Labour Councillors representing the Cally neighbourhood in Islington

2nd February 2010

Thames Water has been digging up most of this Ward for the past year. Considering how many bursts and leaks have hit the area over the last decade or so, it’s clearly very necessary work. But it’s also very disruptive.

The whole length of Caledonian Road was dug-up last year. Rupert and Paul averted a catastrophic scheduling error when it tranpsired that the Council was about to resurface all of Caledonian Road just weeks before Thames contractors planned to dig it all up. The side streets east of Cally have had their entire pipes replaced too – not surprising really as these water mains were as old as the houses.

More suprising has been the work west of Caledonian Road particularly Sutterton Street and the cul de sac roads making up the Nailour Street Estate – Conistone Way, Bradely Close, Kerwick Close and Rydston Close. These homes wer built in the 1970s so it’s a mystery why there might be Victorian era water mains under the streets there.

And because these roads are quite narrow, the excavation works have caused immense problems for residents. Earlier in January, we learned that Islington’s refuse trucks could not back into the streets because of the works. Instead of sorting out an alternative way to remove the refuse, the contractors just left the garbage in the bins. After a couple of weeks things got out of hand with great piles of bin sacks piled up on the estate. We got a special delivery sorted out using smaller collection vehicles and a special gang of collectors. But looking at the current round of excavations, it looks like Rydston Close is going to experience problems again this week. So, we’ve alerted the Council’s streetscene managers to keep an eye on things.

29th January 2010

Each of Islington’s 16 Wards has a Safer Neighbourhood Panel supported by the Metropolitan Police and the Council’s Safer Islington Partnership. In Caledonian Ward, the Panel is chaired by Councillor Paul Convery and it meets every 2 months to discuss new initiatives and to feedback to the police where problems arise.

The meeting on January 28^th welcomed a new Seargant, Mike Atkinson, who has taken command of the Caledonian Ward team upon the departure of Sgt Dave Wiggins who has been promoted to take a wider role in neighbourhood policing across the south of the Borough. We also learned that PC Carel le Masson who has worked the Caledonian patch diligently for the past 4 years is also joining the same wider team. Both Dave and Carel have served as exemplary officers building up an excellent understanding of the area and providing intelligent and effective policing. We could do with a whole load more coppers like them.

The entrance walkway through Coatbridge house on the Bemerton estate - the usual hangout spot for dozens of young people

The latest SNP meeting was consulted on a number of live operational matters such as the covert surveillance operation which began late last year targeted at groups of youths congregating on the Bemerton Estate. Anti Social Behaviour on the Bemerton had exploded during October with widespread graffiti and damage in hotspots of the estate and intimidation towards residents. Cash for the surveillance operation was agreed after Cllr Convery and Daniel Dresner (Chair of the Bemerton Villages Management Organisation) attended a Town Hall meeting with senior Police and Council officers to demand more resource to crack this problem. A number of ASBOs and injunctions had worked during trouble earlier in the Summer but the latest gang of youths were new and the police needed identification, particularly the ring leaders. The latest operation is beginning to yield results.

The January 28^th meeting agreed three priorities for the local police team to concentrate on:

• Anti social behaviour on the Westbourne Estate, Bemerton Estate and around Boston/Nailour estates
• Emerging vice related problems – particularly around the Mackenzie Road/Caledonian Road junction
• Preventative action to warn shopkeepers about selling alcohol to minors

The next meetings of the SNP are scheduled for 18^th March, 27^th May, 22^nd July, 9^th September and 11^th November.

January 26th 2010

Over 800 local people are celebrating the decision to grant planning permission to renovate the old St David’s Church on Westbourne Road and Lough Road. The West Area planning committee’s decision was met with “rapturous applause” according to the Islington Gazette. This follows many months of negotiation with the commercial development company who will build 42 apartments – of which a third will be affordable homes. The committee which has a 5-1 Labour majority overturned a recommendation from its planning officials to reject the scheme.

Profits from the apartment building will also help to fund a £4 million scheme to turn the old church into a community facility which will also be home to many needed services addressing problems in the area – poor health, anti-social behaviour, youth crime and teenage pregnancy.

The moving force behind the scheme is Revd Jonathan Rust, a vicar at the parish of St Mary Magdalene and St David who has committed several years’ hard work to realise this ambitious project.

Labour Councillors on the planning committee rejected a previous application for 38 flats in June 2009 because only two homes would have been made been “affordable” and available for social rent. Islington Labour has continually pressed for all developments to provide at least 50 per cent affordable so that we can house more of the 13,000 people on the council’s housing waiting list.

