The Skylines is the Limit with Island Development!

A public exhibition at the weekend unveiled the latest development plan for the Isle of Dogs - this time for the office park at Skylines Village, located at the junction of Limeharbour and Marsh Wall.

The development is a large one by any measure - 50 storeys, 806 new homes, a re-provided business centre, a new school with sports facilities, a new hotel, and some open space.

I am concerned by the lack of consultation or community involvement on this project. I received notice of the exhibition on the 3rd February, but quickly realised that this was not a pre-application exhibition - more like a notification process to tell people what had already been submitted. Not very clever!

I am told they had to rush the application in to stop consideration of the existing application at Angel House on Marsh Wall. The latter application had been in the system for some time, so it seems bizarre that another developer can push in an application to halt the actions of a neighbour, and then use that as an excuse for not consulting.

The local view (now drifting into folk lore) has always been that development on the Isle of Dogs would focus around a cluster of tall buildings at Canary Wharf and the heights would gradually tail off to the south of the Island. But that is under constant threat, as the tall buildings around South Quay DLR threaten to expand and spill ever further southwards down the middle of the Island - 50 storeys at Angel House, 50 storeys at Skylines, 30+ storeys at Asda, where next?

Instead of the tall buildings forming a cluster, they look set to form the shape of a cross on the Island - and cross is exactly what local people are about these plans!