Why did you join Hackney IWCA?
Because Hackney IWCA is trying to improve the area where I live, which has been consistently neglected by the authorities. I couldn’t see anyone else doing anything about it.
There’s a real ideological push to privatise and basically redistribute resources in this area from the working class to the middle and business classes. Hackney Independent understands this. The main political parties understand it as well, of course, because they’re either actively encouraging it - like Labour and the Tories - or cannot be trusted to put up a fight - like the Lib Dems.
What kind of things have you done in Hackney IWCA?
The best activities have been talking to people and trying to get improvements on our estates. This has been through things like going door-to-door with surveys, lobbying the New Deal for money to make blocks safer and doing the surgeries to help people get their benefits. Either way you can see that it is possible to make a difference – getting results. Most of the time decisions are being made behind closed doors over which we think we have no control. If you can demonstrate that ordinary people can influence those decisions in our own interests it sets a good example.
You were a leading campaigner against ITNet. Why did you get involved in that campaign?
Because the Housing Benefit problem was affecting so many people in our community. People were being evicted or harassed or worried about rent arrears. As well as getting involved with Whose Benefit? – which did a lot of good work publicising the real extent of the crisis and organised some very good public meetings – Hackney IWCA published a help-line and set up some local Benefit surgeries to give people advice and reassurance.
Why did the Council give the contract to ITNet?
Because all the parties on the Council - Labour, Lib Dems and the Tories - support privatisation. The housing benefit system wasn’t working very well. They could have put more resources into it, made it more efficient and got the staff working better. Instead they privatised it. They believe that a private company can do the job cheaper and still make a profit out of it. And when it all went wrong, they tried to pass the buck and say it’s not the Council’s fault, it’s all down to ITNet.
Why didn’t they sort the problem out sooner?
For two reasons. First they believe in privatisation and so wanted to prove that it works. And secondly because our middle class councillors and senior officers are so out of touch with how the majority of us live that they didn’t understand how big a problem it was. In the end they only took the contact back because it was costing them money – not because people were suffering.
What do you think are the major issues in Haggerston?
It’s not what I think is important, it’s the views of the local community that count. And apart from Hackney Independent no-one else seems to be trying to find the views out.
The people I talk to mostly complain about lack of repairs and cleaning, anti-social behaviour - abandoned cars, mugging, drug dealing on our estates. But also housing privatisation – the service Pinnacle provides to tenants where they have taken over and where estates have been sold to Canalside. There are always rumours around about what is going to happen to this estate or that block but there’s no real consultation. So accountability is also a big issue. All the big discussions about housing and the local environment should be out in the open.
What do you think the role of a councillor should be?
To listen to and represent the interests of their voters. Unfortunately, Town Hall and national party manifestos seem to take priority when it comes to most councillors. That’s why they can’t be trusted to do what they say when they’re standing for election.
They might say they want to keep the local nursery, school or swimming pool open but once they get into the Town Hall they’ll follow the party line. One of the benefits of Hackney Independent is that we haven’t got an inflexible manifesto – we’re committed to listening to the views of the working class majority. The middle-class minority are already over-represented in Hackney – who is going to represent the rest of us?
A Bridge Too Far?
Fast work by community leaders in Haggerston has stopped the New Deal plan to put a bridge through Laburnum estate. But why would a new bridge be built over the canal in Haggerston that no-one wants?
This could only happen in the mad world of the Shoreditch New Deal, in partnership with the Canalside Developers who have taken over Whitmore, parts of Haggerston estate and want to expand further.
The New Deal is meant to be “community-led.” In reality it is and has always been consultant led. The people who get the most benefit out of the New Deal are the architects and consultants who are taking huge chunks out of the New Deal money to pursue their own projects. The worst offender is Levitt Bernstein, who last year targeted 822 homes in Shoreditch and produced estate agent style brochures describing their “attractive location” and called for most to be knocked down and some to have luxury penthouses on top! And for this they received over £600,000 of our money! This year they came back calling for a footbridge to run over the canal between the Laburnum and Stonebridge estates. No one wanted this apart from Levitt Bernstein and Carolyn Clark, a New Deal Project Manager.
As Laburnum estate tenant Eugene Francis, an elected New Deal Board member told the Hackney Independent “this is supposed to be a community led initiative. The New Deal Project Managers and the Master Planners Levitt Bernstein, work for and on behalf of our communities. This seems to have been forgotten. None of our communities have asked for this work to be undertaken.”
The bridge would have turned Laburnum estate from a quiet cul de sac into a mugger’s paradise and bring noise and disruption through the estate, particularly if the Haggerston tube station opens in a few years time, the estate would be a cut through for everyone south of the canal.
Originally the plans showed the bridge being built through Laburnum Boat Club. Tenants opposed it, and Laburnum Boat Club chair Patrick Hammill persuaded Levitt Bernstein to move the bridge to Laburnum estate. This would have been quite easy for him as he is a senior partner in Levitt Bernstein!
