Lambeth's plans to demolish Cressingham Gardens and other estates without the consent of residents
- Thread starter Brixton Hatter
- Start date
It'll hurt them alright - I don't mean violence, I mean careerwise. This is going to backfire.
leanderman
Street Party: July 2
Basically, 'take one for the team'.
There might be a lot more of this infilling as the population heads from 8.6million now to 10million within 14 years. Revealed: full extent of changes being made to London's road network
And 11million by 2039: Boris: My successor as Mayor will have to raise congestion charge
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
It's not infill that they're proposing doing here - residents let the council know over 2 years ago that they were okay with infill and minor redevelopment alongside refurbishment - it's demolition.
What Lambeth's estate residents - whatever their tenure - are starting to realise is that if Cressingham happens, none of them are safe from being "regenerated" against their will.
leanderman
Street Party: July 2
I am aware of that.
The point is that of making more units from existing sites, however it is done. (And however badly).
The point is that of making more units from existing sites, however it is done. (And however badly).
Surely the point is transferring public goods into private hands?
Yes, as long as the council can find a slightly plausible excuse, at least to its own ears.
leanderman
Street Party: July 2
There are lots of points.
The one I am making is that more of this stuff is likely, faced with such demand for housing.
Such demand for affordable housing. However, most of the additional flats which the council wants to add to this estate will neither be affordable nor social housing. There will be 23-27 more council flats, that's all, after making this estate half as dense again (with over 500 flats) as it is now.
Don't ask me how the extra people will fit on the buses, or the train, or in the schools, or doctors' surgeries; public services and infrastructure in the area are already straining at the seams.
leanderman
Street Party: July 2
Precisely. All this, for so little, especially in terms of affordability.
A petition which, if heeded, could stop "regeneration" being steamrollered through, not just in Lambeth, but in other parts of London too.
The Mayor of London: Require a 2/3 majority of its residents to approve the redevelopment of a council estate.
The Mayor of London: Require a 2/3 majority of its residents to approve the redevelopment of a council estate.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
299 old timer , did you catch any of the ruckus over Park View House? It looks increasingly as though Lambeth council are taking Compulsory Purchase of Park View and 126-138 Trinity Rise as read. There have also been rumbles that they've approached Crown Estates about a long lease on the land MacGregor House - the probation hostel - sits on.
High Definition
Active Member
Interesting story in the Camden New Journal about Camden Council's Community Investment Programme which includes link to a report to Camden's Cabinet next week which identifies a series of financial risks which could affect the viability of Camden's estate regeneration programme. Relevant to Cressingham I'd have thought as all the risks identified in the Camden report - rising costs in the construction industry, dangers posed by the Housing and Planning Bill, difficulty of retaining staff with appropriate skills in house, falling sale prices in the market sector - apply here in Lambeth too.
Camden's flagship house-building project facing "significant challenges" to hit homes target | Camden New Journal
Camden's flagship house-building project facing "significant challenges" to hit homes target | Camden New Journal
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Arguably, Lambeth are far worse than Camden in terms of not retaining skilled staff, if turnover in their planning department is anything to go by.
Thanks for the link! I'm going to have a read, and forward it to others.
I'm not sure that I understand your question.
Anyone 'choosing' to leave the estate (this includes the adult children of existing tenants, freeholders, and leaseholders) rather than take whatever they're allocated on the regenerated part of estate will just have to take their chances on the housing list - if they can even get on that.
Leaseholders and freeholders will be CPO'd, given a very low price, and therefore will probably be unable to afford anywhere with the same number of bedrooms within the borough (including on the regenerated estate). Particularly as a lot of the freeholders and leaseholders are now getting too old to get a mortgage, or are self employed, or on fairly modest incomes for London and therefore screwed.
There will, if anything, be fewer newly built homes with 3 or more bedrooms than there are on the estate now, therefore those families who are currently just about adequately housed (or, indeed overcrowded) will have to bid against each other repeatedly.
Tenants will (by default) be single decanted - you move into a new build and that's it. ie. Nobody gets to stay where they are now, every tenant (currently a council tenant on the estate) ends up on a water meter (most of us are on water rates), every tenant ends up with higher rent, service charge, and 2 bands higher council tax.
Nobody will be guaranteed a garden or a balcony if they have one now, even if they need it because of pets or children. Nobody will have the option of being housed away from the building dust and noise.
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Greebo you are indiscriminate with your likes but when "like" Tory posters like leanderman my support for Cressingham Gardens stops.
tim
EXPLODED TIM! (Help me!!!)
