station. As we mentioned in a previous blog the Western Riverside Waste Authority’s second transfer station, Cringle Dock is situated next to Battersea Power Station and is capable handling over 5,000 tonnes of smelly refuse every week- all brought in by lorry.

Find below the planning application to erect a temporary marketing suite.

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Planning Application erect temp.-2597010

File created with CoreGraphics

Planning Application Lift -2597010

In the BPS Newsletter 13 – 12 the owners describe their planning applications as:

”In November 2013 a planning application was submitted to Wandsworth Council to erect a temporary marketing suite on the north-eastern corner of the roof of Annexe B of the Power Station. We expect a decision in January 2014 and hope to erect the structure soon after.”

So, there is plenty to object to the Battersea Power Station planning Applications

You can register your objections on-line now

Details of the planning applications can be found on the Planning pages of Wandsworth Council’s website by searching the applications database using reference numbers below or follow our links:

Ref: 2013/5757  Alter or Extend a Listed Building

Click here to object/comment on 5757

Ref: 2013/5690   Application for Full Permission

Click here to object/comment on 5690

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Business model of Battersea Power Station flawed

The business model of the development of the Battersea Power Station is flawed. It only needs a slight shift in interest rates or property taxes, or for the value of the pound to rise relative to Asian currencies for the foreign investor led property market boom to collapse according to Bloomberg.

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It is this flawed and precarious property bubble that Transport for London (TfL) is sinking billions of pounds of public money to prop up.

At the recent public inquiry into the Northern Line Extension the response from the representatives of TfL to the many compelling arguments against the scheme made in Battersea Power Station Community Group’s objection was to insist the NLE was not aimed at solving local transport infrastructure issues but to enhance property values in the so called Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area.

In this time of austerity can this really be a good use of public money? It is also probably one of the most useless, unwanted and extravagant public infrastructure projects ever proposed.

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London’s status as a magnet for foreign property investment was burnished in the years after the financial crisis by an investor-friendly tax regime and the falling value of the pound. That may be changing.

A new capital-gains tax on homes sold by people living abroad and a growing British economy that’s lifting the currency may dull the capital city’s appeal to property buyers from abroad. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced the new capital-gains tax in a statement to Parliament on Dec. 5. It will apply to “future gains” after the tax goes into effect in April 2015, he said without specifying the size of the levy. Capital-gains tax rates for second homes of U.K. residents currently range from 18 percent to 28 percent. Labour Party leader Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg, head of the Liberal Democrats, which govern in a coalition with Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party, support an annual levy on houses valued at more than 2 million pounds known as the mansion tax. Cameron opposes the idea.

Other than that, South Asian buyers account for two-thirds of new London homes sold before completion, according to Land Securities Group Plc, the largest U.K. real estate investment trust. The high-end market is dependent on pre-sales to overseas buyers to help get development finance and deal with rising land costs, Michael Lister, a lecturer at University of Westminster, said in a Nov. 22 interview. Singapore and Hong Kong, two destinations also favored by south Asian buyers, have introduced measures to cool property prices and curb speculation. Singapore linked borrowers’ maximum debt levels to their incomes and raised transaction and capital-gains taxes. Hong Kong has increased minimum down payments six times in fewer than three years and in February doubled stamp-duty taxes for all properties over HK$2 million ($258,000).

To end with, the pound plummeted against a basket of major currencies after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., making London homes a relative bargain for wealthy investors and buyers from emerging Asian economies. The Singapore dollar gained 60 percent against the pound from September 2007 to June this year and the Malaysian ringgit climbed by 50 percent. Since then, the pound has risen 6.8 percent and 12 percent respectively against the Asian currencies.

Farmer of EC Harris said:

“One of the key drivers around demand in that market, particularly from the Far East, has been the relative weakness of sterling over the last three or four years,”“The improving economy is good for U.K. Plc but it might make residential investment slightly less competitive or good value in the eyes of the international community.”

View the full article.

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Waar gaat het geld heen?

