Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Haringey's Warehouse Districts Under Threat?
An item at tonight's Council Cabinet meeting has thrown into question the future survival of Haringey's two warehouse districts and the artistic communities who live in them.
Both the Harringay Warehouse District and the Fountayne Road community now face an uncertain future following the publication of a Haringey Council report, "Tackling Unauthorised Living in Industrial Areas". (Report attached)
The report, which was discussed at the full cabinet of the Council today, recommends a two-year project costing £600,000 which will seek to deal with "the growing problem of unauthorised residential and live work uses in and around (the) Industrial Sites" in Haringey. The recommended process is "to establish a special multi-disciplinary team to fully investigate and address the problem through a combination of regulation, improvement, enforcement and, where necessary, prosecution".
The alarm bells were ringing for me since earlier in the week I had discovered that these areas are earmarked as being amongst those that will "will accommodate the majority of development in the borough over the next 20 years".
In Facebook and Twitter conversations this afternoon, warehouse residents shared their fears that the vibrancy their communities bring to the borough will be overlooked and their communities sanitised and destroyed.
In response to my Twitter requests to Council Leader Claire Kober this evening to protect these communities, Cllr Kober sought to offer some reassurance:
@harringayonline some people in unacceptable conditions. My concern is for safe, decent properties. No intention to undermine communities
@harringayonline no intention to damage what's good. Priority is to go after rogue landlords just as we do elsewhere in borough
When I asked if she would ensure that warehouse residents will be involved, the Council Leader replied:
@harringayonline don't see any problem involving residents. Will ask officers to consider how best to achieve
I very much hope that the approach the Council takes in this project will support these communities rather than beginning the process of whittling them away.
Tags for Forum Posts: local plan, local plan 2014, site allocation plan, warehouse district
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Permalink Reply by Abi on
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Have to agree with this - it just seems odd that Haringey wants to focus on this 'problem' when there are so many other people living in poor quality housing that isn't safe or pleasant to be in and the council just don't seem to want to do anything about it. Equally there have been horrible conversions going up all over the borough for years, which people have complained about. Are these going to be dealt with too?
Some people in my area, often with kids in rented accom are in some cases living in appalling conditions are constantly appealing to the council to do something and nothing is done to help. Why not focus on those who are asking for help, not those who don't want it?
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Permalink Reply by Takaokagiejin on
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Some people are asking for help, see Susan's posts about noise and rubbish. Plus there are real safety concerns. In reality it may have something to do with the sheer size of it, 700 bedrooms is giant. I once managed to get several hundred asylum seekers moved to better accommodation in one go. The council took one look at the 200 room rat infested ex-hotel being sold as a hostel and saw an easy win. Of course I do also agree with Alan and Hugh that this is prime development land and so there will be other interests pushing it too.
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Permalink Reply by JJ B on
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Yes and this sort of thing is what gives London a competitive edge in the creative industries....the ability for creative types to find accommodation when not on guaranteed earnings. Squeeze them out of the capital and lose that.
We can't only rely on banking/finance to keep this city afloat.
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Sounds great Hannie. One of the best places I stayed in for a while when in my early 20s was a warehouse situation in a downtown CBD zone, another city, another country. It was excellent.
I think the biggest problem this 'warehouse' area has is the medium term plans for housing development by the council/developers. Enjoy the set-up while you have it. Should be OK for another few years, maybe another 10 years. The council has after all been talking for years about re-developing the area in Wood Green around the Chocolate Factory and nothing has happened!
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Hannie, if that's what's going to happen and Claire Kober has made a binding commitment, then I'm delighted to hear it. But have you got it in writing? Recorded? For which units and which not?
I'd love to hear or read what she actually said.
Above all, please bear in mind that as John McMullan has explained, right now she really needs your votes. In my observations of her, a shrewd assessment of votes and her own personal ambition seems to be one of only two things anyone can rely on with her. (The other is consistently making the wrong judgement calls.) So your votes are the only leverage you have. After 22 May this vanishes into smoke and mirrors.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Perhaps Hannie you would also share Claire Kober's response publicly by posting it here on HoL. As Council leader, her views and promises are of interests to all Haringey residents.
Of course, I appreciate that all councillors avoid promising what they can't deliver. But - within the constraints of Planning law Cllr Kober can make a commitment in respect of her own future actions. If you have correctly understood her views, and if she has a personal commitment to seeking a win-win outcome and balancing different interests, I'd welcome that as extremely positive. And to her credit.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Thanks for posting that so quickly Hannie.
Let me be entirely clear. I loathe and despise Cllr Claire Kober. Not as a person - I don't know her - but based on my own experience of her disastrous "leadership" for the past five years.
But I also grasp a fundamental fact. I can get something completely and comprehensively wrong. And so can people I like. While some people I loathe can be right. Comprehensively and completely right.
