Residents of Tideway Village, the houseboat community just down the river from here, are worried that the development of Nine Elms may spell an end to their little enclave:Tideway Village and the Nine Elms Pier Boat Community may disappear forever, possibly as early as March 2011. Tucked away next to the Battersea Power station the 30+ houseboats with their inhabitants form a diverse vibrant community framed by old boats, water wildlife and nature, dearly loved and frequently photographed by passers by.The current plans being submitted for the construction of ‘Tideway Wharf’ by St James (Berkeley Homes) proposes a development that would replace this special corner of London with cloned, soulless structures, erected in pursuit of profit at the expense of beauty and diversity.The houseboat community calls on you for help, there is still time to prevent the loss of Tideway Village so please sign the petition today and forward the link to all your friends!
You can sign the petition here.
I had a look through Tideway's site, and it's very unclear exactly what the threat is. I didn't find links to the relevant development plan or communications from the council.
ReplyDeleteThe "community" isn't particularly historic, having been developed ten years ago. I've never been there and have no personal interest; I haven't seen anything that convinces me the replacement will be worse or serve less people.
What I'm getting at is, on the strength of their appeal, I can't see why anyone outside the settlement would be bothered to support this handful of people continuing to inhabit a plot of land they never owned.
Lest that came across as too negative - there may well be good reason to be concerned, I just didn't see it. The floating community sounds rather nice, and while I support thoughtful development, I don't support Lambeth Council pushing people aside to make way for their developer friends.
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