Immediately following the first refusal, Labour councillor Paul Convery (chair of the committee) began discussions with Jonathan Rust to rescue the community centre project.

Paul says: “Refusing the previous application forced the Church’s developer to come back with a much better scheme. We have now got funding for the community centre and achieved a good amount of affordable housing too. I am delighted that the Church is going to get a good deal from this. We forced the Church’s commercial developer to cut their profit margin to the bone.”

“This shows what happens when you take a tough stance on affordable housing. Last summer, the Lib Dems wrongly claimed that we had turned down a scheme to provide a community centre because we wanted affordable housing instead. In the end, we got both.”

24th January 2010

Oh dear ... we've been here before: Paul, Rupert, Lisa and Dan Fox doing a DIY clear-up in April 2006

Keeping Bunning Way clean and tidy is a continuing problem. Charlynne, Paul and Rupert have now made sure that hotspots of dumping and refuse build-up have been cleared away. And we are also taking action to stop the problems re-emerging.

Sadly, none of this is new, we have to admit. Back in 2006, Paul, Rupert and Lisa Spall joined active local resident, Dan Fox, to cart off a huge mass of garbage and dumped items from the estate. Over the past 3 years, the problems kept returning. And we kept on getting the Council to undertake clean-ups.

After a “walk-around” with the Council’s streetscene manager, Rupert has got the Council to sort out the bin stores – where poorly designed storage areas are too small to accommodate the “Euro” bins lodged in them.

Dan Fox was so fed-up he organised a dump-in on the Town Hall steps with Emily Thornberry

As a result, residents cannot open the bins andlarge amounts of black sacks just get dumped next to the bins. Notsurprisingly, rodents, birds, cats, foxes all tear their way into these sacks with predictable messy results.

What’s the cause of these problems? Mainly it’s because the estate is managed by many different organisations.

There are two separate housing associations involved and the privately owned houses and flats are managed by several different property companies that own the freeholds.

The paths between the terraced, self contained houses are also managed by another maintenance company.

Finally, there is an old agreement which requires Homes for Islington to clear away the several communal lumber stores at the western end of the estate.

Rupert checks out the problem - these bins don't fit the storage area

We have now got Council officers to draw up a definitive list of the different owners and managers of the estate and we will shortly be convening a meeting of all these parties to make sure they all understand the problems and what they need to do jointly (and with the Council) to keep the estate clean in the future.

The cleared-out binstore

UPDATED: 12-2-10

Rupert and Paul toured the estate with the Council’s street environment manager on Monday 8th February. The problem binstore was completely cleared out by the Council’s contractors on Friday 12th February. The bins now fit into the storage area.

There has also been some progress in drawing-up a definitive list of the different organisations with management responsibilities for the estate. As chair of the Safer Neighbourhood Panel, Paul will shortly conve a meeting with all these organisations to hammer out a who-does-what agreement to keep the estate clear of dumping, lumber and garbage build-up.

22nd January 2010

An awful incident happened just after Christmas when a 3 year old girl was mauled by a Staffordshire bull terrier at Dunoon House on the Bemerton Estate. As the dog bit into the girl’s upper right leg, her Mum was attacked by a second dog as she tried to rescue her. The child was rushed to UCH for treatment to her wounds. Fortunately these were not life threatening and we hope that she has not sustained a long-term injury. But she will probably bear the emotional and physical scars for a very long time.

Every parent in the neighbourhood will shudder at this news. There are two problems: a small minority of dog owners let their dogs get out of control – or even worse – like to have “status” breeds like Staffordshire and pit bull terriers. The presence of out-of-control dogs is made worse by the Lib Dem Council’s “hands-off” attitude to dog control.

Labour Councillor Paul Convery says “I’m the parent of two small children myself and threatening dogs are an ever-present worry when you have little ones. Every couple of days, you walk down the street and see a dog who is not on a leash or who is not under control or who is a dangerous breed”.

On 21^st January, two residents of Dunoon House were charged and named by the police. Doris Carter was charged with two offences: being in charge of a dog that was dangerously out of control in a public place and obstructing a constable in the execution of his duty. Her son Gerald Carter was also charged with obstructing a constable. Both were released on bail to appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court on 9th February. It has also been reported that Homes for Islington is also going to evict them. Staffordshire bull terrier is not a banned breed but failing to control such a dog is indeed an offence.

