Lambeth Council’s plans to redevelop a 300-home estate are under challenge at the High Court from a local resident who fears the demolition of her home.
Eva Bokrosova, who has lived on the Cressingham Gardens estate since 2009, hopes a judge will quash the council’s decision to proceed with only two of its initial five options for redevelopment – leaving the estate facing total or partial demolition.
Bokrosova says she attended multiple meetings at which residents, many of them elderly and disabled, expressly made specific points about preferring the refurbishment option, rather than demolition.
Cressingham Gardens was built in the 1960s and is a low-rise, small-scale estate made up of 306 homes, 213 of which are council homes.
In February 2014, Lambeth Council set up the Cressingham Gardens Project Team to consider the future of the estate and put forward five options for discussion.
These included: refurbishing the estate and bringing all council tenant homes up to a decent standard; two different options involving refurbishing with infilling to create new homes; partial demolition of the estate, with the net extra in new-build homes sold at top market price; or full demolition and rebuilding.
After a three-month consultation, the council announced in February that it would cease consultations on the first three options.
Lawyers from Leigh Day, representing Bokrosova, claim that this decision was unlawful and that the council failed to take into account the views of residents.
Ugo Hayter from the human rights team at Leigh Day said in advance of the hearing: “We believe this decision is unlawful as it does not take into consideration the opinions of the vast majority of the residents on the estate, who have made it clear that they favoured refurbishment over demolition.
“The residents have fought long and hard for their homes and their community, they trusted that the council would undertake a fair and meaningful consultation, they feel now that clearly their trust was misplaced.”
Lawyers representing the authority maintain that the decision should stand.
Bokrosova v London Borough of Lambeth High Court (Elisabeth Laing J) 3 November 2015
