Danny Thorpe, Leader of Greenwich Council speaks on the environment and affordable housing

After months of discussions, I’m pleased that Morgan Stanley have finally agreed to cancel their plans to build a cruise terminal at Enderby Wharf.

The more we learned about the causes and impacts of air pollution, the louder the objections to the terminal became.

I shared our residents’ concerns and earlier this year publicly called on the developers to rethink their plans, pushing for a cleaner, greener terminal.

Morgan Stanley were not able to find a solution as it appears that the technology to build a clean terminal isn’t there yet.

Until it is, we won’t support any new proposal that involves polluting ships docking in our borough.

There were two other major concerns I had about the Enderby Wharf plan.

The first was the amount of affordable housing, so I’ll be pushing Morgan Stanley, or whoever comes forward to develop the site, for a greater number of genuinely affordable homes.

The second issue is the lack of good quality public space.

Thousands of people live in the area already, and thousands more will do so as more homes are built.

For the peninsula to thrive as a neighbourhood people need somewhere to walk, somewhere to play, somewhere to relax.

I would like to see whether, together, we could build a new Peninsula Park on the riverfront for everyone to enjoy, with green spaces and safe paths for walking and cycling.

There is a long way to go now, but I’m hopeful the developers will ensure that a community-led conversation begins as soon as possible.

I would particularly like to pay tribute to Matthew Pennycook MP, my fellow councillors and the No Toxic Cruise Port campaigners for raising the whole issue of pollution and air quality on the river.

Councils and the Mayor of London are working hard to reduce emissions from roads, and we’re now talking to the Port of London Authority about how we can do the same on the Thames