Conservative Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has stepped into the fight to save King Edward Memorial Park in Shadwell from the Thames Tunnel.
Thames Water’s plans to build a new sewer from Hammersmith to Beckton threaten the park with development as a possible site for a ventilation shaft for the sewer - a 60 foot-tall chimney on the foreshore of the park. Boris joined Conservative colleagues on Tower Hamlets Council who have backed the campaign to save the park from the start.
But it was revealed that last December the Independent Mayor, Lutfur Rahman, and his Cabinet had backed building on the KEMP foreshore - a report they have now been forced to humiliatingly withdraw at the May Cabinet meeting.
The report had originally passed unanimously - with the support of two of Shadwell’s Independent councillors, Cllrs Alibor Chowdhury and Rabina Khan, who sit in the Cabinet.
Conservative leader at the Town Hall, Cllr Peter Golds, said: "King Edward Memorial Park is one of the few "green lungs" in the East End. I welcome Boris Johnson and his Conservative colleagues at City Hall joining the fight. The residents of Shadwell have sent a loud and clear message that they don’t want their much-loved park being used as a site for building works. Thames Water must now take that into account."