London Bangla A Force for the community…
SAFETY FOR residents and visitors; respect for our heritage; police resources; and road safety were the key concerns of councillors who rejected, for the second time, a planning application to build a new Chinese embassy at Tower Hill.
The issue arose because China owns the Royal Mint Court site on the Highway, near Tower Hill. The Chinese Government wants to build itself a new embassy on the site and applied to Tower Hamlets Council for the necessary planning permission. Councillors recognised that having an embassy on this site would:
•attract demonstrations, protests and vigils organised by those who oppose China’s human rights record (not least its treatment of Uighur Muslims);
•the proposed site for the embassy would pose a safety risk to demonstrators as it is so close to a very busy major road;
•the site would therefore soak up police resources in a borough where there are many jobs for the police to do.
Councillors also recognised the threat to our heritage from the planning application. There are listed buildings on the site, and residents would expect them to be preserved as part of Tower Hamlets’ rich and varied heritage. Bulldozing them to make way for a ceremonial equivalent of an office block would not be welcome – or respectful of Tower Hamlets’ past. Councillors also took into account views of local residents.
Planning is a complicated issue, and it is difficult to follow exactly what is going on. The current story began in December 2022, when the first planning application was considered by the Strategic Development Committee (SDC). The SDC is made up of elected councillors, but those councillors have to consider all applications on their own merits: they can not be instructed on how to vote by the parties of which they are members. The application was rejected on the four grounds listed above.
China went on a right sulk and there was talk about that application being sent to the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, or the Government in a kind of appeal process that is not called an appeal but is called a “call-in”. No one seems to have made any final decision on that application.
China then submitted a second application in July 2024. It was actually two applications: one to do work on the listed buildings currently on the site, and one to build a new embassy. Tower Hamlets’ SDC did not get to take a decision on that application: before they could look at it, Secretary of State Angela Rayner MP “called it in”. She did, however, ask Tower Hamlets Council for its views before she took her final decision. The SDC decision taken earlier this week will be sent to Ms Rayner as the views of the Council.
There can be no doubt that no embassy should be built on this heritage site. What is the point of the establishment carrying on business as usual and living in posh embassies while Muslims are being imprisoned and tortured by the Government. It is not yet clear whether any organisation is mounting a campaign to lobby Angela Rayner MP.
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