Northwold Estate residents fear community will be ‘wrecked’ if plan to flatten homes goes ahead

Green Party politician Sian Berry (centre) visited the estate last night to meet with residents concerned about redevelopment plans.

The Guinness Partnership has been warned it faces a tough fight over plans to bulldoze homes in Clapton.

Residents of the Northwold Estate last night told Sian Berry, who sits on the London Assembly, that they were anxious about what could amount to a decade of disruption if plans to knock down half their large 1930s-era estate go ahead.

The Green Party politician and campaigner was in Hackney on a fact-finding mission and said she hoped Sadiq Khan’s forthcoming housing strategy would add fuel to demands for residents to be allowed to draw up their own blueprints from scratch.

The Guinness Partnership is officially still consulting on its proposals after outlining three options: demolition, partial demolition and “infill” of the large Clapton estate where rapper Professor Green grew up.

The last of these options would involve utilising available space to provide more housing without knocking down existing buildings.

Guinness’s preferred option is partial demolition – despite some residents’ fears.

Edward Walls, a leaseholder, said there was currently “panic” among residents and warned the community could be “wrecked”.

And Deborah McManamon, who lives in one of the blocks earmarked for demolition told the Hackney Citizen Guinness could expect to encounter stiff resistance, adding: “This is my home. I do not want to lose my home.”

Emily Jost, another resident, said there had not been enough consultation and added: “The homes they want to demolish are sound. They’re very nice family homes. There’s nothing wrong with them.

“They are only planning to demolish them because they say they are not dense enough – but it’s already very dense.

“All they want to do is to cram more flats in to make more money.”

According to Guinness, there would be an overall increase in social rented homes on the estate under its vision.

It says tenants with assured, secure or fixed-term tenancies who want to continue living on the estate will be able to do so, while options for leaseholders consist of a leasehold swap, a leasehold swap with shared equity, and shared ownership.