Respond to ‘High Road West’ consultation (by 25th Oct)

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http://www.haringey.gov.uk/highroadwest

The Tottenham Business Group at High Road West – opposite the Spurs ground – speaks up for the 120 threatened local businesses threatened with demolition. They are calling on everyone to respond to the outrageous proposals for the mass demolitions in the area. The proposals follow the fraudulent ‘consultation’ last year in which there was no option to oppose demolitions. At that time 4,000 people signed a petition against demolitions.

The Tottenham Business Group recommend ticking the ‘strongly disagree’ boxes in the current consultation.
Fill in your response asap (by 25th Oct at the latest): http://www.haringey.gov.uk/index/haringey-snap-survey.htm?k=141053592434

The Our Tottenham Co-ordination Group have responded by ticking most of the ‘strongly disagree’ boxes, but leaving a few blank.
We also commented on each page ‘Totally opposed to any demolitions of existing buildings. Support retention and improvements to existing buildings and facilities.’

Save Ermine Road and Plevna Crescent Open Spaces in Tottenham

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Dear all

1.       The Planning Inspector has decided that the appeal needs a full inquiry, not an informal hearing. So our planned lobby of the hearing on Tuesday 28 October is now off. We will let people know as soon as we hear dates for an inquiry.
2.       Friends of the Earth volunteers joined with local residents on Saturday 11th October to clean up dumped rubbish on Ermine Road open space. The site, which is designated green open space in Haringey’s plans, is threatened by housing development. It has been allowed to become derelict.
3.       As well as pressing the Inspector to refuse the appeal, we are calling on the Council to work with local residents to secure a better future for the site which could include play space, food growing and areas managed for wildlife. Our petition is on line at

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-ermine-road-and-plevna-crescent-open-spaces-in-tottenham

and together with our paper petition has had over 2,000 signatures so far.

Quentin Given
Co-ordinator
Tottenham & Wood Green Friends of the Earth

Post Conference Meeting: The Next Steps

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The Next Steps
Thursday 23rd October, 6.30pm
@ 639b High Road, N17

75 people from 37 local organisations attended our ‘Moving Forward Together’ conference on October 11th, and there were some excellent discussions. A summary will be circulated shortly. The conference was the culmination of an action-packed Tottenham Community Empowerment Week which involved and engaged a lot of people around a whole range of events and issues throughout the area.

This important next meeting will discuss and review the conference and Empowerment Week, collect together all the notes (and anecdotes!) – and sort out the next steps for Our Tottenham as a whole and for the various Working Groups and initiatives we are involved with. We want to stand up for the interests of the peoples of Tottenham and to do that effectively we need you!

All welcome. It would be great if one or two people could attend from every supporting group…

Together we can…
– defend and extend our community-run spaces!
– protect our Council estates: no to demolitions, yes to improvements!
– defend small, local businesses: save our industrial zones under threat!
– create and implement Community Plans!
– save Tottenham’s heritage and character!
– give our youth a future!

Very Important Community Centres Meeting 22nd Oct

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Wednesday 22nd October 2014
Chestnuts Community  Centre and Community Arts 
St Anne’s Road, Tottenham, N15
7.30pm

A number of us recently held a very well attended ‘celebrating and defending our community centres session’, as part of the Our Tottenham, Community Empowerment Week.

At this meeting it was agreed to explore the establishment of a Tottenham wide network to support the development of community centres in the area including those under threat.

I am therefore inviting you to a meeting to discuss this idea further on:
Wednesday 22nd October 2014
Chestnuts Community  Centre and Community Arts
St Anne’s Road, Tottenham, N15
7.30pm

The meeting will also consider what action is necessary to stop the expulsion of 28 user groups from Chestnuts on 31st December 2014.

A recent meeting of users agreed that they would like to try and create an alternative model to the Council’s current plans for the centre’s closure. Please come along and give support. If a new organisation is to be established it will need skills in administration, social media, campaigning, lobbying, as well as strategy, planning and financial management.

We will also be seeking donations from £1 upwards so that the new organisation can open a bank account to support the campaign.

Please spread this information via your own networks.

Meeting: Community Land Trusts

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Community Land Trusts
7pm Tuesday 28 October
Chestnuts Community Centre
St Ann’s Road, N15

Community Land Trusts can run community centres, social enterprises and social housing. Community centres in Tottenham are threatened with closure. Could a CLT offer a solution ?

