Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
'Our Tottenham' Conference
From the HAringey Federation of Residents' Associations:
IT'S OUR TOTTENHAM!
STREET ASSEMBLY
Called by local residents' groups
Saturday 6th July
12 noon - Seven Sisters tube
Outside Wards Corner Market, Tottenham High Road, N15
http://ourtottenham.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/our-tottenham-leafl...
The Council, backed by property developers and big business, are promoting their ‘Plan for Tottenham’. They want to force us to accept large-scale profit-driven development, increased rents, more unaffordable housing - and the loss of some independent local shops and community facilities. This will seriously affect our lives and our communities, and rising rents will force many local people out of the area.
This is unacceptable. It doesn't have to be like this. Together we are very powerful. We call on local people to speak out for our real needs, and to defend our communities.
COME AND JOIN THE ASSEMBLY!
** SAY NO to evictions and demolitions of homes or small shops, to high rents, and to the loss of local community facilities and services
** DEMAND the improvements to our streets and neighbourhoods we actually need - and affordable, secure homes for all
** SUPPORT campaigning for community-led regeneration and for projects that improve our neighbourhoods
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OUR TOTTENHAM
Across Tottenham many in our communities are working together to improve our neighbourhoods and to protect the facilities that matter to us. These are just a\ few of the examples...
North Tottenham Swathes of affordable housing and many local businesses are set to be lost or priced out to make way for a new chainstore-led retail & leisure area with an expanded new Spurs stadium at its centre. Activists are opposing the threat of demolition of housing and local shops to make way for an unnecessary 'walkway' connecting Spurs and the train station. Further to the west, a 25yr long campaign has so far succeeded in saving Bull Lane Playing Fields - they have developed their own plans to improve the site for sports.
Central Tottenham Broadwater Farm Estate and Lordship Rec are two areas which have greatly benefited from successful community-led regeneration efforts. The estate was transformed throughout the 1990s, and the adjacent park has just completed a £5m makeover. This shows that great things can be achieved when the community is in the driving seat. On the other side of the High Road, Lord Morrison Hall is one of a number of community centres opposing the threat of eviction.
South Tottenham The Wards Corner Community Coalition are opposing the demolition of homes and businesses on a block above and around Seven Sisters Tube. Since 2007 the community has organised many large public meetings and protests, delayed the developers plans, taken the Council to court and produced a community-led vision for the site. We also salute the successful protest campaign which saved the nearby Everybody's Music.
South West Tottenham There are public concerns about the St Ann's Hospital site over proposals to sell off much of the site for housing.
South East Tottenham A number of tall blocks of flats have been built at Tottenham Hale. Park users successfully prevented a part of Down Lane Park from being built on, and then secured funding for the improvements they need.
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OUR Voices, OUR Neighbourhoods, OUR Communities
Tottenham is a great place with a rich social and architectural history, made up of vibrant, diverse and talented communities. We want to ensure this continues!
We call on all those who live or work here to stand up for the needs of our communities. Together we must protest against the policies and practices of the Council and property developers that do not benefit the people of Tottenham.
WHAT CAN LOCAL PEOPLE DO?
GET INVOLVED
In every neighbourhood throughout Tottenham we should support or create new community groups and campaigns which take action to...
* Defend community facilities and services
* Stand up for decent & affordable housing for all
* Support small businesses
* Promote quality design and respect for heritage
* Improve the street environment and green spaces
* Support youth voices, services and facilities
* Empower our communities
* Develop our own local community plans
JOIN IN our lobby/delegation at the full Council meeting:
Monday 15th July, 6.30pm @ Civic Centre, High Rd, N22
AFFILIATE to the Our Tottenham network. The network includes:
Weir Hall Action Group / Bull Lane Playing Fields Campaign, Wards Corner Community Coalition, Lord Morrison Hall / Afro International, Friends of Lordship Rec, Tottenham Community Choir, Love Lane Action Group, Tower Gardens Residents Group, Clyde Area Residents Association, Selby Centre, Living Under One Sun, Chestnuts Community Centre, Peoples World Carnival Band, Tottenham Concerned Residents Committee, Tottenham Civic Society, Haringey Defend Council Housing, Defend Haringey Health Services, Haringey Solidarity Group, Find Your Voice, Haringey Federation of Residents Associations, Haringey Housing Action Group, North London Community House, Day-Mer, Haringey Green Party, Haringey Alliance for Public Services, The Banc
OurTottenham.wordpress.com OurTottenham@gmail.com @Our_Tottenham
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Sadly, not "my" Tottenham Conference.
Although I am very seriously worried and in some instances sickened about some of the so-called regeneration schemes and proposals. And very much want to make common cause with others on many of the major issues at stake.
But I am not prepared to sign-up for and give uncritical knee-jerk approval to every single "voluntary" group which turned up to join this alliance. Nor to reject out-of-hand every proposal for change.
The only people who will win from this knee-jerk approach are the rich and powerful interests gaining an ever greater grip on the future of Tottenham.
Two days ago I learned from the Haringey Independent about the existence of a body called the Tottenham Landowners and Major Businesses Group. Obviously as one of the councillors for Tottenham Hale there was no reason why anyone would want to tell me about the existence of such a group.
If you think it's not entirely right for Cllr Nilgun Canver to have the say-so about traffic flows on the Ladder roads, just imagine if the power was given to Robert Evans of Argent and bunch of very large, very rich local landowners. Landowners who will never be seen as "scroungers" however much public funding they receive in cash or kind. And then if Kober & Co then spent more public money on colourful leaflets with glossy photos, "selling" the proposals with vacuous claims - entirely about the supposed benefits.
