Monday, January 29, 2007

Oriental City row: Beijing intervenes.

Thisislocallondon.co.uk reports that a senior figure from the Chinese government has stepped into the controversy surrounding plans to redevelop Oriental City in Colindale. The Chinese Consul General to Britain, Jiang Yuansong has written to Mayor Ken Livingstone saying:

"As the counsellor and Consul General of the Chinese Embassy, I would like to express my deep concern to the plan which has negative impact on so many Chinese families.

"I also have great sympathy for the tenants, whose businesses would be affected if the proposed development goes ahead without modification."

"Many tenants take the relocation plan as inadequate and request it be practicable and workable. Otherwise their business and living would be seriously affected by the rebuilding.

It was reported that the rebuilding would have impact on about 1,000 Chinese families in the next three to four years if the present plan is approved."


The article goes on to say that the official request to greenlight the plans will be submitted to Mayor Livingstone at the beginning of February and the final decision will be taken after 14 days - just in time for Chinese New Year.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I don't know how bad business owners will be affected, there are times when certain parties have to make way for the greater good.

City improvement is an inevitable process. A prosperous city cannot remain stunted for 50 or 100 years without change.

Here in Malaysia as well as Singapore and China, business owners are usually relocated elsewhere whenever there are redevelopments. As long as their livelihood are not adversely affected, they will have to bear with it. After all, life is full of uncertainty and this is part of it.

Having said that, I don't mean that I support the plan. I don't know about its detail so I can't really understand how badly it will affect them. Right or wrong, will depend on the relocation plan.