Fears over ‘private sector carve-up’ as council agrees to sell off ‘creative quarter’ sites

10-16 Ashwin Street. Photograph: Josef Steen / free for use by LDRS news partners

Hackney Council has moved to calm fears around the future of the borough’s cultural hotspots after rubber-stamping plans to sell off buildings in Dalston’s cultural quarter.

The Town Hall last night approved the £2m sale of three sites on Ashwin Street, which it had earlier flagged as ‘at risk’ due to their condition.

Cabinet member for finance, Cllr Robert Chapman, said the council was too strapped for cash to repair the buildings, which have fallen into “dangerous” disrepair.

But the “rare” decision to sell to a third party that can bring the site into “useful occupation” has rattled tenants, campaigners and neighbours, who fear a “private sector carve-up”.

Artist collective V22, which runs up to 40 creative workspaces out of the buildings, has been told by the council to vacate the premises by the end of April due to these unsafe conditions.

They will now enter negotiations with the council to purchase the property.

But the owners of Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, which sits next door to the block, warned that any decision by a future buyer to demolish the dilapidated building would be “catastrophic”.

They fear that, since the Ashwin Street site encompasses parts of the garden’s sole indoor space, its office and a WC, the fate of these facilities would now be in the hands of private developers.

The Curve Garden. Photograph: Josef Steen / free for use by LDRS partners

Marie Murray, co-owner of the urban haven, urged Hackney’s mayor and the cabinet to include a condition in the sale contract preventing future developers from knocking down the building.

But both Cllr Chapman and Hackney’s mayor, Caroline Woodley, said it was too early for the Town Hall to enter negotiations with developers by including such a clause.

They sought to assure that, rather than adding restrictions to the sale, they would use planning rules throughout the process to “safeguard against detrimental impacts”.

“We are excited by the vision that’s been presented [by V22] and we recognise the importance of that cultural quarter,” she said.

Mayor Woodley added that she hoped demolition would not be on the cards anyway, but if it were to come to that, any proposal to do so would need planning permission from the council – and this would demand proof that it “did not compromise the interests of [neighbours]”.

The mayor also said she had spoken with City Hall’s deputy mayor of London for culture and creative industries, Justine Simons, who remained supportive of the area’s “connection for culture and nature”.

The borough’s director for strategic property, Chris Pritchard, told Ms Murray that any restrictions in the sales contract would “tie the council’s hands” during a period where the local authority needed to “keep its options open”.

These assurances did not go far enough for some.

Ms Murray said relying on enforcement at the planning stage leaves the Garden a “hostage to fortune”.

Chris Pritchard (centre) told the Curve Garden’s Marie Murray (back, left) that the council had to ‘keep its options open’. Photograph: Josef Steen / free for use by LDRS partners

Dalston Cllr Zoë Garbett (Green) told the Citizen that she noted the mayor said she was “on board” with V22’s proposals, but warned that “selling to anyone [else] would be a devastating blow to Dalston’s artists and the Curve Garden”.

“Time and time again, artists transform areas into vibrant cultural hubs, only to be forced out when developers swoop in,” she said.

“‘Affordable workspace’ often amounts to nothing more than a desk in a co-working space, while true studios like V22’s, light-filled, open, and rooted in the community, are erased.

“I’ll be watching closely to make sure [the mayor’s] commitment translates into action – because if decisions are quietly pushed through without real community involvement, we risk losing yet another vital creative space to profit-driven development.”

Her fellow Dalston ward councillor Grace Adebayo (Labour) also told the Citizen she would also be keeping “close watch” throughout the planning process, to ensure “our cultural life, which includes the wonderful work of the Curve Garden, continues to flourish and thrive in Dalston”.

The block at 10-16 Ashwin Street first came into the hands of the local authority in 1985, after community groups secured government funding and private donations to set up a space for promoting the arts for public benefit.

Since 2005, the property has been managed as creative workspaces by V22.

Through its shared ownership structure, the collective runs workshops, exhibitions and provides studios so it can enable artists’ “direct input into the wider art ecology”.

Bill Parry-Davies of community group OPEN Dalston warned that following last night’s decision, the original vision for the space was now under serious threat, and cast doubt on how council officers handling of the sale would be held accountable.

He told the Citizen: “The Ashwin Street buildings were acquired with public money and charitable donations for community benefit. They form part of our architectural and cultural heritage.”

“We elected the mayor and councillors to protect our public interest but now there will be no further democratic scrutiny or oversight of whatever deal council’s officers carve up with private buyers.”

Council reports state that the local authority has already undertaken “major works” – understood to have cost £800,000 – on the buildings before it decided they were too expensive for it to maintain.

But V22 told the Guardian earlier this month that prior to the eviction notice, it had consistently obtained the necessary safety certificates to maintain a safe working environment in the block.

The council report adds that proceeds from the sale would be used “to bolster the financial resources allocated to projects within the council’s capital programme”.