‘Tottenham Hale housing zone plans are economic plunder'‏

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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on June 20, 2014 at 8:50

Saved you a click!

Haringey Council’s zeal for Tottenham Hale to become one of the Mayor of London’s designated housing zones exposes the rotten heart of its regeneration agenda. Everything will be sacrificed to to hand over large parts of Tottenham to developers for them to economically plunder our community.

As we know from the Tottenham Hotspur stadium development this “place-changing” regeneration will involve people losing their homes, and businesses being evicted from their premises. A process of change that even Spurs fan and local MP David Lammy acknowledges will be hard for people. But, as he told a recent meeting of Bruce Grove residents, he “can’t play judge” and that it is “not my job to say which home or shop remains”.

In any case, neither he or the council will have much say in the proposed housing zone. Such areas come under the sway of Mayoral Development Orders. They are largely stripped of any planning regulations and are assigned to a developer to ensure that Boris can meet his building targets.

To be fair, maybe some of the flats will be for local residents needing a home, maybe some will go to Londoners attracted to Tottenham, and maybe a number will be bought by people living outside of the UK who never even visit their property investment. According to the GLA press release announcing the zones, the “absence of planning constraints in these zones will significantly accelerate construction”. In other words, the zones will nullify the community’s ability to influence what happens.

Such a surrender of land to the Mayor is the logical outcome of the council’s participation in the MIPIM 2014 event. There, regeneration lead Cllr Alan Strickland joined chief executive Nick Walkley and regen director Lyn Garner to actively sell Tottenham as being open to business. The Cannes Three’s networking was ably assisted by Neale Coleman, the Mayor of London’s advisor on Tottenham. According to the council’s official diary he arranged for meetings with Greg Clarke MP, government minister for cities, and Chris Shellard from Lee Valley Estates, who developed Hale Village.

The promotional tour highlight was a “Transforming Tottenham” panel discussion involving both Cllr Strickland and Neale Coleman. Other speakers included Jerome Frost of Arup, who produced the Tottenham Physical Development Framework, and Robert Evans, the independent chair of the Tottenham Landowners and Major Businesses .... Some Freedom of Information answers have revealed that Mr Evans’ £1,000 MIPIM registration fee was paid by Haringey Council. The panel was chaired by Peter Murray, chairman of NLA London’s Centre for the Built Environment. It was NLA and design agency Pipers who originally approached Haringey Council about attending MIPIM with a proposal covering attendance on the London stand being run in association with the Mayor of London.

These “big boys” might think it is a done deal to sweep away community objections to the high-rise agenda, but I have news for them. There is fight in the local people. Many of us put in alternative visions to the consultation over the Area Action Plans and in the autumn will have another opportunity to speak up for our alternative plans for Tottenham. One that starts with a better present for those of us living here now. Not in the futuristic Mayoral metropolis housing zone.

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