Clapton to get "Mini" Area Action Plan

...in effect, if not in name - which has yet to be decided.

See the new page

ClaptonAreaActionPlan'10

for the full story

BTW The Tram Depot Arts Trust page hasn't gone

see http://tramdepotartstrust.blogspot.com/ 

 

Hope springs eternal....

Tram Depot decision sticks 2 fingers up at local residents

Updated 4th July

Tuesday 29th June

Planning app 2009/2490 with 90 flats, up to 7 storeys and office space was approved tonight by a narrow majority

• 

 

The planning sub-committee of Hackney Council by a narrow majority this evening stuck two fingers up at over a thousand local residents, its own local ward councillors, the Hackney Society and everyone else who objected to the super-dense and destructive development.

There was no "we understand your position but our priorities are such and such"  only "no you can't speak" and "this is a meeting in public, not a public meeting" Objectors didn't have time to voice all their concerns, let alone challenge anything from the other side.

 

 PHOTO: Protesters on the steps of the Hackney Town Hall before the meeting

   

The committee's majority decision (4/3) means 4 members thought that the loss of a locally unique employment space, with big studios, very high ceilings and skylights, all completely filled with businesses and artists didn't matter.

The fact that this development is the densest new development in Hackney at 580 hrh (habitable rooms per hectare) with tiny flats and no gardens didn't matter.


The fact that similar office space and flats at Lathams (≈450hrh) across the park have remained vacant since built and the current Depot is full with a waiting list didn't matter.

The fact that English Heritage have acknowledged the Depot as historically locally significant as does the Hackney Society didn't matter either.

The fact that everyone from the Hackney Society to Ken Worpole to local TRAs and residents said it is part of our working heritage, culturally binding us together as a community, giving people a feeling of belonging with a sense of place didn't matter.

The fact that there are only two local primary schools and they are full so parents at Lathams have to send their kids to Waltham Forest didn't matter

The fact that there is no youth provision locally and this development will inevitable mean more disaffected and bored youth on the streets didn't matter

The fact that the depot should soon be a PEA (priority employment area) in the new Core Strategy but the development reduces employment space and treats flats as a priority didn't matter.

The fact that successful local businesses will go to the wall didn't matter.

The fact that housing targets have already been met didn't matter.

(there's lots more but you get the idea) 
    

You may ask "what did matter?"

The only thing I can come up with is money.

Who is getting what?

   
•
 

Disregard lack of services

  Forget lack of youth provision

 Quality of life meaningless

 Heritage unimportant
 Art & artists ignored
 Established local businesses forgotten




Good job Hackney council!

  •

The added irony is that only now has the Beecholme estate been proposed for inclusion a new conservation area. If the estate alone was so protected, the depot could not be developed.

Beecholme was built by Sir Frederick Gibberd, one of Britain's most respected architects, is the first mixed estate with houses and flats in Hackney and is featured in Volume 15 of "Hackney History".
The vistas over the park and the squares make Beecholme one of the best of these early estates, as Gibberd intended.

Having a 7 storey block of offices and flats in the most dense development in hackney next door (with 585 hrh, over 3+1/2 times previously recommended density) rather than an historic building would not be allowed if Beecholme was "conserved".

•

...and I should point out that councillors

Linda Kelly, Ian Rathbone and Deniz Oguzkanli

have fought against the development from the start

and

planning sub-committee members cllrs

Linda Smith, Michael Desmond and Susan Fajana-Thomas

voted to reject the planning application.

Well done for sticking to your principles and actually listening to and fighting for your constituents instead of just rubber-stamping planning applications.

Thank you - we won't forget.

•

You need not completely despair just yet.....

Watch this space.

OPPOSE the Planning App to demolish the TRAM DEPOT - Come to TOWN HALL

  

"I am writing to express my full support for the campaign to prevent the
demolition of the Tram Depot, a vital part of Hackney's townscape, history
and living culture."

                                               says Professor Ken Worpole

"I was happy to sign the (Tram Depot Arts Trust) petition, I think it

is a really visionary idea"

                                 says Diane Abbott MP

 

Supported by councillors Linda Kelly, Ian Rathbone and Deniz Oguzkanli

and the Hackney Society.

   

To destroy a locally unique, structurally sound historic building that coincidentally could have been purpose built for artists, craftsmen and allied light industry with very large rooms, high ceilings and huge skylights and which is currently full of artists and craftsmen (with a long waiting list) and which actually does make Clapton a center for art and craft in favour a development unwanted by residents and local organizations in an area already over-developed is simply wrong.

