Despite 192 people registering an objection to the council’s proposed café kiosk on Christ Church Green, the scheme was approved on Thursday, August 26.

The planning application received the second highest number of objections to any project ever recorded for Wanstead, yet the decision to approve was waved through at a closed door session by the chair of the planning committee. The public were notified around 5pm on Friday, August 27 (the Friday of a bank holiday weekend).

The decision to approve this scheme in the face of such strong opposition was taken by a Labour councillor who neither lives in, nor represents, Wanstead.

Nor did our three Labour Wanstead Village councillors speak up for residents or ask for this decision to be taken at a full, open and public planning committee, so denying residents the right to put their views in person to their elected representatives.

We, along with many residents and local groups, had asked the council to take time and pause, listen to the views of the public and consider a better proposal that would be more in keeping with a Conservation Area, or drop the scheme altogether.

They failed to listen and our councillors failed to stand up for Wanstead.

Instead, a decision to install the badly thought through kiosk was taken in way, and at a time, that was designed to bury bad news.

We believe the decision to install this scheme, without proper consultation, is undemocratic. If 192 people can take part in a legal and democratic process for their views to side-lined, what is the point of the process? Perhaps the real question should be; what is the point of councillors who neither listen to, or stand up for, Wanstead residents?

Scott Wilding

Wanstead Liberal Democrats