We had a message from the Mayor of London, one of the Interested Parties in our Claim for a Judicial Review, that he will not be claiming the costs awarded to him under the (Costs) Order. However he did draw our attention to the judge’s comment at paragraph 6 of the Order that he was “especially unimpressed that the Claimant did not observe the pre-action protocol”. Had the protocol been followed, this litigation and the use of public funds could have been avoided.

We appreciate very much that the Mayor has made this decision and thanked him for it.

It is possible that what is called the Pre-action Protocol could have led to avoiding Court action. However, following the strategic planning committee’s decision on 9th and 22nd June to approve the first three reserved matters applications, we had to make a decision to do this or to go for a Judicial Review because of a tight deadline. We have been in discussion about the timing of reserved matters applications in the Outline Planning Permission since April 2018 with the GLA as the authority that made the decision, then Lewisham as the authority to see it carried out. We were not able to reach a common understanding on the way that the timing for making applications for approval of reserved matters was applied or to have a clear explanation of why they did not consider that the application had timed out.

We are writing to LB Lewisham to see what arrangement we can make over payment of the fees as we do not have the full £8,000 to pay them. 

Meanwhile if you would like to make a pledge towards the remaining £3,000 we need to find to pay LB Lewisham and meet the requirement of the Court’s cost order, please give here: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/v4d-action-for-a-judicial-review/

Thank you again for your support for our campaign.

At a time when there is a surge of interest in Britain’s past links to slavery and colonialism, it is more important than ever to develop the heritage of Deptford Dockyard as a way of bringing this history to life. This is one of the reasons we will continue our campaign. The Mayor has highlighted the need for a Museum of Slavery. The initiative to create a Museum of Slavery and Freedom in Deptford, ideally at the dockyard, could fulfil that role.