Prescott, Casinos and Planning
Badger | 06.07.2006 14:39 | Analysis | Social Struggles | London
John Prescott has denied he had any influence over the super-casino to be built at the Dome aka ‘Blair’s Folly’. Strictly Prescott does not decide about gambling licenses, but that is not the same as claiming he has no influence over the wider development of which the casino is an essential part.
On August 15th 2002 Mr Prescott met Mr Anchultz for the first time and in 2003 his department (OPDM) designated Greenwich and the area of the Dome an Urban Development Area. The OPDM (now known as Department of Communities) devolves much planning detail to a quango called English Partnerships, which works closely with the OPDM implementing New Labour development policies and has extraordinary planning powers such as compulsory purchase orders because of its previous status as the Urban Regeneration Agency. However, English Partnership like all government quangos is wholly state funded and all its board are appointed by John Prescott. Despite the illusion of ‘independence’, it is required to dance to which ever tune the government minister responsible for regeneration wants, but is not covered by the same regulatory safe guards that Civil Servants are bound by, such as political impartiality.
The government minister responsible for regeneration since 1997 is John Prescott. Therefore, for eight years English partnership has been pretty much the means by which John Prescott has pushed his regeneration agenda. Without a shread of irony the chair of English Partnerships is the Scottish New Labour hack Baroness Ford of Cunningham who was elevated to the Lords in 2006 and appointed chair of EP in 2004.
It was English Partnerships who in 1999 wanted to extend the Docklands Light Railway south of the Isle of Dogs and build a station at the Cutty Sark. English Partnerships favoured design was from a company called Centros Miller, which included not only building the station but also the demolishing a number of listed buildings in a designated world heritage site, not for the station but for the associated shopping development deemed by Centros Miller central to a DLR station.
The people of Greenwich were outraged and the local council came up with an alternative design that would have built the station but saved the listed buildings. This new plan was passed by Greenwich planning committee. English Partnerships and Centros Miller then lobbied the ODPM to over-ride the planning committee and impose the shopping centre and station design. This the ODPM did.
Centros Miller is a 50:50 development company made up of Delancey Estates and a firm of Scottish builders called the Miller Group. Centros Miller has very close links with New Labour. The head of Delancey estates is called Jamie Rittblat, who put together the Mapley-Steps PPP. This was a company in a Caribbean tax-haven who first bought and then lease back to the government all the Inland Revenue Offices and HM Customs and Excise building. This PPP was very important for New Labour as it was one of the very first, of these high contentious deals. The chairman of the Miller Group is Bob Spiers, who just also happens to be the chairman of Stage Coach Group PLC, which has had long and close links with the Labour party especially in Scotland.
It is inconceivable that as the responsible minister Prescott would not have been consulted when the ODPM decided to over-rule the local planning decision in a UNESCO designated world heritage site in Greenwich.
Events in Greenwich reveal how English Partnerships, New Labour and Prescott have stitched up planning not just in the Docklands but around the UK. English Partnership or other quangos like unelected regional authorities do the hard slog of turning OPDM master plans for regeneration into reality. Should the development run into opposition such as over Cutty Sark DLR then Prescott can step in and use his powers to over-ride objections. Perhaps the seven meetings between Prescott and Anchlutz did not discuss the casino specifically, but what would have been abundantly clear to Mr Anchlutz was that the person who could insure the whole Greenwich Peninsular development went ahead was Mr Prescott.
The real scandal is not undeclared visits to rich, right-wing homophobes or knobbing your dizzy secretary, the real scandal is Britain is standing on the precipice of a ‘development’ boom, which will make the planning disasters of the 1960’s look like great architecture and urban planning. For example, today the number of existing commercial retail units massively exceeds the anticipated future demand. The market is awash with them. This raises the question why are companies like Centros Miller allowed to build thousands of square feet of commercial retail developments across the UK when the demand is simply not there? Perhaps more importantly why have Mr Prescott and New Labour allowed them to do it when these developments are not needed.
