Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Get these people into court - they deserve it - #HTHBadDeal
The Hornsey Town Hall CIC, having taken advice, are now seeking £20,000 to implement a judicial review. Please read their plea , and contribute, to at least have some chance of putting this sale under proper scrutiny. Just as with the initial appeal they have got off to a flying start.
Clearly the sale of an iconic publicly owned, grade II* listed asset to a tax haven registered overseas multi billion dollar company is barking mad. Local authorities up and down the country have proved that they come off second best (by a long way) when negotiating such deals. And so it has proved here - Haringey come out of this with next to nothing, though we can't tell what because of the secrecy that surrounds the deal. Help get it into court.
In order to overturn the decision to grant planning permission a judge would have to assess the decision to grant it as barking mad. Well , any judge who has lived in Haringey for any length of time would probably already believe that for a fact. But in respect of the Town Hall, what evidence do we have of barking madness:
1) The Supper Room, a delightful, atmospheric, intimate, yet large enough music and performance space will be turned into recording studios - woof , woof
2) The current suite of offices, ideal for small and medium sized enterprises, will be turned into bedsits, much against Haringey's own policies Glossed over in the planning decision notice.
3) The change of use of the Supper Room is being overseen by Piers Read, the man who is responsible for the arts and community offering, under the banner of FEC/ Time and Space. But if one of the best venues goes as a private facility, what is happening to the community use
4) The theatre - won't actually work as such according to the support (yes, support) offered by some theatre trust, there are a shed load of objections to the layout.
5) A building outside the conservation area and well out of sight of the Town Hall was used as a precedent for the extra storeys, while a planning permission refusal on grounds of height in the next blosk was ignored.
Tags for Forum Posts: hornsey town hall, hthbaddeal
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Straw Cat on
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Adrian, HTH is indeed a scandal. Abandoning an award-winning building - the first public modernist one in Britain -followed by years of deliberate failure to maintain, as at Ally Pally, resulting in costly and unnecessary damage.
However a problem I have heard voiced about the proposed JR, is that it will fail as it is out of time. JRs have to be brought very soon after the original decision, and in any event within three months of it, otherwise judges simply will not entertain them. I believe this caused an otherwise good part of the HDV case to fail. The (successful) JR of the attempt to flog off Ally Pally had to be done within weeks of the decision.
So worthy as the cause is, it looks like it might fall at the first hurdle, and the legal costs donated wasted. Do you know how the lawyers propose to get around this major problem?
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Permalink Reply by Adrian Hackney on
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While my attitude may be seen as gung-ho and cavalier on many subjects, to suggest I am so unprincipled as to ask for donations which will be wasted is a bit thick. The principals in this case are being advised by lawyers and are well aware of the deadlines. What supporters are being asked for are not at this stage donations, but are pledges to give money if the review can go ahead.
Given that the deadlines are tight the decision whether or not to proceed may be taken very shortly.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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I think that's a bit over-sensitive Adrian. I'm sure he wasn't accusing you of chicanery.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Come on Adrian! SC is obviously supportive of the action and asks a simple question. Calling someone a “bit thick” isn’t very helpful.
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Permalink Reply by Malc B on
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Looking at the link, the planning decision was made on 13th March. This is the date which sets the clock running. The bad news is that as it is a planning case, the time period is six weeks not three months. So a challenge would appear to be in time, but the deadline will expire very soon.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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I think Purdah started the 27th of March so someone's in a hurry anyway. Presuming that this would be covered by the Purdah of course.
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The Hornsey Town Hall CIC have been blown away by the level of support that their campaign has had. They raised over £13,000 in just 4 days. The level of money pledged and the comments on the crowdfunding page show the palpable anger about selling off the town hall and the hope for something better.
But the judicial review will not now happen.
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As it's indeed a planning decision the JR deadline expires today and apparently because the amount pledged is still a few £,000 short of the £20,000, Mr Winskill and his team have decided it's too risky for them to go on.
As people have said on the N8 opinion site, reviewing the planning decision would probably only result in another slightly modified application ... the real chance to attack the whole thing would have been to JR the signing of contracts - which was back in February 2017.
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