Clapton Neighbourhood Committee meeting

THE forum to get your opinion heard & questions answered: influence the policy makers and those implementing it

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Wed 30th March 2011

7pm

at B6 Sixth Form College 

Brooke House
Kenninghall Road
London E5 8BP 

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(click on the poster below to see it full size - A3) 
  

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 The Clapton Neighbourhood Committee meeting

is attended by local Hackney Borough councillors, council officers from several depts, representatives from a wide variety of local groups/organisations...

...and local residents like you.

Why not add your voice to theirs and have an impact on the things that affect you every day.

.
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For discussion:
Clapton issues: including the Tram Depot, the economic development of Clapton and Hackney Downs Park.

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Fruit trees donated to Millfields Park

On Sunday 20th Feb a group from the

"Beecholme & Casimir Community Growing Project"

met with members of the

"Millfields Users Group"

to transplant 2 fruit trees
a semi-dwarf almond and a plum

in North Millfields Park.

The work was done by volunteers from both groups
with help from the Tree Musketeers.

A further tree (cherry) will be transplanted this coming
Sunday 27th at 11am
weather permitting.

Christine Williamson (B&C TRA vice-chair) with help from with Tim Evans (MUG sec.) arranged the hand over and donated the trees which were moved to make way for a new greenhouse.

The presentation above has some 10 photos documenting the trees being lifted and  re-planted.

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More details (and photo) at

http://millfieldsusers.blogspot.com/2011/02/successful-transplant.html

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Policing ASB - possible Nth Leabridge "Dispersal Zone" pilot - Public meeting

7pm on Tue 22nd Feb

The Mount Community Hall

Mount Pleasant Lane, E5

 

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Anti-social behaviour in the streets and on the bigger estates in Leabridge especially is still an issue. Thankfully, and due in large part to ASB being targetted by the police at the request of residents at local CAP meetings, the problem is nowhere near as bad as it used to be.

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To continue this improving trend
 The local authority and the police want your opinion on ASB policing
and

the possible introduction of a 3 month pilot "Dispersal Zone" in North Leabridge.

The Zone would cover the area from Southwold Rd to Mt Pleasant Lane and across to Woodmills Rd (the old Lathams) and would primarly affect the big four estates, incl Jack Watts, The Mount and Radley Square.

The Police would be able to disperse groups coming in from outside &/or gathering with intent.

It would not affect local kids playing football but just might put a stop to some anti-social behaviour before it starts - or in the postcode war/gang cases, before it "kicks off".

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"In My Opinion"

As secretary of the Hackney Homes Clapton Residents Panel and local TRA secretary, a "Dispersal Zone" pilot has my full support.

Prevention has got to be better than cure.

I have a feeling the Police are well aware who many of the trouble making groups coming in from outside are but have a difficult job taking action until a crime is actually committed.

They can't keep a 24/7 presence on estates to make sure the peace is kept after all.

 From my experience with the Leabridge Safer Neighbourhood team, I feel confident "dispersals" will be even handed and sensibly used.

This is not a heavy handed reactionary request, simply another preventative tool in the arsenal against ASB.

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Whether you agree with me or not

the time to have your say is

at the

Open Meeting

7pm on Tue 22nd Feb

at The Mount Community Hall

Mount Pleasant Lane, E5

White Hart has new owners

updated Feb 25th

The White Hart public house

which has been empty for years

(except for squatters)

has now been bought by

"Antic"

http://www.antic-ltd.com/

From their website:

Local groups with councillors had been backing the Clapton Arts Trust's educational & recreational ambitions for this historic building, along with the Cinematograph Theatre next door, which the trust is still pursuing.

Hopefully Antic will want to put a garden or something similarly sympathetic (rather than a multi-storey development) at the rear.

The building is in a conservation area and (on the surface at least) it looks like "Antic" do have both the experience and desire to do justice to these Victorian & Edwardian buildings, restoring and refurbishing rather than re-designing.

Antic does say:"we will be doing or utmost to return it to it’s former glory."

The Clapton Arts Trust and councillors will be talking to Antic in the near future to welcome them to the area and help ensure mistakes of the past are not revisited .

