A to Z of 'Tottenham Regeneration'

I have compiled some of the information about Haringey Council's regeneration activities into an A-Z.

I welcome hearing what you think the letters can stand for. Please keep it clean.

Best wishes,
Martin

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A to Z of 'Tottenham Regeneration'

A - is for the asset-stripping of Haringey Council's public buildings, housing estates, schools, hospitals, and parks. The latest public assets under threat are locally-run community centres.

B - is for Best Consideration price rules cited by Haringey Council as legal justification for selling the Apex House customer service centre for £3.8m to their preferred buyer Grainger and avoiding an open market sale that could have potentially reached a higher price.

C - is for the Chickentown business getting £250,000 of public funding to open a 'healthy' fried chicken restaurant in the former fire station on Tottenham Green. Displacing from the premises a children's charity and the reception area of the building's management agent.

D - is for the Demolition Notice officially served on the Love Lane Estate in North Tottenham. This means hundreds of flats are formally under the threat of being demolished by 2022. In addition, 120 local business are also facing demolition despite 4,000 people signing a petition supporting their right to remain trading in their current premises.

E - is for Robert Evans, the one-time independent Chair of the Tottenham Landowners and Major Businesses Group that brings together big interests to discuss what they believe is right for the area. Members of the group include: TfL; Hermes Real Estate Investment Management Limited (- who run Tottenham Hale Retail Park on behalf of the British Telecom Pension Scheme), Lea Valley Estates, CHENEL, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, Bellway Homes, Newlon Housing Trust, and Grainger. Mr Evans now just represents his employer Argent on the group; and Haringey Council are the secretariat.

F - is for the south of France, where in Cannes the MIPIM world property gathering is held. Haringey Council has attended MIPIM 2014 (£22,000) and MIPIM 2015 (£30,000). The companies that have sponsored the council to attend are: ISIS, Grainger, Mace, Lee Valley Estates, St James (Berkeley Group), Tottenham Hotspur, Trowers & Hamlyn LLP, Grainger, and Hermes.

G - is for Grainger, who sponsored Haringey Council to go to Cannes 2014 (£3,500) and 2015 (£2,500) They are getting the Apex House site for £3.8m and want to erect a 22-storey tower designed by John McAslan architects.

H - is for Holcombe Market, the marketplace just off the Tottenham High Road that remains unaltered despite an 8th March 2012 ( - yes, Twenty12) pledge to improve it made by Councillor Alan Strickland. 40 months on, he remains committed to promising future improvement.

I - is for the £1billion investment Haringey Council claims is coming to Tottenham. Though the truth is less of a soundbite as the council admits the figure is 'an aggregation of the current best estimated value of all proposed infrastructure investments, grants and anticipated private sector leverage'.

J - is for Jones Lang LaSalle, who were part of the Arup Group master-planning team that drew up the original plans for 'place-changing' North Tottenham. Others involved include: Landolt+Brown (- architects of the rusty retail box extension proposal for Bruce Grove Station), S333 Architecture, and Zero-Zero.

K - is for Claire Kober, the Leader of Haringey Council who has recently received a £2,296 pay rise. This 6.6% increase takes her total Haringey pay packet to £41.997,

L - is for Lea Valley Estates who are key drivers of the Hale Village development of high-rise buildings that are Haringey Council's starting point for even taller towers blotting the Tottenham Marshes landscape. They have sponsored the council to go to Cannes, and are members of the Tottenham Landowners and Major Businesses Group.

M - is for Allies+Morrison, the company who have done the master-planning for Tottenham Hale and produced a futuristic model of the area with approximately 75 new buildings pointing up to the sky. A+M are now involved in the Spurs housing zone development.

N - is for N17 Studio, the Tottenham marketing suite of John McAslan architects that Haringey Council refurbished at a cost of £181,548. The council estimates that over a five-year period the public spending on the N17 Studio project will be £351,000.

O - is for Our Tottenham, the network bringing together Tottenham's community groups in campaigning for improvements that benefit the community now and in the future.

P - is for parks and green spaces threatened by the council's building plans. For example, alongside the demolition of the Broadwater Farm housing estate the council proposes to build on Lordship Recreation Ground, the largest park in Tottenham and a green space transformed by a community-led programme of publicly-funded improvements.

Q - is for the memorable quotes that those who govern us have provided. Whether it be Haringey Council's regeneration director Lyn Garner saying that Tottenham looked like a 'war zone', or Cabinet Member for economic growth Councillor Joe Goldberg admitting that regeneration was 'quite frightening'.

R - is for the Tottenham Regeneration Team, whose spending is set to increase from £2,5m in 2014-15 to a budget estimate of £3,666,500 in 2015-16. The team has been increased by seven new members of staff since 1st January 2015 and is 20-strong. The cost of the additional staff in 2015-15 is estimated to be £945,302.

S - is for Councillor Alan Strickland, the Cabinet Member lead on regeneration since May 2011 and a regular salesman of Tottenham at gatherings of property developers. His policy portfolio includes the Tottenham Regeneration Programme that is 'driving forward the council's ambitious plans' of social and business cleansing the area.

T - is for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, who started by wanting to build a modern new football stadium for fans and now want to create a corporate entertainment Spursland in North Tottenham. A process that has already involved the demolishing of business sites, and the Compulsory Purchase Order removal of Archway Metals.

U - is for un-finished, as in the Elgin Place housing scheme on the Tottenham High Road that has been so delayed that it has been re-branded as Brook Place. The scheme originally received planning permission from Haringey Council in January 2010 and the new target completion date is 2016.

V - as in the Joint Venture that brings together Hermes, Argent, and Haringey Council in a dream-team plan to create a new town centre alongside Tottenham Hale bus station. Hermes and Argent are members of the Tottenham Landowners and Major Businesses Group.

W - is for Ward's Corner, where a coalition of traders and local people have resisted for seven years the Grainger and Haringey Council agenda to demolish a beautiful building. There is now a community plan to develop the area and the public can get involved in the development trust.

X - is for the X-rated email exchanges between Soundings - the company that organised the Tottenham's Future consultation - and Haringey Council over the finalising of the consultation's report. Credit to Soundings for resisting the council's attempts to downplay the findings identifying the improvements local people called for.

Y - is for you and me architecture splashing the public cash on transforming a number of Tottenham's shop fronts. Though the durability of the make-overs is yet to be tested by time, and the council's poor record on street cleaning.

Z - is for zero, the number of Tottenham regeneration staff allegedly living in Tottenham.

& - is for and, as in 'and the information we don't yet know'.