Some people have used the word "alarmist" when I suggested that after the riot we were seeing Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine played out in Tottenham. Perhaps a few more people might like to reflect on whether she might have something to tell us.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Permalink Reply by Neville Collins on
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@Alan, you say that you are against the often knee-jerk response of Our Tottenham's opposition to the plans. Unfortunately, Haringey Council's determination to turn the area into an urban wasteland where shops and new-build homes will be left empty because nobody wants to move there. Hopes that the council would have learned anything about the 2011 riot have been dashed.
At present a lot of local people do not know what is happening. The council can't deliver good schools, they can't protect vulnerable children from abuse, they can't even keep the streets clean, but hey, they can provide a brilliant 'PR' hatchet job!
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and whatever some of us feel, the groups that make Our Tottenham are aiming to convince an already disillusioned community, facing changes in the benefit system, and reductions in our public services in the name of 'austerity', that there is a viable, resident-led alternative to what the council is doing. Will it take another riot for Cllr Kober and Co. to listen?
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I'm against all knee-jerk responses, Neville.
It looks like you missed my mention of Benjamin Franklin and his saying that "Praise-all and Blame-all are two blockheads". I'm sorry to say that you are stating to sound like the Blame-alls. For example, it simply isn't true that there are no good schools in Haringey. Of course there are.
Nor is it the case that the streets aren't cleaned. It's not perfect and there are still hot-spots where people dump. But I have several thousand photos on my Flickr pages and quite a few of them illustrate improvement over the years. So please let's not do-down some hard working cleaning staff who - as you know far better than me - are out at all hours in all weather.
Nor is it accurate that vulnerable children are not being protected. It is true that the Peter Connelly tragedy and now the AB & CD case further damaged Haringey's reputation. The second case, in November 2012, is again shaming. Those both professionally and politically responsible should accept their personal responsibility and step down from the Council.
The Leader Claire Kober and her pals are the Praise-all side of this. As you suggest, they can manage to produce some glossy - though not very good - PR. But fresh ideas? Listening and learning? New ways of working? Forget it.
When it doubt, Cllr Kober appoints a Panel. No luck? Appoint a Commission. Still utterly and embarrassingly clueless? Hire a "Champion".
Claire Kober became leader in November 2008, so it's a bit late to blame her predecessors. Kober's own record is of consistently poor judgement and repeated failures since then. It seems highly unlikely that, ten months before local elections, it would convince anyone if she and close ally Joe Goldberg, admitted mistakes and promised a new start. I doubt that Kober is able to change her dysfunctional way of doing "leadership". Even if we assume charitably that she might have some insight about her 4½ years of wasted opportunity.
Trouble is though, Neville, just as we lack a Council political Leader able to think creatively or develop new policies, I don't see this coming from what you call "a viable resident-led alternative".
What have you in mind? March and rally chanting: "Stop the Cuts!" or "Save Wards Corner!" as usual? Shout louder? You think that'll work? Or demonstrate to:"Save Lord Morrison Hall" that "vibrant" and "voluntary" "Community" building ".
All political groupings resemble "echo chambers" of the like-minded. Groups meet together and talk together; email and tweet their followers. Maybe they have gatherings, conferences, newsletters etc. A lot of this is directed as much at retaining the belief of the faithful as converting new believers.
The story of the Emperor's new clothes is about a particular sort of echo chamber. A royal court where sycophants, hangers-on, officials, and puzzled (or maybe hopeful) subjects watch the circus. Maybe some of them think there really is an incredibly fine suit of clothes. Or more likely, knowing which side their bread is buttered, they keep quiet about their vain and foolish emperor - or in our case, empress.
But, you know what, Neville? To me it seems that the "viable resident-led alternative" is equally naked.
Meanwhile, here's the most worrying part. Some rich and powerful people have their own clear ideas about how they want to carve-up the area where you and I are neighbours. They tell us that: "you have to have courage to make decisions not everyone will like". You can be sure they mean it. And will be taking a look at at other parts of Haringey in due course.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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@Alan, what's wrong with the resident-led solution? These groups have people actually living in those places and know what the problems are and have real ideas and solutions. All it needs is for Haringey Council to be prepared to listen to those needs and to act on their terms. It's not being anti-change. It's about dealing with with the issues in a more realistic way, no gimmicks, no glossy brochures, an acception that Tottenham will never be a popular place .... just make the area bearable for those of us who have to live there.
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Neville, as one of your own Tottenham Hale ward councillors I'm happy to consider any solutions. Including those proposed by "Our Tottenham".
But they'll need to be a bit more than a list of things which are mostly so vague as to be meaningless.
"Tottenham will never be a popular place?" Well, it's been popular with me and Zena for over thirty years. And many of our neighbours also choose to live here.
"All it needs is for Haringey Council to be prepared to listen?" Actually it needs a bit more. But yes, listening wouldn't be a bad start. Linked to looking, asking, researching and discussing. A disposition to learn would be helpful so people share ideas, feelings, views and theories. Plus "a willingness to acknowledge error" [which] "is at least at the root, is it not, of progress?"
Do you remember the photo of Cllrs Claire Kober and Alan Strickland on the council's website as they stood in the demolished Carpetright site in Tottenham Hale? Listening and consulting earnestly, thoughtfully and at great length with local residents - including local councillors - on the carefully thought-though Plan for Tottenham.
Out of genuine interest, where do you see as Tottenham - it's boundaries; the areas it includes and what it does not.
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