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Antic are looking for old photos of the pub (circa 1900) :

http://www.yeahhackney.com/groups/hackney-history/forum/topic/white-hart-new-owners-1

They go on to say:

If you would like to join the White Hart mailing list and be kept up to date with our progress please mail me on Fi@antic-ltd.com

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UPDATE

The pub is to renamed the "Clapton Hart" and will soon have a huge banner up to signal work is about to start.
(I won't spoil the surprise as to its content)

Fi Collett from Antic has assured us that live entertainment will be limited to things like the occasional acoustic guitar or poetry reading.

They plan to hold regular activities of all types from bring and buy second hand sales to mothers & kids afternoons to quiz clubs etc. and are open to new ideas.

Their intention is to restore the pub to it's original (second incarnation), pre-dome state, depending on what they find when they start work on the structure and what original features are left behind boardings.

The large area at the back will almost certainly be put back into a beer garden with lots of foliage and a garden feel.

A very family and community oriented local with good food, including a carvery, priced from around £12, real ale with one beer at around £3 the rest starting at a slightly higher price.

report by yours truly DW

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Unconfirmed Report:
BTW It seems the Clapton Cinematograph Theatre next door may have been sold as well. We have not been able to get confirmation of this, or find out who the new owners are yet.

Just an idle thought - ANTIC haven't said anything, but I wonder....
 
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keep abreast of developments - check back here

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Millfields (Park) Users Group AGM this Thur 10th Feb

This is an Annual General Meeting, so it's only AGM business

to be discussed, not like the usual general meeting

where current park developments

are discussed at some length.

We also have to give ourselves enough time for the
discussion on biodiversity with the guest speaker, which should be at
least three quarters of an hour.

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Can you please let Ian Rathbone know if you're interested

in standing for the committee - that includes existing committee

members wanting to stand for re-election.

This helps us to know if we need to prepare and make time in the meeting for an election.
There are 12 places vacant.

You can also turn up on the night and
stand if you so wish.

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Ian Rathbone
Contact: 07890 654 068
ian.rathbone@tiscali.co.uk

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MILLFIELDS USERS' GROUP AGM

Thursday 10 February 2011
7.30 to 9.00pm

 at

Nye Bevan Community Hall

Overbury Street

E5 0AH

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TRA's projects to improve the visual environment recognized

Hackney Gazette article about Beecholme

 

Story Jon Dean     Photo & reportage OLIVIA HARRIS

http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/home/e-edition

BTW: Tim Norris calls the benches "sculptural benches", not artistic benches.  

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I should note another typo on the print version, corrected in the online feature:

the artist who designed and will be constructing the new bench

is sculptor Tim Norris (RSBS) and not Tim Morris.

http://www.timnorris.co.uk/

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The Gazette have the corrected feature

story online:

"Upper Clapton residents enlist well known sculptor for estate revamp"

Jon Dean , Reporter 

Friday, February 4, 2011

"Members of the Beecholme Tenants’ and Residents’ Association have spent the last two years painting, planting and fundraising to smarten up the estate in Prout Road.

Now they are ready for the next stage – three sculpted benches designed for them by well known sculptor Tim Norris.

Mr Norris, who calls the benches “artistic furniture”, said: “What is interesting about this project is that it is led by the residents themselves.”

He hopes to have the first new bench in place by March...."

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For the full history of the bench with sketches and photos see the Sculpture page:

http://beecholme.blogspot.com/p/sculpture_13.html

 

which also has info on several other improvements made by the TRA

as part of our Visual Environment Project 

including: 

artwork on the bins, signage and more.

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The "Grounds 1" and "Grounds 2" pages of this blog show the new planting on the estate from design & planting by Wendy Allen Designs with the Grass Roof Co. and with lots of photos of the beds, from bare earth to completed beds

like this

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Need a job done? ...willing to barter your time?

The answer may be joining TimeBank

a skills exchange network

free to join for anyone over 16

who lives or works in Hackney, London.

