Comedians James Acaster and Nish Kumar help raise £40,000 to fight Peckham redevelopment

Comedians James Acaster and Nish Kumar have thrown their weight behind efforts of Peckham campaigners to resist the redevelopment of the Aylesham Centre into nearly 900 homes, just 12 per cent of which would be affordable.  

Acaster, co-host of the Off Menu podcast, and Kumar, a TV presenter who also hosts the Pod save the UK politics podcast, both performed in Peckham Levels earlier this month to raise money for a local campaign set up to fight the plans.

On September 9, campaigners from Aylesham Community Action set up a crowdfunder to raise money to pay a barrister to represent their objections during the Planning Inspectorate hearing, scheduled to take place in the final week of October.

They have so far managed to raise £41,000 towards their goal of £50,000.

Last year, Berkeley Homes submitted a planning application to Southwark Council to build 867 new homes on the site of the Aylesham shopping centre on Rye Lane.

But in December, the developer shocked residents when it lowered the proportion of affordable homes on the site from 35 per cent – the minimum required by Southwark council’s planning laws – to a meagre 12 per cent.

Berkeley then announced in May this year that they would be bypassing the council’s planning committee and heading straight to the government’s Planning Inspectorate for approval, and suggested the local authority had been too slow to consider the scheme.

The development has come up against a wall of opposition, with Rye Lane’s Labour ward councillors and local MP Miatta Fahnbulleh all urging the developer to revise the current planning application. 

However, Cllr Helen Dennis, Southwark’s Cabinet Member for New Homes, said the council had been forced to re-consider the proposals after the developer slashed the affordable housing offering.

In a symbolic planning meeting held in July the council nonetheless rejected the scheme, with a planning officer’s report stating that this was largely due to the“low level of affordable housing” which would “fail to deliver sufficient public benefits to outweigh the heritage harm to the character and appearance of the Rye Lane Peckham Conservation Area.” 

Berkeley has consistently declined to comment when approached for comment by the News.

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“Is this a city I can still call home?” Over 600 people protested on Saturday against the UK government’s ‘handling of the housing crisis.’ Organised by SHAPE (@shapecoalition) they are asking for 50 per cent of new developments on private land to be set aside for council housing, rising to 100 per cent on council-owned land. Berkeley Homes, the developer proposing a 877-home scheme on the Aylesham Centre site in Peckham, is lowering its affordable housing offer from 35% to 12%. This would reduce the number of affordable homes built on the site from 270 to 77. Read the full story at southwarknews.co.uk #housingcrisis #southwarknews #ukprotest #homeless #housingmarket

? original sound – Southwark News