Some people around Our Tottenham have organised a meeting to hear speakers from the Community Land Trust movement and find out more about how it would work. The meeting will be at Chestnuts Community Centre, 7pm Tuesday 28 October.

If it makes sense, we would move towards forming a working group to set up a CLT in Tottenham and use it to save one or more of the community centres under threat. Plus possibly getting some genuine social housing put up under community control.

As well as community centres, many local people want to see more ‘proper’ social rent housing instead of the Council’s plans. Some of this could be provided by community cooperatives or a new democratically controlled community housing organisation.

A Community Land Trust would help the community acquire and run sites (leasehold or freehold), negotiate with the Council or developers and landowners, obtain grant funding for feasibility studies, fees, loans for land purchase and eventually for building or refurbishment.

Come to Chestnuts Community Centre, St Ann’s Road, Tuesday 28 October at 7pm to discuss this and hear informed speakers. Agenda below.

See  www.communitylandtrusts.org.uk and http://www.eastlondonclt.co.uk/ for background information.

Provisional agenda

Arrival from 6.45: sign contact list if people wish, soft drinks/tea and biscuits available

7pm sharp: welcome and introduction from chair –Yvonne Field

7.10pm to 8pm; speakers, Q and A:-
Hannah Fleetwood, Community Land Trust Network

Overview of what CLTs are and can do, plus one London and one other big-city example of CLT work, highlighting benefits and challenges of this model, funding and investment mechanisms.
Focus on how to fund/preserve/develop community centres because we need this before we get on to housing. Social enterprises will also be relevant as source of future income stream for community facilities.

Also invited; speaker from East London Community Land Trust

8pm: Brief comfort/refreshment break at 8pm (juice, water, biscuits; donations welcome)

8.10pm to 9pm: Discussion of how to move forward in Tottenham:-
Desired outcome; a committed working group to study and form a CLT within 6-12 months, with a view to buying/leasing at least one community centre site and possibly a small section of the St Ann’s site (if they sell it, or if not, somewhere else) for social-rent housing, especially supported housing for ex-mental-health-service users and/or older people.

Victory for campaign group! Permanent tenancies will continue

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http://www.haringeyindependent.co.uk/news/11540608.Council_tenancies_will_continue_to_be_for_life/

New council housing tenants will continue to be offered permanent tenancies by Haringey Council. The policy was approved by the council’s cabinet meeting on Tuesday evening. Paul Burnham, of Haringey Defend Council Housing, called the move a “tremendous victory” for the campaign group. The Tenancy Strategy report presented to cabinet by council officers acknowledges the “instability” and “uncertainty” created by fixed term tenancies. Councils have been allowed to offer fixed-term tenances, rather than life-tenancies, since 2011.

 

 

Our Tottenham interviewed on BBC Radio London Breakfast Show

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Our Tottenham interviewed on Radio London breakfast show

Hear it yourself at this link: (It may not be available continuously, so watch it soon.)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02728lc
Philip is on from 1hr 18mins to 1hr 26mins into the broadcast.

Our Tottenham’s Philip Udeh was interviewed on the Radio London Robert Elms breakfast show, Saturday 4th October.. The show was a special on how current controversial planning policies and practices favour developers rather than communities, especially the building of unaffordable housing. Philip does an excellent job explaining about the network, the plans of Spurs, other developers and the Council threatening businesses and homes, how the community and our needs are mostly ignored but that the community has some excellent visions and projects (eg Wards Corner and Lordship Rec) which show the way forward for community-led regeneration.

You can also listen to Lucy Rogers of Just Space (a london-wide network which we support). She is on – from 18min to 26min into the broadcast – explaining the London-wide picture of top-down regeneration, the need for genuinely affordable housing, and calling for communities to be at the centre of decision-making.

