Hackney Council’s vision workshop on 55 Morning Lane

On Saturday 7th December amid the xmas parties, Hackney Council held its first workshop on its plans for redeveloping 55 Morning Lane, the Tesco site in Hackney Central.

After years of secrecy, in this workshop we learned a little about our Council’s current thinking, including two key things that contradict what they said previously:

First, Hackney Council have not decided they will redevelop the site. They might sell it in an attempt to recoup the £60 milliion they spent buying it from Tesco in 2017. They have appointed architects and community engagement consultants but both are on 3-month contracts. At the end of these, they will present a set of options for 55 Morning Lane and say how feasible they think each of them is.

Second, the deal between Hackney Council and Tesco defines a minimum size for a new store on the site but not a maximum size. The architects have been tasked to negotiate with Tesco so there is hope that our pressure will work and the earlier plans for a much smaller store will be changed and we can keep a big supermarket in Hackney Central.

Most of the workshop was spent in small groups discussing what we want to see built on 55 Morning Lane. As always, people had some great ideas but after years of talking to residents about what they want to see on the site and doing thousands of surveys, we weren’t surprised to hear again that our community wants cheap, spacious and local-oriented council housing and a big supermarket.

There are three more meetings planned in the new year – one in January and two in February – alongside specific outreach to young people and other community groups. Through these, the architects and engagement consultants will create three options for 55 Morning Lane and assess their feasibility. We, like many of those at Saturday’s workshop, based on past experience, are sceptical about whether residents will genuinely be involved in this process.