We are a campaign group set-up to save our space, the Canal Club site, Waterloo Gardens, E2 9HP. Tower Hamlets Council are consulting on building up to twenty-two flats on this site. It was bought by the Greater London Council (GLC) in 1970s as an extension to the Wellington Estate, the GLC having identified the area as one in need of greater community facilities and open space towards the canal. Although we fully support the need for social housing, the need for open space is even more acute now than it was then, and looks set to become more so.

The Canal Club site allocation for the ‘infill’ building of flats on the Wellington Estate/Canal Club site should have begun with meaningful consultation with the tenants and residents of the Wellington Estate so as to identify which spaces on the estate might be best utilised for building council housing. The open, green, community space of the Canal Club site is essential in the case of the Wellington Estate, and the ward of St Peters, where overcrowding is a persistent problem. The playground, ball park and community garden open to the Regent’s Canal and offer light, green and open space and a view to the park which need to be preserved for all and for future generations.