Graham Street Park and kick-about area saved!

The destruction of Graham Street Park  and the ‘redevelopment’ of City Road Basin is one of the Lib Dems most outrageous and anti-democratic schemes of their entire administration.

Back in October 2003 the then Lib Dem leader of the Council cooked up an idea to ‘regenerate’ the area by building apartments all around the basin, and also by introducing two absolutely massive private residential towers at the City Road end of the basin.  The Towers are offensive enough, and not something that any local resident would want, but the scheme didn’t stop there, it proposed building on most of Graham Street Park, including the kick-about area, and also kicking the Boat Club out of their clubhouse to a much smaller site across the other side of the Basin.  The replacement for the park was going to be a long thin ribbon of grass stretching in front of all the flats, which might make a nice garden for the newly gentrified apartments, but was not what you would call a park.

The park is a very valuable local amenity, much used, particularly during the summer, and the kick-about area is an integral part of the park.  The suggestion that the kick-about area could simply be relocated across the other side of the basin, about 15 mins walk away, and separated from the rest of the park by the water was madness, because it would no longer be part of the park, and would act as a magnet for crime and ASB, isolated on its own, half way down Wharf Road.

The proposals were put to the Lib Dem dominated South Area Committee, and ‘consulted’ on.  However, although views were sought at South Area Committee, the Masterplan, which would form part of the Council’s planning policy, was never actually put to the vote.  It was simply ‘adopted’ by the executive, at which point it became a material consideration in planning terms. So when a planning application for two towers, one 28 stories, and one 36 stories, came before the South Area planning committee, they couldn’t really be refused, because they were already ‘approved’ in outline by the Masterplan.  This was Lib Dem anti-democracy at its worst. 

The Towers are, unfortunately, approved, and will probably get built.  However, when we won back the Council in 2010, I was determined to try and keep Graham Street Park intact, including the kick-about area.  I got hold of papers relating to the deal to relocate the Boat Club (to get it out of the way of the luxury flats), and discovered that the deal required the Council to pay to relocate the Boat Club, not the developer. Never mind that we couldn’t afford to pay for this now, it was an extraordinarily poor deal for the Council, and would have resulted in the loss of the Park, relocation of the kick-about area, and significant expense to the Council – overall, a significant loss of public amenity, with no payback at all for the local community.

I’m pleased to say that common sense has prevailed, and the Labour Administration has now decided that the Boat Club and the kick-about area stay where they are, and the Council will use the sites that it owns on the other side of the basin for much-needed housing. And local residents get to keep their park.

I’m looking forward to seeing significant improvements to the Park.  The disused building needs bringing back into use, hopefully with a cafe of some sort, all the planting needs some severe pruning and thinning to make the currently overgrown parts of the park feel safe, and the kick-about area needs to be completely refurbished to provide proper fencing, and clear visibility from the street, so that it no longer attracts ASB after dark.  All improvements that local residents actually want.

Towpath use: Co-operation, not confrontation

I’m more than slightly disappointed in the Tribune this week, attempting to stir up enmity between Islington Cyclists and Islington Pedestrians.

We have reached a very useful point with British Waterways where they are now actively seeking to engage with stakeholders to mitigate the increase in use of the towpath, particularly in relation to commuting cyclists, which British Waterways themselves are now describing as “unsustainable”.

It was British Waterways that called the stakeholders meetings, and it was British Waterways that proposed publishing a joint letter of intent co-signed by representatives of all stakeholders: Living Streets, ICAG, Hanover School, Friends of Regents canal and Local Councillors.  It is a significant and very encouraging achievement that we managed to reach a consensus on the text of the letter, which sets out a joint intent for a way forward.  The letter was published in this weeks Gazette and Tribune, although in both instances the text was, very disappointingly, cut down from the carefully rehearsed and agreed original:  http://www.islingtontribune.com/letters/2011/nov/tips-cyclists-hurry

ICAG have always stated that they only support cycle calming measures on the towpath if they are accompanied by matching improvements in the safety and usability of the ‘parallel route’.  I fully support this position.  And my understanding is that there is a major problem with the route at the moment where it crosses the New North Road from Poole Street into Eagle Wharf Road.  This junction is lethal, and needs drastic improvement if we are to be able to ask cyclists in a hurry to divert to this route, and it is in Hackney.  I plan to research the route myself over the next couple of weeks to see how easy it is to use.  What this does mean is that some cross-borough working is needed to provide the carrot of a safe parallel route, and we need British Waterways to get stuck in with the stick of erecting effective cycle chicanes, and signs such as the one shown above, which makes it absolutely clear, both visually and in words, that the towpath is a pedestrian priority area at all times, and that ‘two tings’ means “excuse me please” not “get out of my way”.

