Blackfriars preservation society wrote:The new Southwark Plan is being consulted on.
http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/856/planning_policy/3315/the_new_southwark_plan
This is what says about Blackfriars Road:
Blackfriars Road
Blackfriars Road will be transformed into a lively, historic boulevard linking central London and the River Thames to the Elephant and Castle. It will offer a mix of new homes, offices, services and shops catering for both a local and wider need.
Opportunities to provide new flexible business space will help consolidate and expand the existing business services cluster and reinforce the area as a strategic office and employment location.
Blackfriars Road will be a destination for arts, leisure, entertainment, community facilities, children’s play areas, health facilities and higher education. This will benefit local residents and help link Blackfriars Road to the vibrant cultural facilities on offer along the South Bank, The Cut and at Waterloo.
There will be a range of building heights along Blackfriars Road, with the tallest buildings at the north end. Development will be of exceptional design and will enhance the local character, sustain and enhance the historic environment and improve existing open spaces. Working with Transport for London, the road itself will be designed to be safer, easier and more enjoyable for pedestrians and cyclists, whilst ensuring the needs of all users are met safely, managing the demands of buses, freight, pedestrians and cyclists. There will be improved links and new public realm.
Questions:
"Blackfriars Road will be transformed into a lively, historic boulevard"
How can something be transformed into a ‘historic’ place? Either it has heritage buildings - or it doesn’t. The majority of remaining heritage buildings on Blackfriars Road were knocked down between 2012 and 2014.
"Blackfriars Road will be a destination for arts, leisure, entertainment, community facilities, children’s play areas, health facilities and higher education."
Currently, apart from Christ Church Southwark, there are no arts, leisure, entertainment, children’s play areas, health facilities or higher education facilities anywhere on Blackfriars Road. And in the planning pipeline are only large-scale hotels (Hoxton Hotel - the construction of which will displace the amazing Kids Company charity), offices, flats (1 Blackfriars, Linden Homes, Barratt) and franchise coffee outlets (Costa, the third to open in a year).
Is this sentence a complete nonsense - or are there actual ambitions for these social and cultural community services to come to Blackfriars Road, if so, where and when?
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