Het Battersea Power Station in Londen is een iconisch en geliefd gebouw gelegen langs de Thames. Door de ligging, afmetingen en vormgeving is het een (‘beschermd’) monument geworden,  Ook pronkte de voormalige kolencentrale op de cover van een Pink Floyd album. Helaas is het Battersea Power Station in de verkeerde handen gevallen. 1 van de eigenaren is palmoliebedrijf Sime Darby.
Dankzij het rapport Sime Darby and land grabs in Liberia June 2013, gepubliceerd door Friends of the Earth, kwam er niet alleen naar voren dat de in Maleisië gevestigde multinational conglomoraat Sime Darby verschillende wetten en mensenrechten zwaar schendt en het milieu verpest (zie de uitgebreide blog hierover en klik hier voor al onze blogs gerelateerd aan Sime Darby), maar ook dat veel pensioenfondsen en banken hier rustig aan mee werken, en hierdoor indirect jij ook. Hieronder een opsomming van de slinkse pensioenfondsen en banken die je beter kunt vermijden, indien mogelijk. Van bank en/of verzekeraar switchen na het lezen ervan lijkt een weloverwogen besluit. Het ergste van alles is nog dat de banken en pensioenfondsen het tegenovergestelde blijken te zijn van wat ze zeggen.

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Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn (PfZW) zegt alleen te investeren in bedrijven die rekening houden met milieubewuste, sociale en bestuursfactoren. Maar helaas blijkt het tegendeel waar. Ook zegt PfZW, na contact te hebben gehad met Friends of the Earth, zich zorgen te maken over de daden van Sime Darby. Ondertussen hebben ze aandelen in het bedrijf ter waarde van 25 miljoen euro. Pensioenfonds ABP (Algemeen Burgerlijk Pensioenfonds) is gebasseerd op de ‘OECD richtlijnen voor multinationale ondernemingen‘. Het startpunt is dat alle bedrijven waar ABP in investeert de principes, zoals beschreven door de UN Global Compact, zouden moeten respecteren. ABP heeft the Friends of the Earth laten weten dat ze in gesprek zijn met Sime Darby over de benadering en toepassing van duurzaamheid. Maar, ook ABP heeft aandelen in Sime Darby ter waarde van 13 miljoen euro.

Dan nu 1 van Nederlands meest populaire banken: ING. ING heeft een specifiek sociaal- en milieubeleid op bedrijven die actief zijn in de sector bosbouw en landbouwgrondstoffen vastgesteld. ING verlangt dat bedrijven onder andere kunnen aantonen dat zij sociale wetten en milieuwetten, -regels en vergunningsvereisten naleven. Maar, ondanks meerdere pogingen van Friends of the Earth om ING hierover te spreken, werden deze verzoeken genegeerd. ING is een obligatiehouder van Sime Darby met een totale waarde van 1 miljoen.

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Het volgende ANP bericht brengt dezelfde informatie naar voren over het gebrek aan transparantie van de Nederlandse banken:

DEN HAAG (ANP) – Grote Nederlandse banken als ABN
Amro, ING, Rabobank en SNS zijn nog steeds niet transparant over hun investeringen. Ook geven ze nog te weinig openheid over hun eigendomsstructuur en dochterondernemingen, over in welke landen ze belasting betalen en hun lobbyactiviteiten richting overheden. Dat staat in een donderdag gepubliceerd onderzoek van de Eerlijke Bankwijzer, een initiatief van onder meer Oxfam Novib, FNV, Amnesty International en de Dierenbescherming.

,,Als klant bij deze banken heb je geen idee waar je bankin investeert en waar je spaargeld precies aan wordt besteed”, zegt Peter Bras, projectleider van de Eerlijke Bankwijzer. ,,Vooral de grote banken missen nog steeds het gevoel van urgentie om voldoende openheid te geven over hun investeringen en over de impact van hun beleid in de praktijk. Deze openheid is juist dringend nodig om het vertrouwen van klanten terug te winnen en om bij te dragen aan het verduurzamen van de economie.”
Kleinere spelers als ASN Bank, NIBC, Triodos en Van Lanschot geven volgens Bras veel beter aan in welke bedrijven en projecten zij investeren.

 

Ook bleek uit het onderzoek van Milieudefensie en Friends of the Earth dat de Rabobank miljoenen euro’s spaargeld van Nederlande burgers in palmoliebedrijf Bumitama investeert, dat zich op het Indonesische Borneo schuldig maakt aan landroof, ontbossing en overtreding van nationale wetten en internationale richtlijnen. Ook ING, ABN AMRO en de pensioenfondsen ABP en PFZW zijn -zij het indirect- betrokken bij de illegale praktijken.
Voor het rapport is veldonderzoek gedaan op Kalimantan en zijn de investeringen van financiële instellingen in de betrokken palmoliebedrijven onderzocht . De Rabobank heeft 47 miljoen euro aan leningen uitstaan bij Bumitama. PFZW, ABP, ING en ABN AMRO hebben voor vele miljoenen aan leningen uitstaan bij en/of aandelen en obligaties in de palmoliebedrijven IOI en Wilmar International, die op hun beurt grootafnemer of aandeelhouder zijn van Bumitama. De toenemende Europese vraag naar palmolie, dat vooral voor biobrandstof wordt gebruikt, is een van de oorzaken van het groeiende areaal aan palmolieplantages, waar vaak landroofschandalen en illegale ontbossing voorkomen.