It also begs the question why is so much of the development in England under the control of Scottish companies and individuals closely associated in Scotland with New Labour? Should you be worried by Scots running English development and planning, well visit Cumbernauld and make you own mind up.
On August 15th 2002 Mr Prescott met Mr Anchultz for the first time and in 2003 his department (OPDM) designated Greenwich and the area of the Dome an Urban Development Area. The OPDM (now known as Department of Communities) devolves much planning detail to a quango called English Partnerships, which works closely with the OPDM implementing New Labour development policies and has extraordinary planning powers such as compulsory purchase orders because of its previous status as the Urban Regeneration Agency. However, English Partnership like all government quangos is wholly state funded and all its board are appointed by John Prescott. Despite the illusion of ‘independence’, it is required to dance to which ever tune the government minister responsible for regeneration wants, but is not covered by the same regulatory safe guards that Civil Servants are bound by, such as political impartiality.
The government minister responsible for regeneration since 1997 is John Prescott. Therefore, for eight years English partnership has been pretty much the means by which John Prescott has pushed his regeneration agenda. Without a shread of irony the chair of English Partnerships is the Scottish New Labour hack Baroness Ford of Cunningham who was elevated to the Lords in 2006 and appointed chair of EP in 2004.
It was English Partnerships who in 1999 wanted to extend the Docklands Light Railway south of the Isle of Dogs and build a station at the Cutty Sark. English Partnerships favoured design was from a company called Centros Miller, which included not only building the station but also the demolishing a number of listed buildings in a designated world heritage site, not for the station but for the associated shopping development deemed by Centros Miller central to a DLR station.
The people of Greenwich were outraged and the local council came up with an alternative design that would have built the station but saved the listed buildings. This new plan was passed by Greenwich planning committee. English Partnerships and Centros Miller then lobbied the ODPM to over-ride the planning committee and impose the shopping centre and station design. This the ODPM did.
Centros Miller is a 50:50 development company made up of Delancey Estates and a firm of Scottish builders called the Miller Group. Centros Miller has very close links with New Labour. The head of Delancey estates is called Jamie Rittblat, who put together the Mapley-Steps PPP. This was a company in a Caribbean tax-haven who first bought and then lease back to the government all the Inland Revenue Offices and HM Customs and Excise building. This PPP was very important for New Labour as it was one of the very first, of these high contentious deals. The chairman of the Miller Group is Bob Spiers, who just also happens to be the chairman of Stage Coach Group PLC, which has had long and close links with the Labour party especially in Scotland.
It is inconceivable that as the responsible minister Prescott would not have been consulted when the ODPM decided to over-rule the local planning decision in a UNESCO designated world heritage site in Greenwich.
Events in Greenwich reveal how English Partnerships, New Labour and Prescott have stitched up planning not just in the Docklands but around the UK. English Partnership or other quangos like unelected regional authorities do the hard slog of turning OPDM master plans for regeneration into reality. Should the development run into opposition such as over Cutty Sark DLR then Prescott can step in and use his powers to over-ride objections. Perhaps the seven meetings between Prescott and Anchlutz did not discuss the casino specifically, but what would have been abundantly clear to Mr Anchlutz was that the person who could insure the whole Greenwich Peninsular development went ahead was Mr Prescott.
The real scandal is not undeclared visits to rich, right-wing homophobes or knobbing your dizzy secretary, the real scandal is Britain is standing on the precipice of a ‘development’ boom, which will make the planning disasters of the 1960’s look like great architecture and urban planning. For example, today the number of existing commercial retail units massively exceeds the anticipated future demand. The market is awash with them. This raises the question why are companies like Centros Miller allowed to build thousands of square feet of commercial retail developments across the UK when the demand is simply not there? Perhaps more importantly why have Mr Prescott and New Labour allowed them to do it when these developments are not needed.
It also begs the question why is so much of the development in England under the control of Scottish companies and individuals closely associated in Scotland with New Labour? Should you be worried by Scots running English development and planning, well visit Cumbernauld and make you own mind up.
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