Town Centre Partnership not fit for purpose

Last week the Putney Town Centre Partnership held one of its regular meetings. This body is a collection of representatives of local business leaders, a couple of Conservative councillors, John Horrocks of the Putney Society and Labour representative John Slater, a Putney solicitor and Honorary Alderman of the borough.

At my request, I asked John Slater to raise the Tileman House planning application at the meeting: because the substantial loss of office space these plans entail and the impact that will have on the local economy should be something that concerns the partnership.

I was immensely disappointed with the response of the Partnership, which I would go so far as to characterise as pathetic. Despite support from John Horrocks, the meeting - chaired by Tory Councillor Jim Maddan - decided that the only aspect of the plans it felt worthy of comment was the fate of the three trees that will be removed by these plans.

All well and good, but what about the loss of employment opportunity - and the knock-on impact that will have on the retail and food and drink sections of our local economy? Surely these are matters a town centre partnership should be concerned with.


The Conservatives have a long track record of neglecting our town centre - which is why it's in the state it is today. But what is the point of having a town centre partnership if it can't even find something to say about plans that will have such a significant impact on the town centre and its economy.