Ook de Nederlandse overheid speelt een rol in het ‘boefje spelen met het geld van de bevolking’ door investeringen in dit soort schadelijke praktijken te reguleren. Minister Ploumen zei daarover in een kamerbrief van 11 juni dat ze er aan wil bijdragen dat ‘Nederlandse bedrijven en financiële instellingen een positieve gidsrol gaan vervullen bij het tegengaan van landroof’. Milieudefensie zal kritisch volgen hoe de minister dit voornemen invult en vormgeeft.

Dus aan welke bank kunnen we ons geld nu nog toevertrouwen? Bij welke bank dragen we niet bij aan de schending van mensenrechten en/of milieuvervuiling? Gelukkig is er nog hoop. Hier een rijtje van de good and bad ones, volgens een meting van de Eerlijke Verzekeringswijzer.

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Verander hier van verzekeraar of laat je ontevredenheid horen.

Zie de blog homepage voor meer blogs (in het Engels) over urbanisme, mensenrechten en sociale rechtvaardigheid.

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Zie onze Battersea Power Station project pagina’s voor meer informatie en video’s
Of bezoek PlanA , onze algemene blog over urbanisme, planning en architectuur

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Who are Battersea Power Station co-owners Sime Darby?

Producing palm oil is already a bad thing on its own (see our previous blog ), but Malaysia-based multinational conglomerate Sime Darby (a.k.a co-owner of the Battersea Power Station) also violates numerous contracts and even acts in an illegal way, according to Friends of the Earth.

Continue reading for a summary on Darby’s careless actions, all based on reports by Friends of the Earth, which are attached at the bottom of this article.

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The multinational conglomerate is developing palm oil plantations in Liberia, swallowing up farmlands and forests used by local communities to sustain their livelihoods. The contracts for land concessions signed by Sime Darby and the Liberian government violate several Liberian laws and regulations as exposed by a government agency report released a few months ago. They also violate several human rights principles in conventions ratified by the Liberian government as well as principles enshrined in Liberian Law.

Sime Darby’s plantations in the Ketapang district in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, are unlikely to achieve RSPO certification in the near future. The company has allegedly illegally deforested protected forest at Ketapang and is producing palm oil on this land. Sime Darby’s 100 – per – cent owned subsidiary PT BAL has cleared 2,600 ha of concessions that overlap with Protected Forest. This is what a Forestry Department team discovered in 2003.  Another wholly-owned subsidiary, called PT SNP, has a 1300 ha concession that overlaps protected forest. Parts of this have again been cleared and planted without permission. Indonesia was one of their victims as well. More than 2 million hectares of forest, including protected forest and conservation areas, have been illegally converted to palm oil plantations.

The Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI) has found that contract award process between Sime Darby and the Liberian government did not comply with local land laws, failed to conduct public consultations or produce due diligence reports as required by Liberian rules.

To sum up some of Sime Darby’s deeds, which highly affect the local communities in Liberia:

– No compensation has been paid to communities for land taken over by the company
– Forest areas used for various cultural practices had also been destroyed and planted with oil palm
-Sime Darby operations could lead to a loss of biodiversity, particularly the Upper Guinean Forest Ecosystem, which includes globally endangered and vulnerable bird species
-There could be land clearance of substantial areas of closed forest (more than 40 per cent tree cover) resulting in reductions in carbon storage and sequestration capacity
– There are risks of loss of livelihoods, food insecurity and the potential for chronic poverty
– Increased risk of conflict and rural to urban migration
– Increase in gender inequalities

According to Sime Darby’s own High Conservation Value Assessment report, one of the concession areas (Garwula District, Grand Cape Mount County) is comprised of
wetlands, agricultural lands, and mainly intact natural forested areas. This area houses a variety of animal species including Water Chevrotain and African Buffalo, both of which are protected under Liberian laws. Various species of forest and lowland birds, as well as reptiles including crocodiles are found in the area as well. Another concession area (Bopolu District,Gbarpolu County) also has significant forest cover.