A time bank is a framework within which members can exchange their time in a reciprocal and meaningful way. For every hour's help given (say, helping someone paint their hallway) a member receives one 'time credit' which is logged on a computer and can be 'spent' getting help in return OR exchanged for a ticket to a social event / workshop / cinema or theatre performance. The skills on offer are defined by the members themselves.

see
http://www.headwayeastlondon.org/services/timebank/

Online info pdf

http://www.headwayeastlondon.org/wp-content/2009/08/twtb-info.pdf

Online Joining Form

http://www.headwayeastlondon.org/wp-content/2009/08/time-bank-joining-form1.pdf

 

Sept 2012 link:

http://www.headwayeastlondon.org/services/timebank/

Conservation Areas Committee lodge new Tram Depot objection

The CLAPTON CONSERVATION AREAS ADVISORY COMMITTEE

has just lodged the following objection to the proposed

demolition and re-development

of the Old Tram Depot at 38-40 Upper Clapton Road

Planning application 2010/2879

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NOTE - TO SEE HOW YOU CAN OBJECT

with links to the Hackney Planning Dept.

online "comment" page & online petition

simply scroll down or click here

Deadline for objections March 1st 2011

The official deadline for comments is 31st Jan 2011 

however, the planning dept. has stated they will accept
comments & objections right up until the decision is reached
as is their normal practice.

We estimate this will not be before March

(we will keep you updated)

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CLAPTON CONSERVATION AREAS ADVISORY COMMITTEE

To:

Mr Adam Flynn

Planning Department

London Borough of Hackney

1 Hillman Street

London

E8 1DY

30 January 2011

Dear Adam Flynn

38-40 Upper Clapton Road, London E5

Planning application reference 2010/2879 

Thank you for your letter of 8 December 2010 enclosing details of the above planning application. The Clapton Conservation Areas Advisory Committee has given consideration to the application and CCAAC wishes to register the following objections:

1. 38-40 Upper Clapton Road (hereafter referred to as the Tram Depot) has recently been designated a Priority Employment Area by Hackney Council. This is an acknowledgement that the Tram Depot has been a working environment and centre for employment for over 130 years and continues to function successfully in this capacity. The proposed development runs counter to the site’s Priority Employment Area status as it would result in the loss of 1,905 sq ft currently in employment use. 

2. It is the declared intention of Priority Employment Area status that Business (B1), Hotel (C1) and non-residential institution (D1) uses will be the preferred uses on a PEA site. However the proposed development would increase residential occupancy on the site from 7 live/work units to 85 residential units, thus giving primacy to residential use. This is in contradiction to its PEA status. 

3. The proposed development represents a threat to jobs and businesses currently operating on the site. Despite the developer’s claim that existing small enterprises operating in the Tram Depot would be retained, the majority of existing business owners have stated that they would be unable to carry out their present functions in the proposed development, as the nature of their operations (for example decorative ironwork requiring use of a forge) would be incompatible with the proximity of high density residential use and the restricted space allocated to office/light industrial use. The proposed development would therefore lead to an exodus of local small businesses whose skills and services are in great demand and who are valued by the local community. The logic behind this site’s PEA designation is that existing jobs and small enterprises should be preserved and protected, which would not be the case. 

4. The Tram Depot is a long established and valued local landmark which lends character and distinctiveness to the local area, despite prolonged neglect by successive owners. 

5. The Tram Depot’s heritage significance has recently received official recognition from Hackney Council who have recently added it to their local listing category of historic buildings. Clapton owes its rapid development from a semi-rural area into a Victorian villa suburb during the period 1870-1890 to the provision of a cheap, efficient and regular horse tram service linking Clapton to the City. The Victorian hymn writer Bishop William Walsham How, whose residence as Bishop of East London was located in Clapton, was known throughout East London as “The Omnibus Bishop” because of his custom of travelling by horse tram rather than private carriage thoughout his diocese. Clapton’s historical identity is therefore bound up with its past association with the horse tram. 

6. The developer has consistently sought to downgrade the heritage value of the site and commissioned a report to support his plans for demolition of the Tram Depot. This report was a significant factor in influencing the decision of English Heritage not to give the Tram Depot a national listing in 2005. 

However English Heritage did acknowledge that “The surviving components of the 1870s tramshed are notable for their earliness in London’s transport history”. English Heritage’s policies on heritage protection have recently undergone revision and there is now greater emphasis on understanding contextual “earliness” and rarity combined with a site’s thematic/phased development, rather than aesthetic value.  This is particularly the case with transport and municipal heritage buildings.  