The police in this Borough are already engaged in a major crackdown against dog fighting and illegal dog breeding. But what should be done about the behaviour of people who own potentially dangerous dogs? The Council should differentiate between “good” and “bad” owners straight away. The simplest way to do this is to introduce a byelaw requiring all dogs to be kept on a lead except when being exercised in a designated area. Responsible dog owners generally do this anyway. Making it mandatory will immediately identify the irresponsible owners … or at least require them to comply in which case they are at least keeping such dogs under check.

Sadly the Council has done exactly the opposite. Following their flawed “Dogs Strategy” they introduced orders 18 months ago that permit anyone to let their dogs roam free on streets and housing estates. A number of specific areas are designated as “dog free” although several of these are impossible to enforce. For example dogs are allowed anywhere in Bingfield Park … except the play pitch which is “designated” dog-free. But the pitch is not fenced-off so dogs can quite easily roam on it.

Paul Convery says: “The vast majority of responsible dog owners walk their animals on-leash. But the small minority of anti-social dog owners are “free” to let their dogs roam and use their animals to intimidate. This is typical of the perverse doctrinal obsession of a Liberal Democrat council that values the “freedom” of anti-social individuals above the safety and peace of mind of the wider community.”

The controlled drinking zone

21st January 2010

Drinking in public will soon be banned in an area that includes the southern end of Caledonian Road. But a public consultation must show there is support for the measure before it comes into force.

Known in the jargon as a “Designated Public Place Order”, the exclusion zone stretches from Clerkenwell up to Kings Cross. It was first proposed in order to combat a particular problem south of Pentonville Road – especially aggressive street drinkers in the small park known as Vernon Square which is at the junction of Penton Rise and Kings Cross Road. It will also stop teenage tourists from the nearby “Clink” backpacker’s hostel and the Travelodge hotel who currently congregate and drink in Percy Circus.

Fearing that drinkers might simply move across Pentonville Road, Labour Councillors successfully pressed for the exclusion zone to stretch further north to include parts of Caledonian and Barnsbury Wards – and to protect Grimaldi Park.

It also means that a particular problem around the bottom of Caledonian Road can be addressed. Street drinkers have been congregating in two spots – just on the corner of Omega Place and Caledonian Road; and outside the Tesco store on the corner of Caledonian Road and Caledonia Street.

A public consultation on the exclusion zone will start shortly. In the meantime please contact us if you support this move or would like further information.

UPDATE (1st March 2010)

The consultation period is now underway – a public notice has been placed in the Islington Gazette and the period for representations ends on the 8/4/10. The Council will also send a leaflet out to all households in the area for a more local consultation to ensure a thorough representation of local views on the proposal.

20th January 2010

The new aprtments on the south side of Arundel Square ... this is a graphically enhanced image published by the developers

A vigorous campaign by residents and local Labour Councillors has successfully forced Islington Council to declare 80% of the new flats on Arundel Square to be “parking permit-free.” The Council has also agreed to identify additional on-street parking capacity and will soon mark-out some new spaces for residents to relieve some of the additional parking pressure. Previously the Council had denied any responsibility for a gross error – they had failed to include a “permit-free” provision in a key legal agreement with the developer.

The Council’s bungling emerged in September 2009 when the developer began to market the new flats. An “FAQ” sheet prepared for prospective purchasers said that new residents could not apply for parking permits but that underground garage spots could be purchased. Controversy erupted when lawyers for the developer suddenly “pulled” this sales material and declared there was no legal basis for the apartments being excluded from the residents’ parking scheme. Their sales team trumpeted this change saying “the development is NOT car capped and residents can apply for a residents parking permit … this is actually fantastic news as those of you who are familiar with new build developments in the Islington area will know that the majority are classified as car-free.”

Residents were furious to learn this. Because the development was (unusually) allowed an underground car park, everyone in the neighbourhood had assumed that these apartments would not cause any extra pressure on the already densely parked-up streets. Long term residents remembered that many assurances had been given that these flats would not result in additional on-street parking.

The development was first proposed in 1996 by local architect, Bill Thomas, who had the bold idea of “decking over” the railway line to increase the size of the public square. Funding for the railway works proved difficult and Bill submitted a number of planning applications between 2002 and 2003. Each time residents were assured that there would be no increase in on-street parking. In July 2003 Bill obtained planning permission for a development that could finance the decking and also provide a number of affordable homes.