To give you a list of violated Liberian regulations:

-By having no protection for communities’ rights in respect of customary land and natural resources;
-By not guaranteeing the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC);
-By allowing involuntary resettlement of communities if they are deemed to impede the companies’ activities;
-By allowing the degradation of food security by not mandating that the company find alternative nutrition sources for community members who lose farmland to the plantations.

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As if Sime Darby has not caused enough harm already, local communities accuse them of violating their human rights as well, in a way of:

-Providing inadequate information about the concession areas;
-Not providing communities copies of the concession agreement;
-Giving little or no time to consider their response;
-Providing inadequate or no compensation;
-Not giving communities the opportunity to say ‘no’.

After these findings, the Friends of the Earth have given Sime Darby the following demands:

– The concession agreements or contracts must be renegotiated in order to enshrine the responsibility to conduct FPIC negotiations, to invalidate the resettlement clause, and acknowledge customary community land rights regarding the concession land;
– Only after the communities have given their free, prior and informed consent can the company operate on their land;
– Communities should not be displaced against their will by the activities of Sime Darby;
– All community members should benefit from the plantations and the benefits shall be laid out clearly to the communities before they enter into any agreement;
– Employment rights must be respected;
– Compensation rates must be agreed with the communities before entering into any contractual agreement;
– No further deforestation and other environmental degradation should take place by Sime Darby in any of the concession areas.

But the following terrifying quote from Sime Darby Plantation managing director Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamidi shows that they’re not taking these demands very seriously:

”Later on, when the opportunity arises, we may open estates in Brazil or in any South American country near the equator where oil palm grows well.”

Sime Darby’s expansion into Liberia is part of the company’s ambition to reach 1 million hectares of plantation land in the next five years. This would very nearly double its current palm oil plantations area and would inevitably involve large scale deforestation to create new land. But unfortunately, it is not alone. IOI and Cargill, are also expanding their operations into new land including forest. Let’s hope these ’’opportunities’’ won’t arise at all.

The most incredible part of the story is that European banks, pension funds and private equity funds have given out loans to Sime Darby with a total value of 280 million
euro and assisted with issuing new bonds with a total value of 250 million euro. The company is highly supported in their destruction, so it seems.

Furthermore, the largest European shareholders of Sime Darby are the Norwegian Government Pension Fund – Global, the British asset manager Schroder Investment Management, the Dutch pension fund Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn (PfZW) and the German Deutsche Bank. Deutsche Bank is also the largest European bondholder together with AXA Group (France). HSBC and Standard Chartered (both from the United Kingdom) are the only European financial institutions that have assisted Sime Darby to issue new bonds.

To conclude with, EU biofuels targets are driving deforestation of tropical rainforests as Sime Darby’s operations in Indonesia and Liberia reveal. They will continue to expand elsewhere to meet the extra demand for palm oil, therefore causing indirect greenhouse gas emissions. The EU must account for the emissions caused by the new demand stemming from its targets.

See the full PDF’s on this, reports by Friends of the Earth.
Palm_oil_driving_deforestation_Aug_2010 Sime_Darby_and_land_grabs_in_Liberia_June_2013

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Oberhausen ‘Gasometer’ as an example for alternative use of Battersea gasholder

Battersea’s ‘listed’ gasholders are being demolished to make way for new homes, shops and business space. Wandsworth council approved the demolition of this and three other adjacent gasholders in Battersea in January 2013, as part of the regeneration of Nine Elms.

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The Evening Standard reported the following on this:

”Objectors say that alternative uses for the site should be examined. Architect Keith Garner says: “In the German city of Oberhausen, there is a gasholder with the same features and it has been transformed into a museum and a centre for art.”

The Gasometer in Oberhausen, Germany, is a former gas holder which has been converted into an exhibition space. It has hosted several large scale exhibitions, including two by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The Gasometer is an industrial landmark, and an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage and the Industrial Heritage Trail.

In 1992 the city council of Oberhausen, with a margin of 1 vote decided to acquire the gasholder, gasometer in German, and convert it to an exhibition space. At the time, plans were being developed for building CentrO on an adjacent plot, and IBA Emscher Park planned to use the Gasometer for its exhibition. Ownership transferred to the city of Oberhausen, with Ruhrkohle AG paying 1.8 million DM in saved demolition costs to the city.

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Hopefully the owners of the Battersea site will reconsider the usage of the gasholders for a similar purpose. Unfortunately, work (on the Prince of Wales Drive) has already began on tearing the disused holders down and they are planned to be gone by the end of 2014.  The owners have planning permission to demolish the listed Victorian Pump House at any time.