It is considered that, in the light of revised heritage protection policies and the selective and incomplete nature of previous inspections, a fresh and more comprehensive  survey of the entire Tram Depot complex should be undertaken by English Heritage . This survey should take into consideration the significance of the Tram Depot for London’s transport heritage as a rare survival of a North Metropolitan Tramways Company horse tram depot, accommodating both trams, horses and associated engineering workshops. The fact that it survived without adaptation for electric trams makes it even rarer.  The North Metropolitan Tramways Company was the largest of the three pioneer tramway companies in London in the latter half of the nineteenth century. In 1900, the peak of the horse tram era, the North Metropolitan operated 52 miles of route out of a total of 142, with 673 cars and 7,167 horses. The company was therefore a major player in the development of London’s public transport network in the Victorian era, and the completeness of one of its surviving tram depots therefore makes a significant contribution to our understanding of transport history. 

7. The developer’s own heritage consultant has acknowledged the contribution which the existing single storey buildings to the north of the site have to the site’s historic interest, as follows:

“Some of the lower courtyard structures to the north have intimate scale and detailing which is visually appealing with positive historical associations”

It is of concern to CCAAC that the developer has chosen to ignore his own consultant’s opinion by proposing the demolition of this range of buildings which have a significant contribution to make to the historic interest and understanding of the Tram Depot complex.

8. The developer makes much of the fact that elements of the historic central tramshed are being retained and maintains that “our starting point for the design was the retention of the tram depot” . However, instead of being a focal point, the conservation element is dominated and overwhelmed by the adjacent seven-storey modern structure “Block A“ - a run of the mill apartment block of indifferent quality which acts to the detriment of the historic core around which a conservation-led scheme should be based.  The Design Panel’s judgement that the development did not hold together as an integrated townscape and was “confusing and unclear” is nowhere better illustrated than with this example. The historic elements which lie at the heart of the project are swamped by the bulk and height of adjacent  structures which make no reference to them. There is therefore no overall identity and sense of place. 

9. CCAAC is concerned that, in reality, the developer has in fact reduced the historic elements of the scheme, as the proposed development no longer retains the existing gable walls along the northern boundary of the site, thus further diminishing the historic nature of the site.

10. The seven-storey apartment block “Block A“ (see attached), which fronts on to Upper Clapton Road to the north of the site, would be out of scale with its surroundings, and would be over-dominant in the context of the section of Upper Clapton Road in which it is located.  In contrast with neighbouring five-storey Beaumont Court, which is considerably set back from the public highway, the proposed apartment block is situated on the boundary of the development site and would be visually overbearing on the existing streetscape. The pavement in front of the block is extremely narrow, with barely enough room for two people to pass. The height and bulk of the apartment block in this context would be highly intrusive upon the public realm, and illustrates the Design Panel’s reservations about “over-development” and “bulk”.

11. Block F would involve the introduction of a tall, windowless elevation to the Casimir Road streetscape - a traditional street of two-storey homes - and would present an oppressively high and blank aspect to these houses.  

12. The proposed residential element of the development would inevitably result in an increase in traffic movements and parking in the narrow residential roads surrounding the site and would have a detrimental impact upon residents in the Beecholme Estate and surrounding area who have hitherto enjoyed the advantages of a quiet residential neighbourhood. 

13. Finally, the developer maintains that the site is not within an Area of Archaeological Priority. It is CCAAC’s understanding that in fact the site does lie within an AAP as evidenced by the fact that the Peabody Trust was required to do an archaeological investigation of their proposed development site at 30 - 36 Upper Clapton Road in 2003 

PPS5 makes it clear in HE6.1 that local planning authorities should require applicants to provide a description of the significance of heritage assets that would be affected by a proposed development to inform the decision making process. ‘Where an application site includes, or is considered to have the potential to include, heritage assets with archaeological interest, local planning authorities should require developers to submit an appropriate desk-based assessment and, where desk-based research is insufficient to properly assess the interest, a field evaluation.’ 

Yours sincerely,

Clapton Conservation Areas Advisory Committee

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You might also be interested in the wealth of info about the depot, its residents and past successful
campaigns to stop this re-development
at these posts

success last year

http://beecholme.blogspot.com/2010/08/thumbs-up-as-70-jobs-saved.html

the fight leading to it (part of)


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

    
and take a look at the comic below

made last year but just as relevant today

  

The only change is this year it is 

Planning application 2010/2879
not
2009/2490 as shown

and the deadline for objections is (we estimate) currently March 1st 2011