Come rain or come shine

This year’s canal festival was a particularly satisfying event, in spite of the very patchy weather (it was the first time in 13 years that it has rained on the day of the festival).  As usual we met and talked to many friends and supporters, and we collected 120 signatures in support of our petition to reverse cuts to Safer Neighbourhoods Police teams – St Peters ward being one of the eight wards in Islington that now has to share it’s sergeant with another ward, thanks to the Conservative Mayor’s cuts to frontline Police budgets.

Most importantly though, we were joined by our new ward councillor, Alice Perry, who was elected on 11^th August 2011 with a 53% share of the vote.  An outright victory, and a 15% swing to Labour. We are absolutely delighted with the scale of the victory, and we are doubly lucky to have such an energetic and talented Councillor to work with us in St Peters.  She can only make us even stronger.  Pictured in the photo are, from left to right, Cllr Gary Doolan, Cllr Alice Perry, Cllr Paul Smith, Executive member for the environment, our hugely energetic and compulsively forensic ward secretary and organizer, Felix, and myself.  Thanks also go to all our members and supporters who helped out on the day.  Here’s to the next 13 years of unbroken sunshine.  

Turnmills - Why did we approve demolition?

Turnmills is a very interesting building. It was originally built as stables for horses that pulled the then horse-drawn underground railway. It had a ramp in the middle of the building to walk horses up to the upper floors. It was subsequently owned by a gin distribution company, and more recently achieved fame, or notoriety, depending on your view, as a one of the first 24hr licensed nightclubs in the capital.

Turnmills also sits right across the road from the 'Former Middlesex Sessions House' which is a very fine grade 2* listed building. It is in the Clerkenwell conservation area, although the building is not listed, and English Heritage not only declined to list it, but gave it a ‘certificate of immunity from listing’. So it is very clear that English heritage consider it’s architectural merit as fairly limited.

By 2007 the nightclub was starting to flag a bit, and the building was bought by one of the better known property developers in the Islington area. The possible demise of the building was first signalled when, under Lib Dem George Alan's dubious chairing, planning permission was granted for a bizarre two-storey wavy glass extension on the roof of the existing building. This effectively 'booked the space' above the building, in planning terms, for either an extension or a replacement building. I opposed the extension in committee, as it was ugly and completely inappropriate for the building. Nothing much was heard of this permission, but I did discover buried in the documentation, that the application also permitted the change of use of the nightclub to office space. This didn't mean it had to happen, but meant that the owners could if they wished, convert to office space.

In 2008 Turnmills the night club closed down, I think of their own choosing. Then in 2010, the Council received an application from the property developer to demolish the building and replace it with a building that was monstrously too large, too dark, and a completely inappropriate design for the area. I sat on the committee that refused the application, during which we spent much time discussing the fact that the developer had not made any real efforts to market the existing building, in order to demonstrate whether or not is was genuinely beyond use.

The developer appealed against our refusal, but the planning inspector turned down the appeal.  However, he made a number of comments about the building and the possibility of replacing it in his report. He stated he thought that the building was of more historic than architectural merit, that the loss of the building would cause appreciable harm to the conservation area, but not “significant harm” – this is an important statement, as the term “significant harm” would require a much greater level of scrutiny of the building’s merits, if demolition were to be proposed. He also said that he could “envisage” the replacement of the Turnmills building if a building of sufficient quality of design were to be proposed as it’s replacement.  Although he did not think the building that was the subject of the appeal the right building for the site.

All of these comments are included in the inspector’s report, and they effectively constrain the planning committee’s judgement of any subsequent application in the areas that he has commented on, since any further appeal would consider the previous judgment as part of the evidence.

Islington’s chief Design and Conservation Officer did a lot of work with the architects to redesign the building, and the scheme that was put in front of the committee on Thursday 1st September reflected this. Everyone who saw the scheme, including our own Design Officer and English heritage acknowledged, even though they did not support it, that it was a huge improvement on the previous design, and I share that view.

