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Another estate scandal looms
• WHEN the massed bulk of the new Packington estate rises over the rooftops of the Arlington Square houses with all the daintiness of the Royal Bank of Scotland, people will wonder why they wasted five minutes fussing over the loft conversion of Kate Garraway and Derek Draper (Bulldozers ready to pull down ‘death-trap’ estate, March 23).
The new Packington estate buildings are not only densely packed and bulky, they are squashing an additional few hundred households into minimal-size units on the site.
No doubt the stresses of crowding will lend liveliness to street life in the neighbourhood. The nearest public transport is a 10-minute hike away, so there should be plenty of incentive to fight over car parking spaces.
Last year at Islington Society annual meeting, veteran campaigner Harry Brack nearly had the audience marching on the Town Hall over the scandal of the Packington estate development that is now being torn down. In the 1960s councillors argued that those buildings were the best, indeed the only, possible solution to housing need in the area.
Fortunately for the council, Harry’s audience was already in the Town Hall, so no march was possible. Everyone vowed that people must never let these things happen again, but look at the new plans with the misleading perspectives, such as the one published in the Tribune. That picture makes the new estate look positively rural, until you count the storeys and consider the real-life site.
When the row over the Garraway-Draper planning application first flared up, I went out looking for the extension (TV presenter in ‘bullying’ tirade, March 23). I couldn’t see it when I looked for it, let alone finding that it interfered with the traditional appearance of the area.
Whatever people are objecting to, I can’t believe that it is that loft conversion. Look what they are missing as a campaign issue a few doors away.
VIRGINIA LOW
Queen’s Head Street, N1
• HAVING experienced both sides of the housing association versus local authority landlords divide, I would conclude that, in Islington, Homes for Islington is a better bet. Why?
Housing associations, or registered social landlords (RSLs) as they now call themselves, call all tenants “customers” but give them no choice with their purchasing power.
RSLs want all the power of a local authority, but are unaccountable as the boards that run them are remote and unelectable. They increase rent and charge the earth for estate services, estate management and caretakers.
They consult only after a decision is already in the works and has been agreed at director level, but not by their “customers”.
If I seem a bit cynical, it’s because of hard experience. I was a housing association tenant for 23 years, and had direct experience as a tenant activist of the ever-changing face of RSLs.
MPs Emily Thornberry and Jeremy Corbyn should be made aware that social housing is not a dream ticket to get New Labour out of a sticky hole of few houses being built in an overcrowded capital.
WILL HOWLEY
(Address supplied) N1
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