OK Mr Compassion-Bypass, why don't you drop in on the lab and tell the owner and his staff to their faces that you're happy to see their business/jobs going to make way for houses instead of doing so from the shelter of a forum? And what we need when it comes to the housing shortage is affordable housing, not the luxury flats that are earmarked for this site.
Ok Mr Compassion-abound, here it is: I do NOT like it when companies close and people lose their jobs. But redevelopment is part of a city's lifecycle. BDI is there for 25 years as they say. Where were they before that? What was there before that? Wasteland? Some other shop that had to shut down? What happened to them? In any case, what would YOU propose happen? Keep every building in the city as is because some small business is in there? Should it be businesses the style of BDI just because YOU like them or should we count every corner and fish and chip shop? I mean, some chippies have been around for more than 25 years, are they "historic" enough?
Besides, they are not getting shut down. They are given a year to find some place else. If they cannot afford something around (most likely) there are plenty of other places in Hackney Wick that would give an arm and leg to have them.
However, my main concern and most important point of this debate is this: If these are the redevelopments plans
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then why do they try to present a case as if the evil council is bowing to the greedy developers disregarding small businesses and local people?
According to the planning papers they are building 55 new flats of which at least 34 are for council renting....
I may be in the comfort of an online forum but at least I live in London (right now as I am typing this I am a 15 minute walk from BDI and knowing the area around there I say good riddance to all those crumbling eyesores). You, on the other hand, are in the comfort of an online forum and 500 miles away passing judgement based on possibly incorrect information...
