please empty your brain below
Ah a public consultation. A greatly misused process, consultations are not referendums but are sometimes treated as if they are while informed views like yours are frequently ignored.

Consultations should really be used to tease out issues that were overlooked in the original proposal rather than a way of drumming up support for a particular idea or because you are required to do one.

kerspatula | 11.10.22 - 8:01 a.m. | #

This looks more like engagement than consultation

David | 11.10.22 - 8:26 a.m. | #

Probably missing something but why and how would they want to link Stratford International with Stratford station with a bridge? There's no space and one can walk through busy Westfield or alongside or,if patient,take the DLR

Half a physicist | 11.10.22 - 8:43 a.m. | #

A better connection between Stratford and Stratford International doesn't need to be a bridge. But the choice - walk through busy Westfield or take the DLR - is precisely why a better connection is needed.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 11.10.22 - 8:48 a.m. | #

I am reminded of the quote allegedly from Ken Livingstone "I am obliged to consult, but not obliged to take notice"

(or words to that effect--I can't find a source on the internet to verify the wording or whether Mr Livingstone or anyone else actually ever said that)

MilesT | 11.10.22 - 9:08 a.m. | #

I do wonder how often consultations genuinely reveal things that any competent planner wouldn't have been able to work out anyway with a bit of analysis.

It would be good if Stratford International station got a more accurate name as part of this project.

Andrew S | 11.10.22 - 10:07 a.m. | #

A shame the interior layout of the station won’t be part of the rebuild. The single silliest decision was to have the Stratford ‘International’ DLR branch bisecting the concourse, necessitating the -up-and-down-again entrance and egress from the Jubilee Line platforms. The line should’ve been buried.

yeoldemother | 11.10.22 - 10:22 a.m. | #

If it’s anything like the “consultations” round my way on LTNs, cycle lanes and road closures

(dg interrupts: it's not)

it’ll only be a legally-mandated distraction for the council and planners to ignore before doing what they always intended. Any subsequent reference to it in correspondence with councillors (quoting the number of submissions, balance of views, etc) can then be ignored as irrelevant to decisions taken “in cabinet” or “by the full council”, depending on the borough.

Labourer | 11.10.22 - 10:28 a.m. | #

I live in Maryland and so walk to Westfield/the Olympic Park the back way via Penny Brookes Street which crosses the railway line out to Leyton. That way I can arrive at Stratford International/John Lewis without having to go through the rest of the centre - a boon at times when it is so busy. Of course the obvious question for those of us who live at this end of Stratford is whether the MSG Sphere is going ahead with its planned extra access to the station.

Joan | 11.10.22 - 10:58 a.m. | #

I take the view that consultations like these should be about teasing out details that would be used to make an existing proposal much better, or where the body making the decision is genuinely open-minded about the final outcome. They shouldn't ever be referendums.

Anders | 11.10.22 - 12:06 p.m. | #

I saw one of the prior consultations either last year or early this year in the same spot in the Westfield. Only recently moved at that point and didn't feel I had much to add to the topic so I left it alone.

Jimmy | 11.10.22 - 2:33 p.m. | #

Stratford Station has a very complex history. Platforms 16 and 17, previously known as the Low Level platforms, have been in their present position for over 100 years. Perhaps they should have been lowered when the Jubilee line platforms were built alongside them, but that would have been very expensive and disruptive, if it was even possible.

Malcolm of Kent | 11.10.22 - 3:32 p.m. | #

Engagement/consultation can quite often flag something that a planner missed especially at the micro/local scale. Thinking to schemes I’ve worked on it’s only been through engagement we’ve realised a large Jewish community who can’t use pedestrian crossings on a Saturday, an undertaker who went incognito but needed access at odd times, a route used to train police horses or an only occasionally used access to alottments. Planners and especially their consultants won’t be local experts.

David | 11.10.22 - 8:43 p.m. | #











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