Photo: Bill Parry-Davies
A row of Georgian houses in Dalston may survive after a court appeal.
Mr Justice Foskett on Friday in the High Court granted a judicial review over Hackney Council’s decision to demolish the properties.
The council originally accepted a proposal to knock down the row of houses in Dalston Lane in March, despite considerable protests from the public.
It has agreed a contract with engineering firm Murphy Group which plans to pull down the properties and build 44 new homes.
These would not be “affordable” despite the council’s policy that 50 per cent of new housing in the borough should be “affordable”.
A number of the houses were demolished in 2007 but the remainder may still stand a chance of surviving as the plan to pull them down is now frozen until after the review.
OPEN (Organisation for Promotion of Environmental Needs Ltd) Dalston is the heritage group that has been battling the council’s decision. It argues that the houses are in a conservation area and that planning permission had not been properly secured.
Bill Parry Davies, a local solicitor in charge of leading OPEN’s appeals, said:
“We are delighted by today’s answer. It is really important to all of us. These buildings represent our local identity and our heritage.”
Local residents demonstrated the importance of the issue to the community by raising the money to cover the legal costs.
The judicial review will take place in late November when the fate of this Georgian architecture will be sealed.