Saturday 11th October: Our Tottenham Conference

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Our Tottenham Conference – Moving Forward Together
Saturday 11 October, 11am – 4pm

North London Community House, 22 Moorefield Road, N17 6PY
Entrance Free

Please register now so that we can make adequate provisions for the numbers attending:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/our-tottenham-moving-forward-together-conference-tickets-10114991211?ref=estw

AIMS

Enable people to find out more about what the Council and developers are doing, and the work of the Our Tottenham Network. Inspire and enable the community to learn from successful community-led projects and local campaigning, and to promote and celebrate our achievements as local people. Take forward ideas from our Feb 2014 conference for positive Community Planning for local sites and for Tottenham as a whole. Update the Community Charter for Tottenham. To work towards building a mass movement based on community empowerment, social inclusion, fairness and justice for all

AGENDA

11. Arrival / registration

11.15am   General introduction / background   About Council/developers policies and plans + Our Tottenham network news + Purpose of conference

11.25am  INSPIRATIONAL COMMUNITY ACTION
Short ‘inspirational’ presentations / updates from around Tottenham (eg North London Community House, Tottenham Business Group, Selby Centre, Chestnuts Community Arts Centre, Haringey Defend Council Housing, Wards Corner, Haringey Needs St Ann’s Hospital, Lordship Rec, Bull Lane Playing Fields, Community Land Trust etc)

12.15pm.  Workshops – 1st session: Mobilising and campaigning. An action discussion.
All discussions to include reference to an alternative Community Plan for Tottenham
a. Housing (including the campaign to defend Council housing estates)
b. Economy
c. Youth
d. Environmental sustainability
e. Community Facilities, including self-managed Community Centres
f.  Public Services (including Health, Education, Welfare and Council services)

1pm  Break ————— Food & refreshments

1.45pm  Workshops – 2nd session   COMMUNITY PLANNING AND A TOTTENHAM COMMUNITY PLAN
Introduction on why we need a Community Plan for Tottenham. Break out into groups, each to discuss a. and b. below. What are the practicalities of developing local community plans for individual sites, and the proposed ‘Road Map’ for creating a Tottenham-wide Plan.

a.  How do people create Community Plans? Developing community visions and turning them into local Plans; Accessing and pressing for the funding/resources needed; Relations with Council and authorities; Negotiating legal/planning processes; Developing partnerships; Mobilising support and exercising our power to achieve Plans.
b.  How will we, together, create a Community Plan for Tottenham as a whole – agreeing and implementing a ‘Road Map’ over the next 12 months based on the Community Charter, the experiences of successful local community planning efforts, and the preliminary work of the Our Tottenham Community Planning Working Group. How can everyone contribute to the process? One over-arching plan? Several mini-plans for different geographical areas on the map (eg N/S/E/W/Central Tottenham?). A sector based approach e.g. community buildings; shops and workplaces; green spaces; housing? How do we ensure involvement and support from community groups and the wider public for the process and development of a draft Community Plan – local workshops, Questionnaires etc? How can we forestall adverse moves by Council/developers in time to prevent things we don’t want from becoming irreversible?

2.45pm   Final session   MOVING FORWARD TOGETHER
2.45pm   Brief report-backs from the workshops and indicative show of hands for any proposals.

3.15pm   Discussion about ‘road map’ for the Community Plan for Tottenham as a whole.

3.30pm   Discussion on ways of involving/engaging/empowering the people of Tottenham in defending their needs and strengthening the OT network: eg supporting local campaigns, spreading mutual aid and solidarity, group affiliations, stalls, assemblies, active Working Groups, localised workshops and events, community-led consultations, lobbies, protests etc.

4pm.  Final remarks. Clear up together.

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Monday 6th Oct: OUR Neighbourhoods! People power and gentrification

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Monday 6th October
REEL News Film and Discussion Night:
OUR Neighbourhoods! People power and gentrification
7pm-9.30pm @ T Chances, 399 High Road, N15 6RD
A series of inspiring local (Haringey) and international short films about residents campaigning for improvements and defending their neighbourhoods against being forced out by gentrification.
Organised by REEL News: www.reelnews.co.uk

Wed 8th October: Celebrate and Defend Tottenham’s Community-run Community Centres

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7-9pm @ Chestnuts Community and Arts Centre, St Ann’s Road, N15 5BN
Join us for a dialogue about our Community Centres in Tottenham, the efforts to oppose closures, sell offs and demolitions – and to expand provision.
·  How can we create vibrant and viable community centres in Tottenham?
·  What models might we need to design and implement to  ensure their future sustainability?
Come and hear from some of the existing Centres. Contribute your thinking to their development and to other local community spaces locally
Organised by members of the Our Tottenham Coordination Group:   www.ourtottenham.org.uk