Members of Greenwich Council were ‘disappointed’ after they were told they couldn’t vote on plans involving the Silvertown Tunnel project, after previously voting to pause the project at a council meeting in March.
At a planning meeting on October 18, Councillor Gary Dillon said: “Officers have accepted legal advice that the majority of planning board members have predetermined their position on the item as a result of their views expressed previously on the Silvertown Tunnel project.”
The plans, submitted by Riverlinx, included removing a requirement for an office building for tunnel workers above the entrance needing detailed designs to be approved by the council before being built.
Councillor David Gardner said the decision was “casting aspersions” on the members of the planning board, and that members would have taken a “broader view” on the proposal.
He said: “That would not only wipe members out in democracy in terms of all further proposals in relation to the Silvertown Tunnel, it would also have significant implications for all supplementary applications.”
Councillor Majella Anning said she was “disappointed” by the statement, and rejected any suspicions that councillors would “predetermine” their views on the plans.
She said: “I am very sorry that this has been publicly read out because it does cast aspersions on us.
"I completely support the comments of Councillor Gardner, and I am very disappointed that democracy cannot take place tonight for the people of Greenwich.”
The advice referred to a council meeting last March, when a motion was passed asking for all work on the Silvertown Tunnel be paused.
This led to the mayor of Greenwich sending a letter to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, asking him to stop work on the tunnel.
According to Councillor Danny Thorpe, all members of the Labour group supported the motion at the meeting last March, including six members of the planning board who were present.
Included among the members was Councillor Chris Lloyd, who put forward the earlier motion to pause all work on the tunnel.
At the March meeting, Cllr Lloyd said: “We have reached a measured and well considered answer to what has been an incredibly difficult political hot potato in this borough, and I am delighted that I was the member to bring this motion forward.”
Cllr Dillon said that the points made by Cllr Gardner and Cllr Anning would be brought to the council’s legal team.
The motion on the requirement for building plans to be approved beforehand will be decided outside of Greenwich Council.
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