It is just possible, if the will had been there, that the existing building could have been retained, or at least the external shell – as nothing remains of the interior. It was also suggested, and I agree, that a better building could have been designed for the site, again, if the will had been there from the developer. As it is they stuck to redesigning the scheme they had previously submitted. A bit of professional pride on the part of the Architects perhaps?

Faced with the combination of a much improved design, and the background of the inspectors comments about the existing building, and the circumstances under which he considered it would be acceptable to lose it, I felt myself marginally persuaded in favour of approving the scheme, which we did. It was a difficult decision, and we spent a long time prior to the meeting researching and debating the various issues. Difficult as it was, I stand by our decision to approve, even though I know a lot of people will I know be very critical of us. I hope this helps to explain how we came to that decision. I would also add that it is necessary to read the inspector's report dismissing the appeal against refusal of the previous scheme (P091493), in order to understand the limitations to the context in which we were able to consider the application.

Bye-election called in St Peters

Due to one of my colleagues having to stand down, a bye-election has been called in my ward, St Peters.  However, what might at first seem like a relatively minor adjustment in the Council in Islington, where Labour won a 22 seat majority in the elections last year, has actually attracted a significant amount of attention, mainly because the Tories, who haven't held a seat on Islington Council for more years than anyone can remember, think they might have a chance.

Fortunately, we have a superb candidate in Alice Perry (centre of picture above, to the right of Emily Thornberry our MP).  Alice was born and brought up in Islington, went to school in Islington, and is now a governor of St Andrews School in Islington.  She works at the University of London, is an Arsenal season ticket holder, and vice-chair of our constituency party.  Alice has energy and commitment in abundance.  If you want to read more about her go to:

http://www.islington-labour.org.uk/support-alice/

In terms of opposition, we have seen some noticeable campaigning effort from the Tories in St Peters since the election was called, as compared to the Lib-Dems, who seem to be going for a repeat of their 2010 performance, which consisted entirely of a deluge of extremely negative leaflets, and no sign whatsoever of any supporters out canvassing.  We have seen groups of two or three Tories out most days, one of which is their candidate, whilst Labour has had teams of 12 - 15 people out every night and all weekend for the last three weeks. Saturday afternoon we had four separate teams out canvassing the ward, and support is looking pretty solid.

I have to say I am overwhelmed by the humongous amount of help we are receiving from our regular supporters in St Peters, fellow Councillors and supporters from all over the borough, and supporters and activists from neighbouring boroughs.  It really feels good to be out canvassing with such a great bunch of people.

Agitators disrupt the Council's Budget meeting

The Council's meeting to set this year's budget was an ignominious affair.  No-one was happy about having to set a budget that was based on an enforced 16% reduction in our overall budget, thanks to the Tory-led, Lib-Dem-backed government.  A lot of people don't realise that 75% of the Council's annual income is made up of grants from Central Government, and if the Government decides not to give us the money, there is not a lot we can do about it except work out what we are going to have to cut.  If you wanted to recover the money that the government has cut from Islington's budget this year, on the back of an envelope, we would have had to double the rate of Council tax to make it up. And the Tory's have made a rule that we can't do that either, even if we wanted to.

What we have managed to do is to achieve around 50% of the cuts through efficiency savings, and we have protected as many frontline services as we can manage, including saving lollipop patrols outside schools, adventure playgrounds, as many voluntary groups as we possibly could, and we are not closing any libraries as a result of the cuts.  The Labour Group, and in particular the executive sweated long and hard on this to try and get the best (ie least worst) outcome for the most vulnerable and needy in the Borough.

As reported in the press, the Council was prevented from holding its meeting to set the budget by an organised protest from the gallery; - a group of people who shouted down all attempts to hold the meeting, hurling abuse, and chanting, effectively stifling any possibility of holding the meeting or of there being any proper debate.  Personally I cannot see what this achieved.

I am not entirely happy that we ended up moving to another meeting room in order to agree the budget.  I would have preferred to wait until the more disruptive elements had been removed, and then resumed in the chamber, although I accept it is easy to be wise after the event. Ultimately, however, the decision on how to deal with that level of disruption of a meeting rests with the Chief Executive, John Foster, and the change of venue decision was his.  Several perfectly reasonable members of the public asked me, as we removed to a committee room, why they couldn't be allowed in, and I couldn't really answer them.  I did however question the decision under a point of order, and was told by the Chief Executive that he took the decision on the advice of the Police.  Which doesn't exactly explain why some members of the public managed to gain entry to the re-convened meeting, and some didn't, although the press were there.
Once ensconced in the committee room, members had no appetite for debate, and the budget was dealt with simply by vote.  Given that I was intending to speak, and was also deprived of the opportunity, I reproduce here the text of my intended speech, for anyone who cares to read it.  You have to try and imagine me raising my voice firmly against heckling from the opposite benches to get the intent of the speech:

Madam Mayor.  Last month, the Liberal Democrats’ strategy on how they hope to regain the trust of people in Islington was leaked to the local papers.

