London City Airport keeps saying they are good for the local economy and that it attracts investment into the area. Perhaps they can take credit for the failure of the £1.5bn Silvertown Quays regeneration. Europe's largest Aquarium project (Biota!) is sinking! It has been given a 90 day notice by the London Development Agency.Newham Council has approved expansion even though the brand new Building 1000 remained empty for 5 years, failing to attract a single corporate client. In the end Newham Council bought this building at cost of £100m (or so). And another 3 similar buildings were never built! So in all the airport allegedly appears to have cost £400m for the Royal Docks business park plus £1.5bn for Silvertown Quays.
The following is from the Evening Standard, but some other media sources are being more optimistic saying that Silvertown Quay Ltd would find an investor within the deadline. But the project has been dithering since 2002.... It they could not get off the ground during the boom, can they succeed during such a time?
Just how much say did Mayor Boris Johnson have in this?
Plans for a £1.5 billion development in east London which was set to include Europe's largest aquarium were in tatters today after the owners of the site pulled the plug on the deal.
The scheme for the land adjacent to London City Airport was meant to feature a sandy beach as well as 5,000 homes. But landowner London Development Agency has withdrawn from an agreement with its partners, the Silvertown Quays consortium, after the plans failed to progress in seven years.
Planning permission was given for the 68-acre site in April 2007 but the scheme, designed by
Sir Terry Farrell, fell victim to the property slump.Contributed by a Newham resident.
