Empire threatens 1,000 year history
The decision to build a seven-storey block of flats in a conservation area to pay for Hackney Empire’s financial shortfall is to be heard on 10th March. The application on Sylvester Path was postponed from a planning Committee on 17th February when residents complained that they had only been consulted on an older version of the plan. The committee also decided to instruct planning officers to seek the views of English Heritage on the development which would loom over the 1,000 year old path. The plans also require the demolition of a 17th century brick wall, preserved from when almshouses were demolished in 1966. The proposed development would lie entirely within the Town Hall Square Conservation Area.
The Empire’s Chief Executive, Claire Middleton, made a plea at the committee that they need the funding from the project to cover the £1.5 million debt built up since the £15 million refit in 2004.
Residents of Sylvester Path, some of whom had fought and won a similar application in 1998, described the plan as “A dreadful scheme”, also saying, “If they had included people who knew the path from the start it would have been*much better.”
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