I would like to thank whichever Lib Dem leaked the document, because they have done the borough a service by exposing the naked cynicism of the Liberal Democrats.  And I have to say,  the document shows the Lib Dems have a pretty odd idea of how you win people’s trust:  By their account you achieve trust by being irresponsible, misleading people, confusing  them, and deceiving them into thinking you’re their friend.

The cynical attitude betrayed in that document can be seen again in the Lib Dem amendment to the budget which is in front of us now.   ‘Don’t be a constructive opposition’, the document said.  Don’t be ‘responsible’, and where possible,  ‘flirt with populism’.

And Madam Mayor, this is a direct quote from their own document: “Use the budget process, especially the cuts”. On the cuts, their advice is just to repeat, that it’s not their fault.  Finally, madam mayor, and this is perhaps most galling as we debate this budget, they have come up with the maxim, “it’s not our problem, it’s theirs.”

The job losses and cuts to community services are a problem for hard working, low-income families in my ward and across the borough.  But those families will most certainly be interested in how the local Liberal Democrat Party has chosen to shrug its shoulders at their own Government’s deliberate, cynical and brutal attack on communities like ours.

So their strategy document says exploit the cuts for political advantage, and that is what they are trying to do.  The whole point of the so called ‘people’s fund’ in their amendment is to give them material for focus leaflets for whichever cut they are, in the words of their memo, ‘championing’.  They suggest taking the food out of children’s mouths to pay for a focus leaflet slush fund, which can be, and will be, double and treble counted as they cherry-pick particular cuts to oppose, conveniently ignoring the fact that any change to the Council’s budget will take away from one service to pay for another.  This could hardly be more cynical.

They suggest comms cuts so unrealistic that they would leave the council unable to effectively promote things like summer activities to keep kids off the streets, direct people to the new Citizens Advice Bureau, or inform people of the benefits available to them.

Now I’m not opposed to cutting the communications budget:  We said we would do this as part of our manifesto pledge.  However, I do know that under the Liberal Democrats, the council spent quarter of a million pounds on its ‘Islington Now’ magazine.  Next year, we expect to have cut this to around £80,000 – and we have improved the content, to provide help for local people, rather than just trumpeting how marvellous their administration was.

So we are on track to save more than half a million pounds on comms in one year since the Lib Dems were in power.  But the amendment in front of us has nothing to do with the real business of saving money in the wake of the huge Lib-Dem/Tory Government attack on our community.  It is all about trying to save their bacon after they have abandoned our community.  It is about, as their document puts it, “not getting caught defending the Tories” about “using the cuts” and about “flirting with populism”.

Madam Mayor, the Lib Dem document shows that the Lib Dems have no plan to defend Islington from the cuts.  They are too busy lapping up what they see as an opportunity for political attack.  The people of our borough need representatives who are on their side, not this kind of cynical, insupportable, two-faced politics.

Staying in touch with our voters

I happen to strongly agree with the Islington Labour policy that it is important to stay in touch with our constituents at all times, and not just at election times.  After all, it is a Councillor's most important role to look after their constituents, and I am acutely concious that it is my constituent's who elected me, and who will decide if I get re-elected.

Yesterday we did some door-knocking on Bentham Court Estate, and got a very warm reception from everyone we spoke to.  I picked up the usual sort of case-work from this session, cleaning, housing re-allocations, shoddy building works, broken entrance gates, etc,.  Also very noticeable was the difference in standards between the blocks managed by Cirle Anglia and those managed by HFI.

Everyone is also deeply worried about the cuts that the Tory-led Government are going to inflict on Islington, but I don't think people realise just how bad, and destructive, it will be until the cuts really start to bite.

At the same time, residents on Bentham Court are particularly pleased with the new adventure play area being constructed for children on the estate.  It looks great, and will provide an excellent, overlooked playspace for kids to play in.  The picture shows our canvassing team next to the new playground, from left to right, Andy, Nick, Marina, Felix, our ward organiser and myself.  We had a good morning.