So when you mentioned your meeting with Claire Kober and her letter I was prepared to listen and learn and give her full credit for trying to do the right, sensible thing. Not just sensible regarding fire safety and building regs etc. We can all agree that. But looking for a solution in a complex and difficult situation which does not follow the pattern we've seen in Spitalfields, Shoreditch, and Dalston. (Yes, and now in Berlin too.) Where as Grayson Perry observed. "... artists are like the shock troops of gentrification". Before, as I would add, the shop troops of developers move in.
I very sincerely hope I am wrong. But I don't accept that what Claire Kober wrote to you actually commits her to seeking the sort of solution I have in mind. And which from your postings, so do you.
"I recognise the positive role that this sort of accommodation can play in the wider community . . . "
Does not, in my view, offer any vision of where live/work units or the creative industries actually fit and continue to thrive in this area. While balancing the reasonable and legitimate interests of existing long-term residents outside the former industrial building.
Maybe when she came to see you, Cllr Kober had a lot more to say. If so, did anyone take notes or record it on their phones? Please confound my cynical expectation!
In the meantime please remember that there's an election on 22 May. Claire Kober and her blethering sidekick Joe Goldberg want your votes.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Council tax is an individual's responsibility, not a landlord's. I'd be sure to keep on top of your obligations here as the consequences are serious and involve prison.
Personally I would turn the volume down on the parties and get a private waste firm to collect your rubbish (your landlords can certainly cope with this task). But that's just me and don't forget, I am envious of the parties ;)
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Permalink Reply by Tom Jubert on
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I thought that one more interesting bit of 'insider information' might be the sort of occupational makeup of a warehouse. It's true there are a lot of 'arty types', but also a lot of young professionals, and even a couple of families. Right now in our unit we have:
A video game designer
Someone who runs events at the community centre
A guy who teaches kids to ride bikes
A film maker whose film debuted at the Venice festival last year
And a couple of fishing for work art and design graduates.
We've also had chemistry PhD students, social workers, musicians, journalists, animators... One of the great joys of living here is meeting so many people with such disparate passions.
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Forgive me re-using an over-simple story of the three pigs and the wolf.
Because it seems to me that we are lots of little pigs arguing about the respective merits and tensions between artists, "creatives"; "social" housing tenants; yuppies; etc etc while the wolves are circling round.
Apart from the council leadership wolves, we have development wolves, including Spurs, and Boris Johnson / Stuart Lipton Plan wolves. (Pam Isherwood would probably add Grainger.) And others who are buying-up and assembling land. All determined to "sweat the assets" in Haringey and especially in Tottenham constituency. Treating our homes and neighbourhoods as investments and speculative opportunities. "Casino chips" as one HoL member wrote.)
But these days the wolves no longer have to huff and puff. (Though Cllr Joe Goldberg gave a fair approximation at the pantomime Council meeting yesterday evening - 26 February).
The Mayor of London Tory wolves and Haringey Council's red-rosetted Tory wolves tell their planners to draw up MasterPlans which will lead to knocking down hundreds of little pigs' homes - whether of brick, straw or wood. (Or even so-called "warehouses".)
Why no puff; no huff? Because they don't even break into sweat. Money lets them in by the smoothness, not of their chinny-chin-chin, but their suits and lawyers and accountants. Because money opens the doors and it's all perfectly legal. Well, with a bit of hiding away or making it hard to get hold of or understand a lot of the background documents. And imposing a timetable which means it's all over and done before most little pigs notice.
And d'you want to know the best bit from their viewpoint; the biggest and cruellest fraud? They ensure we are all made complicit.
How? By having a series of public meetings, letters, roadshows etc which will enable them to sell a story to the Planning Inspector next year, the "narrative" that there was full and proper consultation where we all had our say. They will have the numbers to prove it. Hundreds and thousands came to this event; and filled in that sheet; and went to such-and-such an exhibition. I wouldn't even be surprised if they print off this thread on Hol to help show what a vigorous and well-informed public debate there was.
Before they go ahead with what they planned in the first place.
Now I'm not saying that nothing of what will be developed is any good. Purely by the Laws of Probability even a failed Council leadership like ours, with its slavish devotion to the interests of the developers, even they can't get everything wrong.
And of course we do need more homes built. Not least because many people are already living here in overpriced, overcrowded, insecure poor quality and sometimes unsafe housing/hutches/sheds.
Though the gentrification process isn't on the whole about building new homes for them. it's about bringing in shiny new people who can enjoy the cafe culture, cultural quarter, and 24 hour/265 days a year "leisure destinations" of the new Tottenham. I'm not making any of this up. These and other plans have been in the idiot's guides to Tottenham "regeneration" for many years.
So please can we stop arguing about real, but solvable problems described in this thread.. Solve them with some mutual respect and mutual informal agreements and flexibility. There are bigger, more powerful, and far better resourced enemies around.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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I am sure you are right Alan, it feels like we are all talking about slightly different things and therefore getting nowhere. But what do you suggest we agree on as our way forward? That the planning regulations should be adhered to and enforcement take place or that the warehouse dwellings should be allowed to remain?
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