Tenant leader Eugene Francis lead community opposition to the bridge and got the plans withdrawn. But for him the real issue is why this came up in the first place “Why are Levitts looking at proposals, which have already been dismissed, and putting them forward as New Deal initiatives? And, how much are they charging us for this useless piece of work? Who commissioned it and why? Also if this is supposed to be a consultation on what local people would like to see happen along the canal, why have they not asked local people first? Why, if this is an English Waterways project, was £100,000 of our New Deal money going to be spent on it?” More questions than the hapless New Deal Director Michael Pyner can answer. After all he’s only on £60,000 a year to run the whole show.
Hackney IWCA (Hackney Independent) co-ordinator Peter Sutton added “this really was a bridge too far”. But it is just one of many schemes put forward by New Deal officers, with no support in the community. The New Deal Officers have pushed for the closure of Burbage school, the demolition of Harwood Court, building a supermarket on Hoxton Gardens, and building a sixth from centre on Colville estate. All of these schemes were dreamt up behind closed doors and plans were being made until community activists found out and put a stop to them. Everyone should keep an eye on what the New Deal officers are up to.
It goes to show that it is the consultants who call the shots on the New Deal. The community is not in control. The best that we can do is to put a block on their crazy schemes, stop them from wasting our money and selling off our homes whilst continually pushing the issue of a complete refurbishment of every council home in the New Deal area. Now that’s a way to spend New Deal money that we can all agree on.
Labour Doesn't Represent Us
The majority of Hackney voters did not take part in the general election in June. This is no surprise because there was nothing for the majority of us to vote for. Nationally the Labour Government was elected with another huge majority - but only 25% of the electorate voted for them. And that was on the lowest turnout ever recorded. As new middle class voters have been attracted by Labour’s pro big business policies - paid for by cuts in public spending - working class voters have stayed at home.
Labour pushes the same agenda locally as nationally. The Labour Party that privatises housing benefit and the dustbins in Hackney is the same Labour Party that won’t take control of Railtrack and now wants to privatise the tube. Labour have announced that they want to see the end of council housing in ten years, and Hackney Labour have done everything they can to sell-off our estates, with the Borough’s biggest estate, Woodberry Down in Stamford Hill, being their next target.
Labour are looking for the middle class vote. Twenty years ago our estates were covered in Labour posters during elections. Now there are hardly any posters up - but in private streets the bigger the house the more chance there is of a Labour poster.
There are reasons why so many new yuppie flats are being built around here. Look at the “glass-house” on Murray Grove, the yellow flats on Cremer Street or the new £220 a week flats in Haggerston Library. They are not for us. They are for the City workers and lawyers. Labour wants them to live in Hackney because they will turn out and vote for New Labour. These people aren’t affected by the lack of repairs and cleaning on our estates, the lack of facilities for young people. They don’t use the local buses, nurseries or advice centres. Labour wants them for two reasons. Because they will still vote Labour and because they don’t mind the Council cutting all the local facilities. Because Labour represents them, we need independent working class candidates to represent working class interests.
We can’t look to the Tories or Lib Dems to help us. The Tories have three councillors in Haggerston and Shoreditch and the Lib Dems have two. When did you see them and what have they done for you? Although they can both make some sense when they are in opposition, they have both had a go at running the Town Hall in recent years and followed the same policy as Labour - cutting repairs, privatising services and selling off our estates.
Labour has the most councillors in Haggerston, Hoxton and De Beauvoir. What have they done for the area since they were elected three years ago? We have seen estates privatised, Haggerston Pool closed, all our local facilities threatened or closed down. Instead they have prioritised building flats for rich people and promoting the “night-time economy” - more trendy bars and restaurants in Hoxton Square and Curtain Road. Did you vote for that?
There was a time when Labour was criticised for only coming round at elections. Now they and the other parties don’t even do that. Labour can no longer claim to represent working class interests - in fact it has not even tried to do so for years.
And what was the result of June’s election in Hackney? We are left with a Labour Council, two Labour MP’s and no representation for the working class. Labour used to take the working class vote for granted - now they take it for granted that we won’t vote, but that Hackney’s middle class minority will turn out enough votes for Labour to get them back in. We have a chance to elect new councillors next May. Lets make sure there are no Labour councillors in Shoreditch or Haggerston after the local elections next year. Labour doesn’t represent us.
Government to take over Hackney? Because of how bad things have got, the Government is thinking of taking over Hackney Council. At first this might seem like a good idea – to stop the incompetent councillors and senior officers making more of a mess. But when you think about what the national Labour government policies are – privatising the tube, PFI for hospitals, giving public services to private managers – then letting them run Hackney would only be a recipe for further privatisation here.
Instead the answer has to be to vote out all the sitting councillors in the local elections next May. Hackney IWCA
(Hackney Independent) dent will be putting our own candidates forward and supporting other independent pro-working class candidates.
Where's the Money Gone? How could the Council have got us into such a mess? Hackney Independent plans to look at a series of areas where the Council have – through incompetence or by pursuing their privatisation agenda at any cost – wasted our money and run up a huge debt. In this issue we look at the Clissold Leisure Centre.