The permission was granted for 139 flats plus underground car parking providing 76 places. According to the 2003 committee papers, the decision-taking Councillors were told that the development complied with the Council’s transport policies and that “parking would be provided in a basement level”. Two years earlier, a Controlled Parking Zone had been implemented in the area and over 200 residents submitted a petition calling for assurance that the development would therefore be “car-free”.

The land and its planning permission were subsequently sold-on to developers United House. Bill Thomas has confirmed on record that it had always been the presumption that the development was a permit free development and that he had never worked on any other basis.

Work started on site in 2007 but not until Islington’s planners had executed a disgraceful sleight of hand. Using “delegated powers”, the Council authorised a “minor” amendment to the granted permission. This was not minor at all. It increased the numbers of flats from 139 to 147 and cut the number of car spaces from 76 to 68. Normally such a change would have required a fresh planning application. But someone pretty senior probably decided this was too risky. In May 2006 a new planning committee had been elected in Islington’s West Area. Its Labour majority had firmly demonstrated a determination to closely scrutinise and intervene in all major planning applications.

When residents discovered that the developers had wriggled out of a commitment to make their development permit-free, they objected vigorously. A letter from the Arundel Square Residents Residents Association was sent to the Head of Development Management on 22^nd October 2009. They got no reply.  By mid November, they tried to see Terry Stacy, Lib Dem Leader of the Council, at his Councillor’s “surgery”.  He wasn’t there. Instead they saw Lib Dem John Gilbert. Amazingly he just told them to contact Cllr Paul Convery. It’s not clear why – perhaps because some of the residents live in Caledonian ward or because Paul is the current chair of the West Area Planning Committee.

So, the residents association contacted Paul on 16^th November and he immediately escalated the matter to the most senior Council officers with a firm steer to “get this sorted, otherwise it’s going to cause you a lot of grief”. Paul attended a two hour residents meeting and promised to help them get a result. He started a blizzard of emails and and spoke-up about it at the full Council meeting on 3^rd December. The residents also addressed the West Area committee on November 26th and received full backing from the committee’s Labour majority. They also went to the Town Hall to the Council’s Sustainability review committee and received backing from the Labour chair, Wally Burgess and others.

Straight away, the Lib Dem leadership denied any responsibility for the mess and blamed members of the 2003 planning committee for not explicitly insisting on a car-free condition in the planning permission. This was pretty cheeky because, at the time, the entire planning committee were Lib Dems.

The planning officials were not much better either. At first they simply replied to residents saying that “the Council could not legally have insisted on a car-free condition.” It subsequently turned out that no-one had even asked the developer to agree such a condition.

Full credit is due to Kevin O’Leary, the overall director for Environment. He immediately grasped that the residents had a fair case and that the development had “always been expected to accommodate its own extra cars”. After all, he said, that’s why it had been granted permission for an underground garage. But it would be hard to persuade the developers to retrospectively agree a new condition making their properties permit-free. However, Paul identified that a valuable point of leverage existed with United House because the company has a 30 year business relationship with the Council. It is part of the consortium in Partners for Improvement, a company upgrading the Council’s 10,000 or so residential street properties. Paul wrote to the Chief Executive of United House in what he describes as “a firm and unambiguous letter”.

By late December, United House agreed to the new condition. Their only sticking point was a legal nicety: they had already agreed sales on a fifth of the properties and said they could not backtrack on the terms of these sale agreements. At a meeting with residents’ representatives  and Kevin O’Leary, Paul said “100% car-free would be preferable but 80% is a pretty good deal; we should take it”.

What are the lessons from all this? First, the Council needs politicians in charge of planning who take a bit more notice of the detail of complicated and controversial scheme like this. Paul says that “if Labour wins a majority in the Town Hall in May 2010, we promise that every legal agreement with developers will be checked and sign-off by the Executive Member for planning”. Second, Paul says “we need to get a firmer grip on the planning department overall. They need to be clear that our planning service does not exist to simply rubber-stamp whatever a developer wants.”

** Note for boundary aficionados: Arundel Square is split across 3 wards: the new development is located in Barnsbury; the north and east sides of the square are in St Mary’s and the remainder is in Caledonian Ward.

11th January 2010

Blessed Sacrament church on Copenhagen Street

Until the late Summer of 2009, Father Jim Kennedy was the redoubtable Parish Priest at Blessed Sacrament, Copenhagen Street. Now his vocation (and a love of scuba diving) has taken him to a new parish in Cyprus.

