Leader – Hackney Council giving a monkey’s
Monkeying around: the cuddly creature tweeted to the world by Cllr Jonathan McShane
Cruel-ville
An instructive TV series can currently be seen on our screens. BBC Two documentary The Secret History of Our Streets uses the ground-breaking ‘poverty maps’ of 19th century social reformer Charles Booth as a launch pad for a ride through the history of London.
The series shows the human impact of Town Hall technocrats’ masterplans, something the leadership here in Hackney would do well to bear in mind when thinking about the future of the Colville Estate in Hoxton.
The low rise blocks on this estate, while not without their problems, were well built when they were erected in the 1950s. Now Hackney Council wants to tear them down and fling up taller blocks containing social housing as well as expensive apartments that can be sold privately, with funds generated being ploughed into the scheme.
Residents of part of the estate have been told they will shortly be ‘decanted’ and will be given options to move back once the new housing is finished, but many fear they will be unable to afford to.
The terrible thing, as far as many aggrieved tenants and leaseholders are concerned, is the council’s apparently blasé attitude. Tenants are not being offered like for like properties, and in some cases seem to be being encouraged to downsize to basement flats with housing associations rather than continue with their council tenancies.
Financially hard-pressed leaseholders say they have been offered less than the market value for their homes. There seems to be little thought being given to the residents. The situation is reminiscent of some of the examples provided in The Secret History of Our Streets. Then, as now, residents felt their fears were being ignored.
Twit-ter
Hackney Council can’t seem to decide where it stands on technological advancement. Politicians tweet to their heart’s content during council meetings, but the Town Hall’s constitution still stipulates that electronic devices must be switched off during such events.
Smartphones and other swish gadgets have brought a new degree of informality and transparency to council meetings, courts and other public arenas, and there is much to be celebrated about that.
But it remains a mystery why the council continues to be so controlling when it comes to the independent media. According to the rules, journalists must ask for permission before recording council meetings.
That bureaucrats can be so po-faced about this while our elected representatives titter at each other’s inconsequential tweets during council meetings makes them seem as if the whole thing’s a bit bananas.
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