Southwark nabs GLA planning manager for Old Kent Road regen
Colin Wilson, strategic planning manager at the Greater London Authority, has been seconded to Southwark Council for two years to head a dedicated team to deliver the regeneration of the Old Kent Road Opportunity Area.
The new team will provide planning and regeneration services to steer the regeneration of the area, including the delivery of more than 20,000 new homes and 5,000 new jobs, as well as two new stops on the extension of the Bakerloo Line.
Colin Wilson, strategic planning manager at the Greater London Authority, has been seconded to Southwark Council for two years to head a dedicated team to deliver the regeneration of the Old Kent Road Opportunity Area.
The new team will provide planning and regeneration services to steer the regeneration of the area, including the delivery of more than 20,000 new homes and 5,000 new jobs, as well as two new stops on the extension of the Bakerloo Line.
Council chief executive Eleanor Kelly said: “We are delighted to welcome Colin to Southwark to help us push forward with one of London’s biggest and most ambitious regeneration projects. Given the scale and complexity of our plans for Old Kent Road, it makes perfect sense for Colin to report jointly to Steve Platts, director of regeneration, and Simon Bevan, director of planning, ensuring that transport, planning and regeneration projects are completely aligned.”
Wilson said: “I am very pleased to be given the opportunity to lead the creation of a new part of central London that has the potential to contribute so much to the people of Southwark and to London’s continued growth as a great world city. The area has significant and under-utilised land assets, the redevelopment of which could provide large numbers of homes and new jobs in an exemplary urban environment and the means to deliver the Bakerloo Line extension to Old Kent Road and beyond into Lewisham.
“There has been a lot of talk about “smart cities” and Southwark has recognised the potential to be pioneering in the way in which it plans for and engages with local communities, developers and the broader public sector, and I have been very lucky to have been given the chance to help Southwark deliver on these ambitions.”
Colin Wilson’s previous work at the GLA has included projects of a similar scale at Old Oak Common, Vauxhall/Nine Elms/Battersea and King’s Cross.
Major schemes to have come forward over the past year include projects by Galliard, Berkeley, and Pocket.
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