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| Broadwater Farm estate residents gather to discuss 'proposal' © Paul Coleman, London Intelligence 2015 |
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| 'Red line' around Broadwater Farm and part of Lordship Rec |
A planning officer draws a
red line on a map.
The red line troubles some
250 people.
So troubled, that they gather in a north London community centre to talk about this red line for the bulk of their midweek spring evening (23 April).
In the United States, redlining is an infamous discriminatory practice, writes Paul Coleman.
Banks and insurance companies refuse loans, mortgages and cover to
people living within poorer redlined
areas.
In 21st Century London, property developers, councillors and planners redline housing estates they want demolished and redeveloped with new luxury private homes.
Lower income residents are decanted or dispossessed, and displaced.
They are replaced by affluent - and often very wealthy - private
market buyers, renters and overseas investors.
Developers and councils seductively
robe these outcomes as ‘regeneration’.
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| © Paul Coleman, London Intelligence 2015 |
Broadwater Farm
Haringey Council planners designate this redlined Tottenham
neighbourhood as Site Allocation 63
in its draft Local Plan for Haringey
2011-2026 – a plan listing potential development and ‘regeneration’ sites
across the entire borough.
The Council says the plan still requires full approval from
councillors and is ‘currently an emerging draft document’.
Haringey Council says it needs to meet ‘a target of nearly 20,000
modern, high-quality new homes built by 2026, with a focus on regeneration
areas in Tottenham and Wood Green’.
Displaced
On the map SA 63 includes the Broadwater Farm council estate and the adjacent
Lordship Recreation Area, a large and locally popular public park.
The red line also encloses privately owned homes – and homes rented
from housing associations - on Somerset Close, Lido Square, Moira Close and the
south side of Lordship Lane.
People on average and lower incomes fear SA63 means their homes could be demolished.
Children could lose their playing fields.
Families could be displaced to other parts of the borough.
And, a once scarred yet now healed community could be broken up.
Challenged
Julian Secker, who lives in the Tangmere block at Broadwater Farm,
and is a committee member of the Broadwater Farm Residents Association, says
council documents “clearly show that Haringey Council is clearly considering
large-scale demolition and rebuilding but there are no definite plans yet”.
Secker tells residents at the meeting to look at a list of Council
sources that show Haringey’s ambitions. They include a reference to Steve
Kelly, a Haringey Council planning officer, who ‘when challenged at a February
meeting on Broadwater Farm, admitted that Lordship Rec would be needed for
housing for people displaced by any demolitions on Broadwater Farm’.
“It’s not about improving flats under Decent Homes work,” warns
Secker. “If Haringey’s Site Allocations plan is improved, in principle the
whole of the Broadwater Farm estate could face demolition.”
Vague
Secker says Haringey will not replace the estate with the same
amount of social housing that currently exists at Broadwater Farm. “Haringey’s
own internal documents show this – and it means if you’re a council tenant, you
probably won’t be rehoused on any development built on the site of this
estate.”
Higher and high-density towers could replace the estate’s two
19-storey towers, low-rise blocks and surrounding houses. “It’d be private
housing, shared ownership and affordable rental homes priced at around 65% of
the local market rental average,” says Secker.
“Most of us won’t come back to this area,” says Secker. “We’ll be
moved to other estates.”
Secker recognises the veiled importance of Haringey Council’s “vague
language”.
The Council utters careful words such as ‘improvement and renewal’.
“I’ve heard Haringey use this same language before when it consulted
Love Lane and Northumberland Park estate residents,” says Secker.
Love Lane and Northumberland Park are council estates now threatened
with demolition and redevelopment by the building of Tottenham Hotspur Football
Club’s new stadium - the centre-fold standout project of Haringey's developer-led plans to 'regenerate' Tottenham.
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| Broadwater Farm estate © London Intelligence 2015 |
Secker accepts Broadwater Farm has maintenance and repair problems
but Decent Homes work would sort these out.
The government has provided £160 million to the Decent Homes
programme to help local authorities repair council homes.
But Haringey says it requires a 'strategy for improving Haringey’s
housing estates where simple refurbishment through the Decent Homes programme
is not possible’.
‘Verbal’
Residents and local activists believe they have a democratic right
to know exactly why councillors and officers want to ‘red-line’, demolish and
redevelop Broadwater Farm – and carve out a chunk of Lordship Rec for
development too.
But, by the start of May 2015, Haringey Council seems reluctant to
reveal its thinking.
Helen Steel makes a Freedom of Information Request on 5 March asking
to see ‘correspondence, emails, minutes, and any other documents relating to
the inclusion of the areas shown on…SA63…and in particular the inclusion of
Lordship Recreation Ground…’
Matthew Patterson, Haringey Council’s Head of Strategic Planning,
issues the following reply on 7 April.
It’s a classic response – in the sense of a classic perversion of local
democratic principles.
Patterson says: ‘The council does not hold any correspondence or
minutes relating to the inclusion of the areas shown outlined on the map at
SA63 Broadwater Farm…as the decision to include it was taken as part of a
verbal discussion between council officers.’
‘Dragging’
Steel isn’t satisfied.
On 7 April, Steel repeats her request, stating: ‘The planning
department must have some record of how and when the proposal was first made
and who was responsible for taking the decision to include it…’
On 12 April, Steel repeats her request again.
