Residents, businesses and community groups are being encouraged to join the hundreds of people who have already had their say on the future of Dalston after consultation on the Draft Dalston Plan was extended to October.

Earlier this summer the Council published its draft Dalston Plan, setting out a vision for the next 15 years of the town centre based on the views put forward by the local community in the Dalston Conversation – Hackney Council’s biggest ever local engagement exercise which saw input from more than 5,000 people.

The plan outlines new dedicated planning guidance to safeguard much-loved local places and spaces like Ridley Road street market and the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden as well as how the town centre can accommodate new homes and workspaces, whilst ensuring as much housing and workspace as possible is genuinely affordable and accessible to local residents and businesses.

This includes identifying ten opportunity sites that can accommodate over 600 new homes – a minimum of 50% of which should be genuinely affordable – as well as new workspaces for a growing town centre with some restricted to 60% of market rates for local businesses.

Over 200 people have already had their say since the Dalston Plan consultation launched in June through a series of walkabouts, drop-in sessions, pop-up stalls on Ridley Road, online and offline workshops and through a dedicated consultation website.

The extension to 1 October will allow the views of even more people who live in, work in or visit Dalston to be incorporated before the plan is adopted in 2022, with a series of engagement events being planned for August and September.