The Mayor has promised a Public London Charter, supported by the London Plan, to ensure public spaces are open and accessible for all with the minimum of rules, whether they are publicly or privately owned. These will impact on future developments, is enough being done to ensure that existing privately-owned, publicly accessible spaces (POPAS) meet these criteria?
Professor Matthew Carmona has been calling for such a charter for some years; he will discuss the issues with Peter Bishop, who in his former role as head of planning at Camden worked closely with Robert Evans, then director of planning at Argent, on the King’s Cross development, one of the most successful POPAS anywhere. Erica Belcher is a Researcher at Centre for London and has been working on their Public London research project, which was commissioned by the Greater London Authority to directly feed into the Mayor’s Public London Charter.