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For more on Christo and Jeanne-Claude. visit Artsy Christo page

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Opponents of the Northern Line Extension, and why they’re right

At the start of this year, January 28, there was already opposition against the extension of the Northern Line. Liberal Democrats in Lambeth have suggested a Docklands-style light rail or monorail link between Waterloo, Vauxhall and Battersea as an alternative. Local campaigners also question the transport benefits of adding an extra branch to an already complicated and overcrowded rail route like the Northern line.

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“The only way to relieve the existing crush let alone cope with the massive influx of fresh commuters being generated by the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea new town is by a completely separate system,” say the Lambeth Liberal Democrats in an unsigned comment piece published on the party website.”

”We’ve suggested it before and we’ll say it again, there needs to be a thorough appraisal of a light rail elevated transport system like the Docklands Light Railway.”

”Common sense suggests that this would be massively cheaper than a deep-bored tube line and it could even be a 21st-century monorail system rather than the slightly Trumpton-esque DLR.”

”It could also run all the way to Waterloo – maybe attached to the existing railway viaduct – and later linked to the DLR. After all there’s massive regeneration going on south of the river all the way from Wandsworth to Southwark.”

See the full article.

More recently, the Guardian reported about the concerns of Battersea Dogs & Cats Home:

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home is demanding Transport for London (TfL) reconsiders plans for the Northern line extension over fears it will force its animals to be relocated.

The rescue home, in Battersea Park Road, Battersea, is within touching distance of a new station planned to open at Battersea Power Station.

Chiefs at the charity have said the welfare of the animals could be affected during construction, while the extension would mean the rescue home could not expand in the future.

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The Evening Standard reports that the rescue home has joined the Beefeater Gin distillery in nearby Kennington, to write to the Transport Secretary opposing being made to sell large swaths of property. It would have to vacate 70 per cent of its site on a 14-day notice, it says, under legislation proposed by TfL.

In the letter to Patrick McLoughlin, seen by property website CoStar News, home chief executive Claire Horton calls TfL’s sweeping powers “excessive”, adding that the transport body “has insufficient understanding of the complexity and sophistication of the facilities at our building”.

Chivas Brothers, operators from the Beefeater distillery, has also written objecting to TfL’s plans to compulsorily purchase land for a ventilation shaft. The company says dangers posed by the construction would prevent it operating on the site.

Enough reasons to reconsider the Northen Line Extension, so it seems.

Michèle Dix, managing director of planning for TfL, said: “We are working through a Transport and Works Act Order process and are not expecting a decision on the Northern line extension from the Government until summer 2014.

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Public inquiry into proposed Northern Line Extension to Nine Elms and Battersea

Transport for London (TFL) is proposing to extend the Northern line (Charing Cross branch) to Battersea, via a new station at Nine Elms, as part of wider plans to regenerate the Vauxhall, Nine Elms and Battersea area.

If you’re interested in this, view the provisional outline programme for public inquiry, which is running the next four weeks.

This Northern line extension (NLE) forms part of wider plans to regenerate the Vauxhall, Nine Elms and Battersea area.

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Following public consultations in 2010 and 2011, the Council’s Cabinet approved a recommendation to support this preferred route (January 2012 Cabinet Report). However, in response to community concerns, TfL was asked to do some further design work and analysis, particularly around the locations of the shaft.

TfL has now produced an update leaflet on the consultation and work so far. Further consultation is proposed over the coming months. You can find out more or sign up for regular updates at the TfL Northern line extension page.

The extension of the Northern line is part of wider plans to improve public transport in the area to respond to levels of development expected in Vauxhall and Nine Elms. Additional public transport is needed to support this new development and to benefit existing residents and businesses.

Less pressure on Vauxhall station and relief to the existing Northern line south of Kennington. The extension is a partially privately funded project by the site developers, SP Setia and palm oil conglomerate Sime Darby, with contributions from other sources such as the proposed new US Embassy. Subject to permission from the Secretary of State for Transport to build and operate the extension and the required funding being in place, construction could begin in 2015, and the extension could be open by 2020.Battersea will be the new southern terminus, with a new station at Nine Elms on Wandsworth Road. Both new stations will be in Travelcard Zone 2.

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See our Battersea Power Station project pages for more information and videos.
Or visit PlanA our general blog on urbanism, planning and architecture.

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