 

To build the most densely packed development in Hackney in an area that has already had far more than its fair share of unwanted development is just bad planning.

 • We want as many people as possible in the chamber and the public gallery.

• We also want people for a quiet demonstration outside before the meeting, with banners and signs - the press will be there.

Be outside the town hall by 5,30pm if you want to be in the demo before going into the meeting.
You can bring your own signs and banners - "NO TRAM DEPOT DEVELOPMENT" etc

INSTRUCTIONS
Go to the main entrance between 6pm and 6.20pm and just say "The planning sub-committee meeting please?" and you will be directed into the main chamber.

Once that is full you may be directed up to the public gallery.

Sit quietly and wait until agenda item 7 is announced - 38-40 Upper Clapton Road the Tram Depot - then all STAND UP TOGETHER to indicate you are there to oppose the application.

Do NOT speak out or yell anything.
You can hold up a sign or banner though.

 ---<<•>>---
     

   

 ---<<•>>---

Here's a version for email

Just right click on it and select "save image as"

It's 400 pixels wide x 323 pixels high.

For printing on inkjet:

A better quality version of the A5 leaflet above is available to download and print at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidandseb/

   

---<<•>>---

  

For the history of the Tram Depot and lots more info including the full Objection from the Hackney Society and others see:

http://beecholme.blogspot.com/2009/12/claptons-old-tram-depot-under-threat.html

OLD TRAM DEPOT UPDATE - App 2009/2490 to go to Committee

WED 23nd JUNE 2010 UPDATE

    The fight goes on...   

The deadline for objection has now been reached on the Tram Depot 2009/2490 planning app

and a decision made by the planning dept.

The planning app will be recommended to be approved by the planning officer, however there are over-riding issues and speculative aspects to the planning app we hope the committee will certainly want to take into account and refuse permission to this third attempt by the developer to demolish our heritage and get rich by cramming as many tiny flats in as he can get away with*

It will go to committee on the 29th of June.

Details are on on the planning committee page of the Hackney website.

There will be more updates incl what you can do to help tomorrow, Thur 24th so check back.

•
   By the way, the planner report for all the apps the committee will be considering is available to download on the committee page
http://mginternet.hackney.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=125&MId=1239&Ver=4


I have extracted just the Tram Depot pages from the 53mb complete planning report to the committee available to view online and download (still 17mb) at:

TramDepotCommitteeReport.pdf

 
The report says that some 720 odd objections have been received whereas, from the figure given us at the B6 meeting then adding petition figures for (written and electronic) and adding letters the actual total is over 1,300 objections and may be 1,500 by the time we get to committee - Including from organizations like the Hackney Society, The Vicorian Society and the Clapton Conservation Advisory Committee.

We are trying to get to the bottom of this discrepancy now.



•

*For example, the single bedrooms in the 2 bed flats are almost exactly half the size of the single bedrooms of 2 bed flats in the Beecholme Estate!
Remember, Beecholme was built just after the war when half of the east end was bombed and there really was a shortage.

About the 2 & 3 bedroom flats

In the single bedroom there's not enough room for a computer desk and a wardrobe...    or rather there is room but you'd have to climb onto the bed to get around one just to get to the other.

And what happens when your 12 year old wants to play with his scaletrix? (or any other indoor game)...   does it go on the bed?

If he/she wants friends over to play on the Xbox it has to be the lounge room, that is, if Mum and Dad will allow it...     but then where do they go?

What do you do when your 7 year old constantly moans "I'm bored"...   tell him/her to play in the back garden?   ...his garden is 6 square feet of a decking corridor or the streets.

You can't have friends over in your own room, you can't play in your own garden, you can't do any of the normal things you and I used to do as children simply because there's no room.

These aren't homes to live in, they're dormitories.

The fact that they meet the latest guidance for room sizes only goes to prove how powerful the building lobby remains.

It's basis is as morally bankrupt and as discredited as "trickle down"

"Love Local Landmarks" consultation by the Hackney Society

Download the questionnaire as MS word.doc here

(The questionnaire includes the email address to return the completed form to)

---<<•>>---
 

 May I suggest local to the Beecholme estate the Old Tram Depot at 38-40 Upper Clapton road be given some protection, especially in the light of current planning application 2009/2490

---<<•>>---

http://www.hackneysociety.org/

Beecholme 184 (communal repairs) walkabout Wed 9th June

Each year somewhere around 1% of the total yearly Hackney Homes repairs budget is set aside for resident designated repairs & additions - the 184 budget.