He had served as the Borough Dean – he had a managerial responsibility for all the Roman Catholic parishes in Islington. He was chair of the Borough Council’s Standards Committee – which is the independent ethical oversight body for Councillors – and Jim also founded an ex-servicemen’s association in the Borough. He was a stalwart of the annual Remembrance Day ceremonies at Islington Green. In this neighbourhood, he chaired the Trustees of the Copenhagen Youth Project and the Sparkplug motorcycle project on the Bemerton.

More importantly, Jim was at the forefront of almost everything that happened in the area. Usually when a disaster or distress occurred in the neighbourhood, the church and hall would become a place of refuge and Jim would stay up for days making sure everyone was safe and cared for. It was where the survivors and relatives of the 1987 Kings Cross underground fire gathered. In 2006, the church hall became home for many of the evacuated residents from Tiber Gardens and York Way Court during the potentially catastrophic accident on the Kings Place construction site. Indeed, Jim was fondly known as the ‘vicar in a van’, on notice to move anywhere in the event of an emergency. The mobile phone, green flashing lights for the car and a high visibility jacket were supplied by Islington’s emergency planning officer.

The CYP youth club on a Monday was based in the church hall below the church – also the place where Anna Scher set up her “revival” stage school in 2004. The church more recently was filled by a thousand worshippers for the funeral and Mass for Ben Kinsella whose terrible murder in June 2008 shocked the Borough.

A typical Jim situation ... York Way had been closed so buses and trucks were diverted onto Copenhagen Street. Jim organised a sit-down protest ... that's him wearing hi-vis vest and flanked by Emily Thornberry and Paul Convery

Jim had expected to remain as the priest at Blessed Sacrament only for a year or so further whilst a succession was arranged and he had spoken privately about how this would all work out. Jim lined up a couple of very promising potential priests – including a Franciscan who would have followed in Jim’s activist tradition.

But in the late Spring of 2009, the Archdiocese abruptly decided that Jim would retire – more worryingly – that the Copenhagen Street Parish would merge with the Clerkenwell Parish (church of St Peter and Paul on Amwell Street). Rumours emerged that the Archdiocesan education board might also merge the two parish primary schools. In May 2009, Rupert Perry wrote to the Archbishop protesting these moves but got a bland reply from some functionary. Although Jim accepted it was time to move, he was not happy with the amalgamation of the two parishes. We still do not know whether the schools are to be merged but the parishes have been and Rev Perry Sykes is the Priest serving both parishes now.

Then, came a further shock. Just before Christmas 2009, the basement of Blessed Sacrament church was declared to be dangerous and was closed. This was quite a blow for the many community uses that the church hall previously accommodated. Within a year our neighbourhood has lost a dedicated Roman Catholic priest and now its Church hall too.

Despite all this, the news of Jim’s latest deeds is inspiring. A few days before Christmas he sent a message saying that his “life has been moving fast”. Having gone to Cyprus for an extended holiday, he decided to stay. With the “Archbishop’s blessing” he was asked to establish a new Parish in a “very poor area” on the island serving British expats a sizeable community of local Roman Catholics. Jim says he is “saying Mass in a shed” but his message cheerfully reported that “it’s 22 degrees today and sunny, sorry couldn’t resist!”. He signed-off saying “it looks as if I shall be here for the foreseeable future … thank you for all your help and support over the years, I am truly lucky and grateful”.

Well, it’s the rest of us who were lucky to have had Jim ministering to this parish for almost a quarter of a century. And we did not really get a chance to say thanks to Jim either. Rupert and Paul have now proposed that Jim should be honoured by the Borough Council for his many years of service to our community.

Charlynne Pullen, Paul Convery and Rupert Perry clear ice from the pavement

9th January 2010

Frustrated by Islington Council’s failure to clear treacherous snow and ice, Labour Councillors Paul Convery and Rupert Perry took out spades and broom to clear from Caledonian Road pavements on Saturday morning, January 9th.

Joined by Charlynne Pullen and other Labour volunteers, they cleared rock-hard ice from the bus stop at the junction of Caledonian Road and Offord Road.

Labour’s Caledonian team criticised Islington Council which left pavements along Caledonian Road thick with ice.

Charlynne said “Hardly any pavements down the Caledonian Road were gritted or cleared during the cold snap. Hundreds of vulnerable residents have braved these dangerous conditions or have been trapped at home – like mums with toddlers and many older people. It’s another example of this part of the Borough getting ignored by the Town Hall. By comparison, anyone walking down Upper Street would hardly guess it was winter”.