Did it ever really start?
Charming, holding over a thousand people hostage because of what one person says. Support or don't, I'm done with living in fear. My likes are given according to the validity or usefulness of what people post, not necessarily whether I approve of their politics. YMMV
BTW if you are who I think you are, you have no idea how much your getting those cable ties last year meant. I don't easily forget wrongs, but I always remember favours done.
In a documentary I watched about Barnet (?) even tenants didn't all automatically have the right to a flat on the new estate. Those with secure tenancies did although they didn't get a flat equivalent to their old flat. But they had been running the estate down and giving new tenants different, less secure tenancies and these people had much fewer rights over their new accommodation. I don't know if the same thing has been happening where you are.
Maintenance and repair has certainly been run down. New tenancies and those of existing tenants once moved into the proposed new builds on the estate will be assured, not secure.
Current tenancy conditions can only be changed by the council going to parliament and getting their permission. Assured tenancy conditions can be changed as much as the council likes more or less whenever it likes - better hope that our landlord (the council) doesn't wake up feeling vindictive.
Robert Langtry
Member
Good article by Journalist Rosamund Urwin, Evening Standard, Thursday 14/04/16, page 15 'Comment' regarding the attitude of Lambeth Councillors to People, Libraries, Cressingham, and the Traders of Network Rail Arches.
Fingers
From Tuscany SE22
Protest against the Property Awards tonight
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – HOUSING CAMPAIGNERS TO TARGET TONIGHT’S PROPERTY AWARDS. | The Glass is Half Full
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – HOUSING CAMPAIGNERS TO TARGET TONIGHT’S PROPERTY AWARDS. | The Glass is Half Full
Quelle surprise.
The fight goes on. Lambeth council have picked the wrong estate to regenerate and we might still be able to save some of the other estates under threat too.
stethoscope
Well-Known Member
Do you still have a fighting fund Greebo? Supporting social housing campaigns and keeping a roof over peoples/your heads is frankly more important than spending £25 on the latest entrepreneur 'kitchen' start-up at Pop.
I'm guessing you're already done/have done this, but any alliances to be forged with the likes of Focus, Defend Council Housing, SHOUT, etc?
I'm guessing you're already done/have done this, but any alliances to be forged with the likes of Focus, Defend Council Housing, SHOUT, etc?
www.gofundme/savecressingham
or you can go straight to paypal Online Payment, Merchant Account - PayPal
Got it in one, as regards allies, including some of the heritage societies and Friends of Brockwell Park plus the usual suspects. Some of whom become tiny bit overenthusiastic at times. The difficulty is keeping this small enough to avoid being diverted.
A lot of people on this estate can't march (because of disabilities, chronic illness, advanced old age, childcare, caring responsibilities, working hours etc) and yet one thing I hear time and again is "you should get more people out and marching more often". Not realistic - people who live here have normal lives and are not activists by nature, nor do they need to be.
Being ordinary has its advantages. So we play to our individual strengths - some on the legal stuff, some with their grasp of numbers, some with art, some with press and/or media, some with fundraising, some with networking, some by just refusing to get worn down.
stethoscope
Well-Known Member
This shit makes my blood boil, trying to turn people against a local campaign whilst the council never listens to residents in the first place and conducts itself in a shoddy fashion.
Utterly shameless.
BrixtonBuzz said:
Utterly shameless.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Atkins doesn't like Save Cressingham because we're not interested in the lies she's punted for the last couple of years, and her ideas that being a councillor means she's some sort of font of patronage - go see Mary if your plumbing is fucked! She'll sort it out for you! - except she's all promises and no delivery.
As for her two ward colleagues (both Labour, naturally), we call Cllr Aminu "The Invisible Man", because we never see him, and Cllr Cameron "The Shadow", because she's always following Cllr Atkins around, one pace behind. Both are "chocolate fireguard" standard in terms of usefulness.
E2A: As for that "code of behaviour", she should have a word with her fellow councillors about that. We've had Claire Holland shrieking at us for cat-calling at the Cabinet committee meeting - and I mean red-faced, shrill, enraged shrieking - we've had Napoleon McGlone trying to do a Begbie on people, and most of the cabinet bang to rights lying. We've had councillors abandoning short-life tenants in their wards when it became politically-disadvantageous to them to continue supporting them. We've had one utter twat (Tricky Skills ' favourite councillor) getting people barred from Labour Party membership because they dare to express opinions that don't echo his Progressite programming.
Frankly, this bunch of cunts could give Porter-era Westminster councillors a run for their money in the mendacity and venality stakes.
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