Southwark Council adopted a new Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) and Development Consultation Charter (DCC) on 6 December 2022. They supersede the SCI adopted in 2008. Both documents are informed by the engagement principles set out in the council's Approach to Community Engagement
Computer CGI of planning application made on the existing site 19-25 Rotherhithe New Road
Take a look on the planning portal, have a nose dive at application 19/AP/4455 into the uploads and documents they deemed sufficient as part of this 'Public Consultation' at a time when people were trying to survive the affects of COVID-19.
Outside of the portal we have been upskillling ourselves on local policy and one thing that struck us from the beginning was, where was our consideration. So being us we decided to take a look into the readily available template drafted by Southwark Council which states and we quote:
'Under the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) public authorities are required to have due regard to the aims of the duty when making decisions and setting policies. As set out in the Development Consultation Charter (DCC), the Public Sector Equalities Duty (PSED) does not apply to developers. However, to be compliant with the DCC, we require developers to support the council in meeting and discharging this important duty. For you, this means producing a proportionate Equalities Impact Assessment of the impacts of the development.'
Now we have asked and are still asking how on earth did this get missed. The main reason for this assessment is to determine through an Early Engagement Strategy to determine some key factors like:
Potential impacts (positive and negative) of proposed scheme including the impact on current users
Potential socio-economic impacts/ needs/issues arising from socio-economic disadvantage (positive and negative) including the impact on current users
Equality information on which the above analysis is based
Socio-economic data on which above analysis is based
Right from Ecology to Transport all those consultee comments and considerations were consulted on like where the birds will go, but none of Equality and Diversity and the impacts on those existing.
That bright yellow Appendix G is what we want to see it's what our entire community wants to see, because we are most definitely impacted.
We await our Business Relocation Strategy difference is we're also now threatened with eviction, but as a people and community we're strong like that.