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Click above for what became the consented plan, plus Transport page.

2014-06-02

[Reposted from Nov 2010] Michael Bear, Regeneration Director at Hammerson (and new Lord Mayor of London) shuns Brent Cross's temporary 'rapid transit bus' for the Lord Mayor's Show 2010

THIRD UPDATE:
"29,000 extra cars"
- see Evening Standard letter, April 2011


SECOND UPDATE:
"The Lord Mayor has a case to answer!" 
 - see newspaper cuttings.
 

FIRST UPDATE: Click above for BBC web site
(no mention of Hammerson)

 The City of London has elected Alderman Michael Bear as the 683rd Lord Mayor of the City of London, to serve from Friday 12 November 2010. The Lord Mayor's Show and fireworks are on Saturday 13 November (click on the Lord Mayor's new set of wheels, above). 

(Click above for Barnet Times)


Barnet Times: "Finchley civil engineer Michael Bear, who is a top executive at Hammerson plc, a partnership company behind the Brent Cross Cricklewood development, has been elected Lord Mayor of the City of London"

Now, below, the battle for the PR crown...

"Bear is far from the archetypal City old-stager you expect to be Lord Mayor, arriving in the UK 32 years ago with just £200."

PRESS RELEASE IN EAST LONDON!

CAMPAIGNERS SLAM LORD MAYOR POST FOR SPITALFIELDS MARKET DEVELOPER MICHAEL BEAR

CAMPAIGNERS who famously battled to save Spitalfields Market from demolition and redevelopment as an office block are challenging the City Corporation for rewarding Spitalfields Development Group’s chief executive Michael Bear with the position of Lord Mayor of the City of London. Bear will take up the post on Friday 12 November at 3pm in a ‘Silent Ceremony’, followed by the Lord Mayor’s Show procession on Saturday.

Mike Bear is also Regeneration Director at Hammerson, the developers of Spitalfields Market with its owners the Corporation of London. On Bear’s watch Hammerson acquired other controversial sites in nearby Shoreditch, including the 13-acre Railtrack-owned Bishopsgate Goodsyard, where historic railway arches were demolished, and the Shoreditch High Street's 50-storey development involving loss of the ‘Light Bar’.

The 'Spitalfields Market Under Threat' (SMUT) campaign’s petition of 37,000 names called for an alternative approach to redeveloping the market. Instead, half of the buildings were demolished in 2003 and replaced with a sterile corporate environment, widely held to have destroyed the character and small business economy of the area.

The campaign challenged the Corporation of London’s narrow version of progress, and Bear’s extravagant claims that the community was fully behind the plans.

Lucy Rogers, a local resident, said:
“Mike Bear has always portrayed himself as a kindly benefactor in the area but his job is as a fixer delivering up Spitalfields to the City – for which he’s now been given the ultimate reward.”
Jil Cove, longstanding 'Save Spitalfields' campaigner, said:
“Mike Bear once said to me that if it wasn’t for us, he wouldn’t have thought about getting into politics........and that’s why I’m still waiting for my invitation to the Mayor’s banquet!”
Contact: Lucy Rogers
lucindadot@hotmail.com
  • The SMUT (Spitalfields Market Under Threat) campaign was an alliance of community groups and individuals in Spitalfields. The Save Spitalfields campaign ran for 13 years.
  • For more information about the history behind the original founding of the temporary stall market at Spitalfields see: http://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/11/02/eric-reynolds-creative-regenerator/




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