2012 – the year that was

Stoke Newington newsagent Hamdy Shahein, whose Olympic bunting decorated the High Street during the Torch Relay. Photograph: Hackney Citizen

The year 2012 was praised for its large-scale celebrations, writes Francesca Fanshawe, with the Diamond Jubilee and Olympics taking centre stage. But at a grass roots level, the people of Hackney continued to feel the pinch, the free schools revolution began and repercussions from the previous year’s riots were felt.

The Olympics

Hackney was one of the five London boroughs that hosted the Olympics, an honour expected to bring it status and wealth.

Unfortunately, whilst it was gold for our athletes in the stadium, there was a distinct lack of it for businesses around the Olympic site. Restaurants and cafes in Hackney Wick recorded the ‘quietest two weeks ever’, as the Games failed to deliver the 60,000 strong daily footfall expected to boost business in the area.

Other businesses based around the Olympic Park were left ‘fighting for survival’ after road closures and traffic problems made deliveries impossible. Food distribution business Essex Flour and Grain Company launched the campaign Justice for Victims of the Olympics demanding compensation from LOCOG, the Games’ organising committee, for loss of profit.

Meanwhile, Hackney residents aired their own grievances by protesting against Olympic sponsor BP, campaigning against the use of their own rooftops as surface-to-air missile launch pads and by hosting the ‘Fattylympics’, a fat activism community event.

Before the Games began, protestors gathered on Leyton Marsh, a protected natural habitat, to protest against the building of a basketball training facility on greenbelt land by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA).
On neighbouring Hackney Marsh, users of the iconic playing fields were left at a loss as land was eaten up by the expanding development.

Education

2012 was a year of debate and change for Hackney’s education system.  Michael Gove’s ‘free schools revolution’ hit the borough as plans to open three free schools gained momentum amid a tumult of criticism and debate.

Better than ever GCSE results for Hackney pupils increased speculation about the benefit of an expensive new free schools system.

Results showed 60.5 per cent of students achieved five good GCSEs, a 3.5 per cent increase on 2011, and almost double that of ten years ago.

In August, the Learning Trust, which took over the borough’s education services in 2002, tasked with reversing the fortunes of failing Hackney schools, handed back the reins to the local authority in line with their ten-year contract after transforming the outlook for borough education.

Hackney University Technical College opened its doors in September just a SIM card’s throw from the so-called Silicon Roundabout with the ambition of tackling youth unemployment by getting Hackney’s young into tech city industries.

Tech City

Google added its name to the list of high-tech businesses flooding into the area in March when it opened its campus building on Shoreditch’s ‘Silicon Roundabout’.

The busy junction is the main player in the government-backed Tech City initiative, which promotes the area between Old Street and the Olympic Park as a hub for technology start-ups and create a British version of California’s Silicon Valley.

The Tech City Investment Organisation came under fire at the start of the year for over-spending, but they responded by saying the money had been put to good use in drumming up business for Hackney post-Olympics.

While these plans were greeted with cautious optimism, a report in July by the Centre for London thinktank warned that government plans to recycle the Olympic Park media centre as a technology hub could damage the vibrant growth of the Tech City area around Shoreditch. Data store operator and digital developer iCITY was announced as the preferred bidder for the centre in July.

Recovering from the riots

The council secured a £5.3million riots revamp fund, which was intended to aid the local community in revitalising the economy.  The majority was ploughed into the development of Chatham Place, Hackney’s new designer retail village.

Cuts

Public spending cuts hit the borough hard again as £10million was slashed by the Government from the 2012-2013 budget in March.

In January, charity leaders warned that reduced staff numbers and care hours could do unacceptable harm to the vulnerable and elderly in the borough as the budget for social care services was reduced by 4.5 percentage points, with plans to shave off another £515,000 over the next 12 months.

More than 500 protestors took to the streets in May to remonstrate against plans to cut 55 jobs at Hackney Community College after the government slashed higher education funding as part of £2billion worth of cuts in the
2012 budget.

London Assembly and Hackney Labour politicians condemned plans to close Kingsland Fire Station, which came to light after a document was leaked at Mayor Boris Johnson’s Question Time in October.

The proposed closure of the fire station is one of 17 across the capital, as a result of a £65million budget cut by the Mayor to London’s fire services over the next two years.

Politics

Hackney Central held a by-election on 4 May after Labour councillor Alan Laing announced his resignation from the role in February, citing work commitments.

Community hero Pauline Pearce, who gained national fame and admiration in 2011 for a YouTube video of her confronting rioters, stood as the Liberal Democrats’ candidate.

But it was Labour’s Ben Hayhurst who stole the show with 69 per cent of the votes.

In elections for the London Assembly held on the same day, Hackney’s representative, Jennette Arnold, was re-elected to represent North East London.

Gentrification

As redevelopment and the spectre of the Olympics continued to push up prices in 2012, gentrification was the order of the day, with concerns growing that local people and the borough’s well-established creative scene would be forced out.

Meanwhile, proposals got underway for a ‘gated community’ in Dalston and a seven-storey apartment building to replace Green Lanes Methodist Church.

In memoriam

Gary Francis
Dan Harris
Mick Jones
Greta Karpin
Dexter Kibble
Gemma McCluskie
Aarron McKoy
Kirsty Treloar