Philip Udeh (Our Tottenham Co-ordination Group), Patricia Pearcy (Tottenham Businesses Group / High Road West) and Paul Burnham (Haringey Defend Council Housing) took part in an Our Tottenham deputation to address the Council Cabinet on 15th July.  See the full written statement below.

Philip Udeh called for a rethink of some of the most controversial and damaging ‘regeneration’ proposals for Tottenham, due to be discussed later on in the meeting, and offered the Cabinet an opportunity to agree to some simple and positive ‘quick wins’ which would demonstrate that the Council was genuinely willing to engage with the community and our real needs. The ‘quick wins’ proposed by Our Tottenham are:

– Help implement the Wards Corner Community Plan now it has planning permission
– Scrap the High Rd West proposals for demolitions and a Spurs ‘walkway’ – create new plans for improvements in partnership with local traders/residents
– Protect Council Housing estates with improvements, not demolitions, displacement and disruption.
– Support community-run Community Centres, and give them the extended leases they want, rather than threats of evictions
– Expand health-related services throughout St Ann’s Hospital, Haringey’s only hospital site, to include a new Urgent Care Centre, rather than support the selling off of much-needed public land.

Paul Burnham explained that the planned ‘regeneration’ of many of the borough’s Council housing estates was not actually regeneration but part of a plan led by property developers for gentrification which would force thousands of local people out of the borough. He reported that Haringey Defend Council Housing had held public meetings on many of the estates and there was widespread fear and opposition to demolitions.

Patricia Pearcy, representing 120 small businesses threatened with ruin, reminded the Cabinet that 4000 local people had signed the traders’ petition against demolitions. She called for the cabinet member for regeneration and housing, Alan Strickland, to honour the pledge he made in this Chamber on 13 Nov 2013 to explore options which would retain the threatened high street shops and businesses. This should be before any further ‘consultation’ in the area.

Cllr Strickland, in reply, claimed widespread public support for the Council’s plans and pledged that no-one would be forced out of the borough as a result of the Council’s policies.

The Cabinet later adopted their controversial ‘Tottenham Strategic Regeneration Framework Delivery Plan’.

The Deputation’s written statement:

The Our Tottenham network is an umbrella network for 45+ local community organisations. [Leaflet distributed]. In April 2013 over 30 groups came together and formulated and adopted a positive Community Charter for Tottenham. This was followed up by a large conference in February 2014 to promote Community Planning throughout the area, based on the inspirational efforts of many community groups and projects over the last 20-30 years [Report distributed].

We love Tottenham! We aim to see genuine improvements for the people who live and work in Tottenham, and for our communities. We also aim to amplify the voices of local people, and promote genuine community empowerment in all decision-making affecting our lives.

This meeting is an opportunity for Cabinet to review controversial plans and proposals, many of which are detrimental to the interests of thousands of local people and our communities – and to start to genuinely engage with our communities and local community groups as real partners.

The OT approach is about really improving Tottenham and real community empowerment, as compared to the Council and property developers’ approach which seems to focus on maximum profit-led, mega-development and ‘gentrification’ in which large numbers of local people will be priced out of our own neighbourhoods..

We welcome the Tottenham Futures contributors’ calls for (for example)…

–       expanding social and affordable housing, rather than the present plans for the vast majority of homes being built or planned being unaffordable to most local people
–       defending local small businesses, and social and community facilities, rather than the many present threats of demolitions and closures
–       for genuine community engagement and empowerment, rather than fraudulent consultations and manipulation of results.

Unfortunately many of the key results of the Tottenham Futures consultation have been ignored.

That’s the past now. To move forward constructively we are asking the Cabinet to agree at this meeting to some Quick Wins including…
–     Wards Corner Coalition: Help implement the Community Plan now it has planning permission
–     High Rd West: scrap the proposals for demolitions and a Spurs ‘walkway’ – create new plans for improvements in partnership with local traders/residents [Statement from Tottenham Businesses Group distributed – see below]
–     Council estates: improvements – not demolitions, displacement and disruption. We call on the Cabinet to work with Haringey Defend Council Housing to achieve this [HDCH leaflet distributed].
–     Community-run Community Centres: give them the extended leases they want – no evictions
–     St Ann’s Hospital: expand health-related services throughout Haringey’s only hospital site, including an Urgent Care Centre – no sell off of much-needed public land.

If you can adopt these Quick Wins we can all start working together to have positive community-led improvements and genuine community empowerment throughout Tottenham.