Every estate in Hackney is walked around by Hackney Homes staff

with residents & TRA members where possible.

----<<•>>---- 

UPDATE 12th JUNE - Beecholme 184 walkabout

I can confirm that the railings in front of block 10-21 requested last year will be going in sometime in the next month or so.

This includes a more decorative smaller loop top border around the raised beds at either end of the block. This should offer some protection to the plants from people sitting on the low wall. 

As secretary of the Clapton Panel I also accompanied officers while walking around Radleigh Square, Jack Watts and Southwold Road, where
I took this photo:
  

  
(click on the picture above to see it full size) 
  
•
   
The 184 walkabout continues in Clapton until Tue 15th when it takes in Chardmore, Kier Hardie (about 10.30am) Lea View and Springfield in the morning and Bakers Hill, Mt Pleasant, Shelford Court and Leaside in the afternoon, ending around 2.40pm
   

END UPDATE

----<<•>>---- 

Around 1.30pm next Wed 9th of June

Hackney Homes officers with TRA members will be

walking around the Beecholme estate

to identify, record and request repairs and new additions

(like railings or lighting) to the communal (external) areas.

If you are a Beecholme resident you are welcome to join us.

 ----<<•>>----

Estate walkabout dates and times for the whole of Hackney

is available to view online at:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AhYLxRkzA7UydFdjcVlkUFUyZ1pEWWUteXV6XzBicVE&hl=en

NOTE: The spreadsheet has 5 pages for diff areas of Hackney

See the bottom left of the spreadsheet for your area

----<<•>>---- 

Estates in Clapton with no TRA still get a resident contingent

as Mavis McGee, chair of the Clapton Residents Panel

along with one or two other Clapton Panel members usually accompany

officers on these walkabouts to try and make sure that

no estate is left out and the worst estates are improved.

The estates that need the most work are nearly always the estates with

no TRA or estate resident spokesperson.

The Clapton Panel tries to speak for those estates.

----<<•>>----

VULPES VULPES exhibition - Heliotrope 12-27 June 2010

V U L P U S    V U L P U S

4/5  P r o u t  R o a d  C l a p t o n
   

http://vulpesvulpes.org/index.html

presents 

   

Heliotrope is an exhibition where artists are invited to deface, work into, and manipulate current political propaganda from Labour, Conservative and the Liberal Democrat party promotional material and billboard posters used during the 2010 general election. The resulting show will display these amended posters as well as topical material from the duration of the election. The consequent satirical archive will infer no intentional p! olitical leaning other than the collective voice of the work itself.

----<<•>>----

Vulpes Vulpes is an artist run gallery and project space in Hackney.

Email: information@vulpesvulpes.org

http://www.vulpesvulpes.org/forthcoming_events.html

----<<•>>----

NOTE from Beecholme sec. – VULPUS VULPUS is one of the art galleries in the Old Tram Depot site at 38-40 Upper Clapton road, even though the gallery itself and entrance is at the side in Prout Road.

Read about the Old Tram Depot proposed re-development

and the idea to make it all an Arts & Crafts trust

on the "TRAM DEPOT ARTS TRUST?!" page.

Floor space in "affordable housing" needs minimum standard

Looking for

"No Tesco Express at 144/146 Lower Clapton Road"?

Just scroll down to the next post  (updated 4 June)

•

UPDATED with additional material from CABE

The Edwardians built 3-bedroom flats at 120 sq m while today there are some 4-bedroom houses built at 100 sq m.

Parker Morris never imagined dishwashers and fridge freezers, home computing and DVDs so even his standards would be outmoded let alone what passes as the modern de-regulated equivalent.

•

This is from a very recent CABE article:

 (I've made some sections bold)

(CABE is the govt's advisor on architecture, urban design & public space)

 

Why do we need standards?

The quality of most new housing is not good enough.

CABE’s national housing audits and affordable housing survey rated 82 per cent of new housing “average” or “poor” for design quality.
Most consumers are getting a raw deal when it comes to the quality of new homes and neighbourhoods.
This is also bad news for taxpayers.

The national housing audits revealed that the design quality of almost one in three homes was so poor that they should not have been given planning permission.
It uncovered family housing with no play areas, windows looking out on blank walls, and broad expanses of tarmac.
Schemes frequently lack character or distinctiveness and fail to respond to the local context. Confusing site layouts make it difficult to find your way around, and access to local amenities was often poor.

