Purpose

The report and appendices presents a Strategic
Regeneration Framework (SRF) with a place-based vision for the
industrial areas and surrounding developments to the northwest of
Canning Town town centre. Cabinet is
recommended to adopt the SRF as the key guiding document that sets
out the Council’s ambitious approach for the area, and to
support the establishment of this area as a hub for inclusive
growth and green innovation.
 
The SRF outlines a number of proposed
interventions to improve active travel, vehicular and green
infrastructure. This includes bridges across the River Lea. The
report and appendices propose that the Mayer Parry Bridge is the
most feasible bridge to deliver in this area at the current time.
Cabinet is recommended to allocate funding towards the delivery of
Mayer Parry Bridge using development contributions.

Decision

For the reasons set out in this report and its
appendices, Cabinet RESOLVED to Agree to:
 

i) 
Adopt the Canning Town Enterprise Hub Strategic Regeneration
Framework (Appendix 1) as the key guiding document that sets out
the Council’s ambitious approach for the area.

ii) 
Allocate funding to progress with the project to deliver the Mayer
Parry Bridge (MPB), with the Council committing to contribute
£4.8m of funding towards the £12m anticipated shared
project costs. This includes:
a)
Extending the scope of the permitted expenditure of the CIL funding
(previously allocated by Cabinet on 20 July 2021 for enablement
works on the Lower Lea Valley Priority Bridges Programme) to allow
for this to be spent on LBN’s contribution towards the shared
project costs for delivery of the MPB, with £650k of the CIL
funding anticipated to be spent toward this extended scope, as per
the spending profile at Section 4.2.18;
b)
Allocating up to £3.15m funding that was secured by S106
agreement from the English Cities Fund, developers of the Rathbone
Market site, towards the delivery of the MPB, as per the spending
profile at Section 4.2.18;
c)
Noting £1m funding has been secured by S106 agreement from
sineQN, developers of the Bidder Street
Data Centre site, specifically towards the delivery of the MPB (see
Section 4.2.15-4.2.16). Subject to receipt of the funding and
further Council governance, this will be allocated towards the
delivery of the MPB, as per the spending profile at 4.2.18.
 
Alternatives
considered
 

a) 
Do not adopt the Canning Town Enterprise Hub Strategic Regeneration
Framework as the key guiding document for the area. This
alternative option is not recommended as without a regeneration
framework to set out a vision for development and strategy for
supporting infrastructure the growth potential of the area is
reduced. The Council would not have a guiding document to direct
its own interventions in the area and a framework to steer the
direction of inward investment would not be in place. There is a
risk that development would not be co-ordinated and the Council would have reduced
ability to influence local growth to support an inclusive
economy.

b) 
Do not proceed with the delivery of the Mayer Parry Bridge and
instead proceed with delivery of an alternative LLVPBP bridge, such
as Lochnagar Bridge. This alternative option is not recommended as
Mayer Parry Bridge has now been assessed as the most feasible
LLVPBP bridge to deliver in the short-medium term (see Appendix 3).
Additionally not all aspects of the
proposed funding package outlined in this report could not be used
to fund the other LLVPBP bridges, and so to deliver these bridges
would require provision of additional funding from other
sources.

c) 
Do not proceed with the delivery of any bridges within the LLVPBP
at this time. This alternative option is
not recommended as there are currently no options to cross the
River Lea between the A13 at Canning Town and Twelvetrees at
Bromley-by Bow, a distance of nearly
2km. A new bridge crossing is therefore vital infrastructure that
will unlock investment and support new homes, jobs, green spaces
and community and cultural assets. River crossings are key pieces
of enabling infrastructure identified in the SRF and a decision not
to proceed to deliver a bridge could reduce the potential to
achieve the ambitions set out in the SRF. A funding package to
deliver the Mayer Parry Bridge is currently in place, however some
of the funding (including a £2.4m GLA grant) is conditional
on LBN and LBTH allocating the remaining funding. If the decision
is made not to proceed with the delivery of the bridge at this
time, 16 then the currently secured funding may not be available in
the future to fund delivery of the bridge.

d) 
Do not extend the scope of the CIL that has already been allocated
to the LLVPBP enabling works to permit expenditure on costs
required for delivery of the Mayer Parry Bridge. This alternative
option is not recommended as the current proposal avoids the need
for either a new allocation of CIL or increase in Council Capital
borrowing.

e) 
Do not allocate S106 funds secured from the English Cities Fund, in
relation to the development at Rathbone Market, to the delivery of
the Mayer Parry Bridge. This alternative option is not recommended
as the S106 funding is required to be spent on infrastructure
within vicinity of, or benefiting, the Rathbone Market development.
The funding has been paid from the private developer to the Council
and can only be spent on local infrastructure requirements (it does
not reduce any funding available for the market). The Mayer Parry
Bridge project delivers new infrastructure listed on the
Council’s capital pipeline and Infrastructure Delivery Plan,
that is located less than 500m from the Rathbone Market development
and would unlock a new walking/cycling connections. At the present
time the Mayer Parry Bridge project is
considered to be the project that best meets the
requirements of the S106 funding and Council priorities. If these
funds were not allocated to the bridge project they may remain
unspent and alternative funding for the bridge would be
required.