Furnival House is social segregation - Labour boss

I've been meaning to blog again about Furnival House (see pic) on Cholmeley Park. It went through planning last week. Fifteen luxury flats are to replace over 100 units for students. Around 5,000 cubic metres of clay are to be removed to create a basement car park, and so on.

The oddest thing about this planning hearing was that the Labour housing boss, John Bevan, pitted himself very forcefully against the Council's own planners. He said that the failure of the Council to ensure any affordable homes on the site was creating "segregated communities" and causing "more polarisation".

The compensation package set up to sweeten the pill for the Council (called a Section 106 agreement), was "totally inadequate," he said. He said he would've put a stop to the whole thing had he not just recently taken over his portfolio.

It was all a bit late, but Cllr Bevan deserves credit for speaking out.

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