Sir Anthony Glossop, chairman of St Modwen, told Fight The Height campaigners that “[Waltham Forest] council asked us for a tower… they wanted something that would put Walthamstow on the map”. He added that he would personally prefer something more in keeping with the surrounding area, but that tower blocks had been the done thing when Ken Livingstone was Mayor of London.
We’d long suspected that the council had driven the high-rise plans, but this was the first time anyone involved had admitted it. The revelation came when the affable Sir Anthony came over to chat to us after St Modwen’s AGM in Longbridge. During the meeting, campaigners had challenged him on St Modwen’s unpopular tower block plans in both Walthamstow and nearby Upton Park. And beforehand we had handed shareholders joint flyers for Fight The Height and Friends of Queen's Market.
Other highlights of the meeting included the lack of dividends - although directors still enjoyed their fat salaries and pensions - and Sir Anthony describing the property market being worse than anything he’d ever seen.
A comedic note came from a local Longbridge resident asking whether or not the supermarket due to be built there would be an Asda. Here we go again, Sir Anthony must have thought (the supermarket famously pulled out of Queen's Market after a FoQM campaign) only to discover that she specifically wanted an Asda. Not any other supermarket but specifically an Asda. Sir Anthony suggested she could have the one that East Londoners didn’t want. As corporate AGMs go, it was hilarious. OK, you probably had to be there…
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