Harringay online

Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

LGA supports call to use empty shops for community projects.

As a follow on to Hugh's post about creative uses for empty shops. the Local Government Association (LGA) which says four out of five councils have reported an increase in empty premises, is calling for new powers to allow town halls to temporarily use shops as sites for community projects.

The LGA wants to make it easier and cheaper to use the premises for libraries, youth clubs, training centres and bring-and-buy sales.

It is asking for new powers to allow councils to take over shops once they have been vacant for three months.

It is also calling for a cut in VAT from 15% to 5% on the refurbishment of empty shops to encourage new businesses.

The LGA says the new powers would be a temporary measure for councils to use only during the recession.

Full story here

and this article describes some ideas for creative uses such as farmers market halls, guerilla galleries and travelling museums.

All of which suggests that it would be great if Haringey could follow the lead of the LGA and work to help set up some creative spaces for the empty space on Green Lanes, starting of course with the big, deserted space at the Coliseum...

Tags for Forum Posts: Third Space, creative spaces for empty places, crouch end, empty shops, local ideas

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At last the LGA are reading Harringay Online too!

I like to call it Creative Spaces for Empty Places
Who within the council do we think would have the time and the remit to help with such an initiative as Creative Spaces for Empty Places?

IDEA: set up a couple of medium sized glasshouses within that Coliseum space to grow tomatoes/cucumbers for the Salisbury salads. The Coliseum Salad.

Add some very nice sofas and a coffee machine for the begiinings of a community meeting space.

Of course Simons would probably have a mini heart attack at the mere mention of such silliness but if money were to be found to wave across their capitalist noses they may be tempted.

:)
This was the top story on the Today programme this morning and the BBC/papers are all over it. It seems to have a real buzz about it. Many people are seeing it as way of rolling back the Clone Town problem benighting many high streets and introducing a bit of creativity and individuality instead.

We obviously don't have Clone Town syndrome here but we could still do with some central community and creative spaces that introduce a bit of glamour/fun/interest to Green Lanes. We've already heard from several people on the site who are interested, we have a great opportunity here to lead the way on this. Hugh, have you heard back from David Lammy on this?

Following the Crouch End discussions, it seems that Councillor Kaushika Amin cabinet member for Regeneration and Enterprise seems to mentioned a lot. Matt Cooke is another possibility perhaps, if this counts as Community Cohesion and Involvement.

As for Paul Simon, if these powers were granted, the council could occupy the Coliseum whether they liked it or not, as it's been empty for longer than 3 months. How I'd love to see their faces if that happened...Power to the People, eh?
"The Crouch End discussions"?

(PS: I've already written to Matt Cooke and Lammy's office about this to try and get their support)
See;

http://andrewblackman.wordpress.com/2009/01/10/rip-pick-more-daisies/

It mentions Councillor Kaushika Amin's attitude to shop closures thus far. Her remit btw is;

• Business support and employment initiatives
• Cultural industries
• Economic regeneration
• External funding
• Key sites
• Planning Policy
• Regeneration programme performance
• Urban Futures.
• London 2012
re "Crouch End Discussions", just meant me reading about them in general in the local papers and on the council website etc. Nothing grander than that.

As for Cllr Amin, let's hope she reads her LGA newsletter carefully, as it would appear they don't agree that nothing can be done to stop shop closure and high street decline. I was in Crouch End this morning (I know shock, but my hairdresser is based there) and was a little perturbed by the number of empty shops, including the lovely toy shop Word Play.

I think, by contrast, Tom was right in his recent observation in this post that Green Lanes is far from declining and if anything is on an upward tangent but we still need to be proactive in ensuring that the empty shops we do have don't bring the area down and that this idea creative spaces for empty places is pursued.
The Coliseum was derelict for years to the point where masonary actually fell onto the pavement below. I witnessed this and it could have killed someone.

It`s a shame it was allowed to happen as architechurally it complemented the Salisbury.
The modern construction Paul Simons put up is not good but at least when it was being used it was productive for the area.

Many years ago.....probably before i ws born : ) there was a possibility of a tube station being built there...It`s a long way from Turnpike Lane to Manor House. I`d go for that.
excellent proposals and we should support the councils initative 100 %
Noo, Milo. This is us trying to get the Council to support our initiative unfortunately.
And, looks like Matt is seeking views on Twitter. Tweet back and let him know what you think.
This looks like a step in the right direction :-)

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