Haringey acknowledges this request on 17 April and promises to let
Steel ‘know the outcome of our investigation by 12 May’.
‘Can you please explain why you seek to delay your response until 12
May?’ asks Steel on 25 April.
‘That is longer than the 20 working days set for FOI responses.
Given my request was first made on 5 March and you are now outside the time limit
for providing information you should be expediting your response not dragging
your heels.'
Knock
Back at the Broadwater Farm Community Centre, residents listen to
Dave Morris, a seasoned Tottenham housing activist and member of the Haringey
Federation of Residents Associations.
“It’s only a proposal, at the
moment," says Morris, trying to emphasise the conditional status of Haringey’s
‘plan’.
“But we want to knock it on
the head straightaway and get it withdrawn.”
Transformed
The Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham gained worldwide notoriety when
PC Keith Blakelock was murdered during the violent 1985 riots that followed the
death of local resident Cynthia Jarrett in a police raid.
But over the past 30 years residents have transformed the quality of
life on Broadwater Farm, working in partnership with a raft of Haringey councillors
and officers.
The estate might look similar architecturally to its early days but
now functions very differently.
It now boasts a health centre, children’s play areas, bus routes,
concierges, and most recently, a state-of-the-art new school.
And, on a bright chilly April evening, supervised children clamber
over good quality playground apparatus and young lads receive football
training.
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| Community-run Lordship Rec near Broadwater Farm © London Intelligence 2015 |
Lordship Rec is protected from development by a covenant.
Co-managed by Haringey Council and the community, Lordship Rec spans
a large area adjacent to Broadwater Farm.
Lordship Rec park users and the 1,300 members of Friends of Lordship
Rec have also worked with local community groups and Haringey Council’s Parks
Service to transform Tottenham’s largest public park.
Residents and council officers secured £5 million from the Heritage
Lottery Fund to build a new flower-lined channel for the River Moselle, a bike
dirt track, an ‘environmental’ café and classroom, community gardens, refurbished
theatre, and renovation of an enclosed sports pitch.
Lordship Rec and its sports facilities are also vital to Broadwater United.
The club took over and transformed a derelict space.
Twenty years on, United’s children’s and youth teams continue to play football and receive coaching.
Care
Clasford Stirling, Broadwater Farm’s popular youth and community worker, speaks to the residents.
Many seem reassured by his presence in the hall.
Stirling says 300-400 young people use these facilities.
“One of them just asked me, ‘Are we going to lose our football
pitch?’
“They don’t want to lose it,” says Stirling.
“This is our home.
“Haringey should’ve sat down and discussed this proposal with us
first.
“It’s wrong to bully us with this proposal.
“I’ll be standing here with everyone fighting this.
“Our voice should be heard.
“We care about the children here.
“And care about this community.”
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| Broadwater Farm community stalwart speaks to residents © London Intelligence 2015 |
Crazy
Stirling knows Haringey Council very well – and over the years has
established good working relationships with many councillors and officers.
But now even Stirling seems mystified at Haringey’s ‘proposal’ to
demolish and rebuild the estate, especially as people in the local community
and at the council have invested so much time and resources to turn Broadwater
Farm into a thriving community.
“It’s crazy,” says Stirling.
“Thirty years ago, Broadwater Farm was branded as the worst estate
in Europe,” adds Stirling.
“Nobody wanted to come and live here.
“But the community stepped up and showed genuine hardworking people
in the council that we wanted to change the estate but also the local area that
we live in.
“I can see some good people in this hall – and we know people who
have passed away – who’ve put in so much effort to improve Broadwater Farm
estate, the park, and the local area.
“There’s still some problems we need to deal with.
“But we’ve reached a stage in our lives where we’re happy."
Opposition
The inclusion of Lordship Rec outwardly looks like many other developer-led and council-backed regeneration schemes coming out of the ground across London.
The inclusion of Lordship Rec outwardly looks like many other developer-led and council-backed regeneration schemes coming out of the ground across London.
Acquire a piece of land.
Build new homes.
Decant residents from the existing estate into those homes.
Demolish the estate.
However, another internal Haringey document from October 2014 shows
the council’s own Parks and Leisure Department warning planning officers of
legal complications should the Lordship Rec plan be advanced.
‘The proposals would seem to include the development of part of
Lordship Rec which has recently been the recipient of a multi-million pound
regeneration project,’ says a parks officer.
‘It is likely that any proposals to develop this land will result in
a claim for the return of external funding for the project and face high levels
of organised opposition.’
Ridiculous
It’s a muted but prescient warning.
And, not just because of that £5m Lottery funding.
Opposition to the demolition of Broadwater Farm – and with it years
of painstaking community work - is likely to be 'high' and 'organised'.
As for Lordship Rec, Morris says: “We’re not against improvements
but they must be led by, and be in the interests of the community.
“Not by property developers and pen pushers sitting in offices
drawing up ridiculous plans.”
“There’s no way we’re
going to let anyone interfere with one blade of grass on Lordship Rec without
them first getting permission from the community.”
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| Broadwater Farm estate in April 2015 © London Intelligence 2015 |
© Paul Coleman, London Intelligence, April 2015
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