Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Former Ally Pally Station Community Centre
Yesterday, whist up in Alexandra Park, I stumbled across an entry on Foursqaure called CUFOS.
When I got home, I checked up on what it is and found out that it's an acronym for a group called 'Community Use for the Old Station'.
I didn't even know that the old station had survived, let alone that it was in use by the community. So I thought I'd share this little discovery. (I've also de-acronymised the 4Sq entry to better enable more serendipitous discoveries).
More on the CUFOS website.
Tags for Forum Posts: alexandra park
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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According to their website (lined above):
At present about 30 different groups meet there regularly, These include: playgroup and mother and toddler groups, childrens’ drama and music classes, adult art classes and jazz and wind bands, childrens’ french and maths classes, adult spanish classes, writing and yoga groups, Weightwatchers and Multiple Sclerosis society and an Indian cultural group.
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Permalink Reply by Omotn on
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I went to friends' silver wedding anniversary party there - I'd guess it was about 10 years ago - so this is a well established community use for such a building.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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The old railway station, now CUFOS, is a building separate from Alexandra Palace. And yet that too, had a narrow escape in 2007 from the clutches of Firoka, the property developer and one-time "preferred partner" of Haringey Council.
Not content with a 125 year lease on our Charity's entire seven-acre building, Firoka principal Firoz Kassam was also negotiating the future of the CUFOS building that had long been in community use. His appetite knew few bounds; it was aided and abetted by the now-disgraced former AP general manager Keith Holder.
Disgraced ex-council leader C. Adje – who at the time was chairman of the "Board" of Trustees – was about the last person to rely on to safeguard this community asset. Mr Adje is currently still a councillor, having not availed himself of the opportunity to withdraw from public life following his four-month suspension for concealing vital information from his fellow "Trustees" about the sale of our Palace (possibly including CUFOS).
(Although the Trusteeship is wholly unreformed, the appointment by the council to the new post of Chief Executive, of Duncan Wilson OBE, appears to be a big step in the right direction.)
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Permalink Reply by Sharon Grant on
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My proudest achievement as the ward councillor in the mid-80's was to rescue this gem of a building, then almost derelict, and to get it refurbished for community use! One of the reasons its survived is because its run and looked after so well, with few overheads, by local people themselves on a voluntary basis - a model which really can work and which is worthy of consideration in these hard times. (We thought of the Big Society long ago!)
Well done to all involved. Its proved a huge asset, as evidenced by the variety of uses to which CUFOS is now put.
Its particularly important to retain CUFOS given the shortage of affordable, accessible, community buildings in a highly residential area - and we need to be wary of various speculative predators who regularly like to covet our little gem!
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It was a good thing that CUFOS was preserved. To see how close the community came to losing the building into the jaws of Firoka, please see some the links here and here.
The then general manager was keen to point out the rights of Firoka (principal = former slum landlord) in connection with CUFOS.
While still employed as the council's general manager of Alexandra Palace, Keith Holder was looking forward to a job with Firoka (a conflict of interest? You might say that but I couldn't possibly comment!)
Following his retirement from the council, Holder continued as a self-employed "consultant" to the Trust. He traded as Keith Edwin Holder Associates. This appears largely to have been disguised from the public in the AP accounts, as payments appear to have been recorded as "EHA". In the 24 months to December 2007, that entity was paid £40,000 (FOI data). There is speculation as to how much work was performed under that part-time arrangement.
Following the Walklate 2 investigation into his part in the notorious Licence-to-Firoka, Holder departed in disgrace.
Without the glare of bright sunshine upon their dealings, the council cannot by themselves be trusted to look after the interests of such buildings.
The price of retaining our heritage is eternal vigilance!
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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You should have dobbed him in to HMRC.
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John it never occurred to me that the EHA "earnings" were not declared and to be fair, I have no reason to suppose that it was not. I believe the artful "EHA" was so as to frustrate any easy link (and possible questions) between the accounts of our Charity and the self-employed consultant who was expecting employ with Firoka. Of course, the whole show was still largely being run by Holder at that time anyway.
The £40,000 paid from our Charity's funds to EHA was revealed in a Freedom of Information request (please see attached file: third item from bottom plus footnote).
That figure of £1,612,000
That's certainly an underesimate of taxpayers' cash used for these reasons:
(1) the FoI request asked for sums over £10,000 (only);
(2) it was for a 24 month period (only), doubtless with spending on either side of the period.
However, in each case, most of the spending probably will have been captured.
Wouldn't it be great if the council could have back that £1.6m ? (money almost entirely wasted).
- Attachments:
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AP Trust spending.pdf, 108 KB
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