The Leisure Centre is being built on Clissold Road, Stoke Newington by Clissold Park. It was meant to cost £7 million, but has so far cost the Council at least £16 million more than this. This £16 million could have been used to keep Haggerston Pool open, refurbish the Britannia, keep the Apples and Pears playground open and pay for a whole load more things.
PROBLEMS
Writing in Stoke Newington’s N16 magazine, Ken Worpole reported that “although most of the building work is now completed, there are apparently still problems in controlling the quality of water – black algae has been seen on test runs and a large glass screen in the entrance foyer is causing problems in getting a fire rating. But even when these details are solved – and the taxi meter keeps ticking away, clocking up tens of thousands of pounds every month – final decisions have still to be made about the running of the centre, and what pricing and programming policies are to be adopted.”
The Council won’t manage the Leisure Centre, a private company will. Like with all Labour Party schemes, we put public money in and private sector managers come in and make a profit out of it. Ken Worpole calls it “the much-loved Railtrack model” although he could just as well call it the ITNet model.
The trendy design of the Leisure Centre – which will no doubt win awards for the architect – means that it will cost a fortune to maintain the building. And who will pick up the bill? The architects? The private sector managers? As usual it will be us – both through high ticket prices and through further Council subsidies.
PAY-OFFS
So who is to blame? As usual all the top Council officers who drew up the plans have now left – mainly with big pay-offs. The councillors will all blame each other – as Labour, Lib Dem and Tory councillors have run the Council at some point during the building work. You could say that the blame lies with all of us who have let them get away with it for so long.
And, seven years after the plans were drawn up, the Leisure Centre is still not open, and nor is Haggerston Pool. And the Council are still collecting our ever increasing rents and council tax every week and providing less and less for it.
Hit the Council Where It Hurts!
The case for a rent freeze.
For years the Council have been charging us more and giving us less. Think of your council tax, garage, home help, car space or rent and you know what I mean. But it is with the rent that we have a new weapon to hit the Council where it hurts – starting next April. If at least 1000 tenants say now that they will not pay any rent increase then we will get the Council worried. The councillors will all be up for election just five weeks after next year’s increase come in. How many of them will want to put our rent up when they know that not only are we preparing not to pay it – but also that there are candidates standing in the elections who oppose all rent increases until we get a decent service?
Normal protests against the Council are things that they can ignore like petitions and lobbies of the Town Hall. Even when the Council workers go on strike it saves the Council a day’s wages and gives them an excuse for having a disrupted service. The difference is that the rent freeze costs them money and they cannot ignore it.
You may have seen the orange posters and stickers already supporting the rent freeze. Lets cover the whole of the area in them before next April. The campaign is already supported by a number of tenant associations as well as Hackney Independent.
Lets put the boot on the other foot and hit them in the pocket for once!
How does it work?
1. We are trying to get 1000 tenants to register with the rent freeze campaign that they will not pay any rent increase next year. No-one should stop paying until they are informed that there are 1000 people registered.
2. Put the money you are not paying the Council into a bank account. If you do not have one, you can set up a credit union account by walking into the Credit Union office on Hoxton Market.
3. If the rent increase is £2, it would take at least a year for you to get two weeks behind with the rent and so for the Council to send you the first warning letter. By then we would hope to have thousands more tenants supporting the campaign.
How can you help the rent freeze campaign?
•Get in touch to register your support
•If your tenant association have not yet supported the campaign, get the campaign invited to speak to the next meeting
•Help us to spread the campaign – can you knock on some doors in your block with us to help get more people involved?
•If you want more information about the campaign write to Tenants Fightback, PO Box 3519, London, E8 4XW or leave a message on 07623 758 782 (40p per minute).
Diary - a sly look at local news
A blue car and a red car were abandoned next to each other by the canal in Haggerston, both vandalised. A local tenant activist spray painted "Tories" on one and "New Labour" on the other, which is useful as you normally can't tell them apart. The Green Man's only comment was to ask why the pile of sand and builders rubbish piled next to them wasn't sprayed with "Lib Dems".
We know that it's already impossible to find your councillor apart from at election time, but two Hackney councillors have taken things a step further. Labour's Jessica Webb and Lib Dem Adrian Gee-Turner stood for Parliament in the June elections for constituencies outside Hackney. All their fine words about standing up for local people and at the first chance they are off, pledging to stand up for people in Woodford and Dagenham respectively. Lib Dem Councillor Gee-Turner also made a fool of himself in the Gazette recently, supporting plans to make hard core porn films in his ward.
We hear that £1000 a week New Deal Director Michael Pyner has been keeping himself busy in his weekend home in Brighton. He's has joined a far Left group and spent the election campaign helping them to get a few hundred votes for "saving the planet." If he wants to bring their "tax the rich" slogan closer to home he could put his hand in his pocket and fund the next issue of the Hackney Independent. All donations welcome.
Thanks to Paul from De Beauvoir estate for sending us an advert from - of all places - the Tatler. This is not the usual reading material for most of us, which is exactly why the new flats opposite the college on Kingsland Road are being advertised there. With the cheapest flat going for £400,000 there's no chance of the average Hackney Independent reader moving in. And that's exactly the point - they are not for us.
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