The cost of bad design  

• Treating illnesses arising from poor housing conditions costs up to £2 billion per year, according to a study for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.  This is more than local authorities spend on all their own housing stock each year.
• annual estimates of the increased costs associated with the 7.6% of public sector homes considered unfit for habitation are an additional £1.8 billion each year.
• The average cost of building in Secure by Design measures was just £440 per new dwelling, compared with average losses of £1,670 per dwelling from burglary.

 Read the full article at:

http://www.cabe.org.uk/articles/why-we-need-standards-for-housing-design

•


Guess who said this just last year:

“I think it shameful that new buildings in London have some of the smallest rooms in Europe,”
“We need to build for the long term — buildings that people will want to keep for 100 years and not tear down in 30.”

Surprisingly it was Boris Johnson.

Not surprisingly the major house builders gave his comments
only a "cautious welcome".

I sincerely hope it does

 “...signal a move towards a quality agenda rather than a housing market driven by the price per square foot mentality.”

as Owen O’Carroll, a director at housing practice Stock Woolstencroft noted.
Unfortunately, this is very unlikely to happen unless they are forced to by the re-introduction of minumum standards - as the following report notes.

•

The following is an excerpt
from the "Room sizes"
Scrutiny Investigation 2008

by Croydon council:

"“Size matters”, the study by the London
Assembly’s Planning and Spatial
Development Committee, acknowledges
the need to establish adequate internal
standards, and the fact that “the lack of
family sized housing will mean that many
people are living in overcrowded conditions,
with detrimental impacts on family
relationships, child development and health”.
In contrast to the Planning Inspectorate’s
current position, it recommends that:
“Borough planning departments should
include size and mix policies, based on their
housing needs assessment to calculate
the required mix of units in their area, and
set out these requirements in their Unitary
Development Plan / Local Development
Framework and development briefs for larger
sites or where appropriate”.
“When boroughs only use unit
measurements to calculate the amount of
affordable housing, consideration should
be given to including habitable rooms
or floor space as an alternative or
complementary measure to secure the
required housing mix”.

However, the priorities of national
government policy, current developers
and builders and the circumstances of
prospective residents do not provide
promising prospects for establishing
adequate internal space standards for new
housing."

Get the full 40 page pdf with lots info and photos at

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B-djV9mjr9AyOWU0ZDQ4NTktZjBmNC00MzJhLWE1Y2MtNWJiYjY2Zjk5YWU0&hl=en

•

Between 1994 and 2004 room sizes shrank dramatically

with no guidance from govt.

The current minimum standard of 9 squ m for the main 2 bed room, with other bedrooms even smaller, with complete flats of 30 squ m (as allowed by many local authorities) is just appalling with expected resultant health and social problems.

As per the graph below, for a civilized community without the problems associated with overcrowding, 3 people in a 2 bed flat should have at least 70 squ m total (ideally 95+) with bedrooms a minimum of 15 squ m and critically with good sound insulation.

Surely this needs to be addressed if we don't want to see our society degrade even further.

We can't allow the greed of developers to take precedence at the expense of a decent quality of life for residents or the quality of our visual environment.

• 

Short term gain for a few
or long term savings for us all

Flats built well and of a decent size will be wanted, as Boris says, in a hundred years. The quick built tiny flats going up now for families will be slums in 30 years - they are just not appropriate for families.

Worth doing something about, surely.

• 

YOUR COMMENTS:

(click on "Comments" at the bottom of this post to leave your views and I will copy them in here)

"I am always surprised at the number of people in "rabbit hutch Britain" who are unaware that, until scrapped in 1980, minimum space standards for new homes built since the 1960s had been set by Government. What we need is a Parker Morris standard for the 21st century to reflect the way people live now. What better time to launch such a standard than the 50th anniversary of the Parker Morris Report in 2011."

               Says a representative of the Clapton Conservation Areas Advisory Committee.              

   
• • •

It's another reason why properties like the Old Tram Depot with very high ceilings and large rooms (in live/work studios) must not be allowed to be demolished in favour of health & social problem creating "affordable" housing.

•

It's also another reason an AREA ACTION PLAN for Clapton
is so essential. An AAP could cover a whole raft of standards (minimum and otherwise) not covered elsewhere and that would be under our local control.


See the main Area Action Plan post
at
http://beecholme.blogspot.com/2010/01/demand-area-action-plan-for-clapton-now.html

 The online PETITION

The petition for an Area Action Plan is

to be given to Cllr Guy Nicholson, Cabinet member for Regeneration

and to Graham Loveland, Assistant Director for Planning & Regeneration.