EIR - Victoria Stone Wharf [Oct 2026]

There is a material factual issue that requires clarification. Published material concerning Victoria Stone Wharf has described historic cargo handling and, more recently, has associated the site with MixIt/Modern Mix and 'reactivation'. The landowner's evidence is that MixIt/Modern Mix's waterborne aggregate operation took place at the adjoining No. 80 River
Road, where material was discharged across the river wall and stockpiled on No. 80, not at Victoria Stone Wharf, No. 78. The jetty and dolphins are at No. 78. The historic GLA site
assessment itself records the existing jetty infrastructure as being in poor condition and requiring replacement, records aggregates being handled by road, and records the last cargo as 'pre 1997'.

1. Every record, dataset, return, survey, report, note, photograph, correspondence or other document relied upon for any statement that Victoria Stone Wharf last handled cargo in 1998, together with the source and meaning of any figure of approximately 460,000 tonnes associated with 1998. Please state whether that figure represents actual waterborne throughput, total site throughput, road-borne throughput, theoretical capacity, or another measure.
2. Every record of a commercial vessel call, berth, mooring, loading or discharge attributed specifically to Victoria Stone Wharf, 78 River Road, from 1 January 1980 to the present, including (where held) vessel name/IMO or other identifier, date, cargo, tonnage, berth/location and the source record.
3. All evidence relied upon for the statement published in the Mayor's Question 2023/4072 answer that 'Victoria Stone Wharf (LB Barking & Dagenham) – Mix It (Modern Mix)' had been reactivated since 2016, including the date of the alleged reactivation, waterborne tonnage, vessel details, photographs, correspondence, site plans and the precise location at which cargo was said to have been discharged.
4. Any plan, GIS record, coordinates, address record or other material used to distinguish Victoria Stone Wharf/78 River Road from adjoining 80 River Road when attributing
   MixIt/Modern Mix activity to Victoria Stone Wharf.
5. All GLA and consultant field notes, completed survey sheets, photographs, inspection records and site plans relating to inspections or assessments of Victoria Stone Wharf
   from 2000 to the present, including inspection dates, the organisation/role of the surveyors, the parts of the site/river frontage inspected, and any persons interviewed.
6. All hydrographic, bathymetric, navigational, dredging, berth-depth, tidal-access or marine-engineering information relied upon when assessing the ability of the existing
   No. 78 berth/jetty to handle commercial freight, including the evidential basis for any statement about water depth within 100 metres of the wharf.
7. All information concerning the physical condition, repair, replacement or required capital works to the No. 78 jetty/dolphins, including any estimate or assumption
   concerning the cost of replacement, dredging, maintenance dredging or other marine works.
8. All information evidencing market demand or operator interest in using No. 78 for waterborne freight since 2000, including correspondence with operators, owners, agents, the PLA, the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, the Mineral Products Association, RMC/CEMEX, MixIt/Modern Mix or Thames Recycling interests.
9. For the evidence supporting the 2026 Draft London Plan and Policy GLE10, all site specific assumptions for Victoria Stone Wharf, including assumed present capacity,
   potential future capacity, commodity, annual throughput, berth availability, infrastructure requirements, capital costs, utilisation assumptions and whether/how No. 78 contributes to the claimed London-wide wharf capacity requirement or shortfall.
10. Any records identifying waterborne freight activity at 80 River Road and any records showing how that activity was treated in GLA safeguarded-wharf monitoring, capacity
    studies or statements concerning Victoria Stone Wharf.
11. All correspondence between the GLA and the PLA, LB Barking & Dagenham, MixIt/Modern Mix, RMC/CEMEX and/or the owner/occupier of 78 or 80 River Road
    concerning the alleged reactivation, waterborne use, safeguarding, viability or capacity of Victoria Stone Wharf from 1 January 2010 to the present.

For the avoidance of doubt, I am not asking for evidence merely showing that MixIt/Modern Mix imported aggregates somewhere in the River Road area. The key issue is whether there is evidence that a commercial vessel actually berthed against, moored to, or discharged cargo through the safeguarded land and marine infrastructure of Victoria Stone Wharf, 78 River Road.
 

If any requested information is held by a contractor or consultant on the GLA's behalf, please treat it as held for EIR purposes. If any part is considered exempt, please identify the specific exception relied upon, provide the remainder, and explain the public-interest assessment where applicable. If the request is considered too broad in any respect, please contact me promptly so that it can be refined without delaying the remaining items.

Our response

Your request falls within the exception provided by regulation 12(4)(b) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), which permits a public authority to refuse a request where it is considered to be manifestly unreasonable. A request may be manifestly unreasonable where the burden of complying with it would be disproportionate, including where the cost and time involved would place an unreasonable strain on the authority's resources.

Advice and assistance

Under regulation 9 of the EIR, public authorities have a duty to provide advice and assistance where reasonably possible. In this regard, we have identified an email that may be relevant to part 3 of your request and have provided this to you. The email in question remains within the GLA’s data retention period*, was from the relevant period and would appear pertinent to the preparation of a response to Mayor’s Question Time 2023/4072 by officers. However, as previously explained, we cannot confirm whether this document specifically represents evidence relied upon in the response to Mayor's Question 2023/4072. The officer involved in the discussions and in preparing the response is no longer employed by the GLA, and we have been unable to verify this point.

*The GLA email retention period for emails is 8 years after which they are automatically deleted.

We would also draw your attention to information already published on the GLA's website concerning Victoria Stone Wharf and the Safeguarded Wharves Review: Safeguarded Wharves Reviews | London City Hall

• Current Direction (2021): safeguarding_direction_victoria_stone.pdf
• Safeguarded Wharves Review Final Report (2019), including references within the appendices; md2569_combined_appendices.pdf
• Individual Site Assessments (2018), including Site Assessment No. 41; safeguarded_wharves_review_2018_-_individual_site_assessments_0.pdf and
• Safeguarded Wharves Review (2005), particularly pages 122-123: Safeguarded Wharves COVER

Finally, we attach the document Safeguarded Wharves Review – Final Recommendation – Annex 5. This document is ordinarily available through a link on our website, but that link is
currently unavailable and will be restored as soon as possible.