The developers Greater London Enterprises who we had numerous meetings with said that it was the highest spec scheme that they had ever built. They were being extremely conservative. These are the live work units that front on to London Lane, they were 'sold' to Hackney Council as live work units but that is not what was originally delivered. 750,000 came from GLE themselves. This was niggling because planning was allowed for residential use.
People do live there now though.
This fact in conjunction with Peter Snell being elected on to the Council allowed for a degree more influence. It was at this point that the Manchester group got involved. A contentious issue was that there were a number of houses in Ellingfort Road and London Lane that were squatted. There were 2 houses in London Lane where people had lived for over 12years and therefore had squatters rights. They also had to negotiate how the 2nd phase could be built without disenfranchising the community that was already there.