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• Reference: 2001/0098-1
• Question by: Andrew Pelling
• Meeting date: 11 July 2001

What support and service do you feel that you and your unit will be able to give to Outer London Boroughs seeking to re-invigorate district centres and develop key derelict sites? Specifically in South London what kind of action do you feel could be pursued to boost district centres like Norbury, Coulsdon, Purley, Worcester Park and Wallington that sit astride key FtL roads full of heavy traffic and to get development off the ground at key sites like the Croydon Gateway site at East Croydon? .

• Reference: 2001/0054-1
• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 11 July 2001

In 1997 you said: "Organisations such as LOTS (Living Over The Shop) claim that at least 200,000 permanent homes could be provided above shops and commercial premises in inner London alone." (Cities for a Small Planet, p 119) Why has this option been largely ignored in the Mayor's Towards the London Plan? .

• Question by: Andrew Pelling
• Meeting date: 11 July 2001

I think you share the Mayor's view of the efficacy of tall buildings particularly in the key transport nodal points. Obviously there is great sensitivity for those developments in Central London. What role to you think some outer London venues have in terms of acting as host to those type of tall buildings? I represent a constituency in South London where virtually the amount of development has been very limited during the 1990s but there is a great deal of space for that type of development. What role would you see perhaps for South London in fulfilling that Mayoral desire...

• Question by: Andrew Pelling
• Meeting date: 11 July 2001

I suppose it will be an argument for sustainable development if you can get people to commute out in the morning and in the evening to some of these key suburban office sites. I represent Croydon which as you say perhaps has a false pride in terms of its tall buildings, desire for tall buildings, but it is perhaps in many ways a good opportunity to put some of the tall buildings that might fit in within a Manhattan style skyline in Croydon which might not suit necessarily next to St Paul's Cathedral.

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 11 July 2001

Lord Rogers, you did mention Roehampton which is in my patch. I am not only a Wandsworth Councillor but a Putney Councillor. I have spent a lot of time in Roehampton and when it was built, I think by Herbert Morison, who had the view - rather paternalistic - that people who were desperate for homes did not mind living in matchboxes on top of each other as long as they could look out on a green aspect. Well I can assure you that really is not so. I have to say that Wandsworth Council has poured money into Roehampton...

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 11 July 2001

This will be a question but, Lord Rogers, can I quote a poem of John Betjeman to you, only one little line? "Cathedrals will be turned into area cultural centres, lectures on civic duty will be given" - well Brian has tried to give you one - "however, "So don't encourage tourists, stay your hand until we have really got the country planned" So let us put London in there. What I want to ask you is, who do you think Londoners can trust most on aesthetic matters? Poet laureate, a planner or an architect? And I am asking this...

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 11 July 2001

What about the issue between planners and architects on aesthetic values?

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 11 July 2001

If I turn to the SDS on the paragraphs on London's homes, it talks about "future residential development will be built to maximise the use of scarce land". On the other hand is that absolutely necessary? What do you think about adding in the number of voids or the number of vacancies local authority wise in inner London and outer London? I have the figure for the end of the financial year 2000 and there were something like 93,700 properties that were vacant, homes that were vacant, local authority, housing associations, private rental. Should that not have been included in...