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Award for mediocrity
• I WAS surprised to read that “one of Islington’s town squares had won praise from landscape experts” (Design experts salute town square, December 14). Edward Square is not in any normal sense of the word a square. It is a small park situated on the site of a former square (since demolished) and is accessed from Caledonian Road and Copenhagen Street.
The community group which worked with the council in creating the park decided pretentiously to retain the name of the square.
The report states: “Judges looked at quality of design, cost effectiveness and community appreciation.” The design of the park is mediocre, lacking in invention and imagination. As for cost effectiveness, a mural on the gable end of the Mitre pub (in memory of the Tolpuddle martyrs) is floodlit at night. This is a complete waste of money as, apart from teenage gangs, few people frequent this area after dark.
The community has shown its appreciation of the park by moving out. This is because the section of the park on the north side, the Orchard, contains eight benches only metres from people’s windows. Although the park is locked at dusk, the Orchard, which has 11 dwellings on it, is left unlocked. This is utter stupidity. No one will be surprised to learn that this dark, secluded spot in King’s Cross attracts teenage gangs.
I first wrote to ex-councillor Bridget Fox about this idiocy in May 2001. By September of that year, Bob Gilbert, head of the parks department (Greenspace), had agreed to move the gates, thus locking the residential part of the park at dusk. This was to be done in November that year.
However, it was not and still remains to be done, despite the fact that the Friends of Edward Square (FoES) raised no objection at the time. Edward Square Park did not deserve to be “highly commended” by the Landscape Institute Awards.
NIALL WARD
City Road, EC1
Give panel Asbo credit
• I WOULD like to clarify the record regarding the article, Estates ban for teenager in harassment campaign (December 7). The fact that the anti-social behaviour order (Asbo) in question was granted was in large part due to the persistent work of PC Carel Le Masson and the Safer Neighbourhoods police team and the community panel that works with it – the Safer Neighbourhoods panel.
If anyone should share any credit for this action finally coming about, it should be the panel, chaired by Caledonian councillor Paul Convery and made up of residents. It was they who continually lobbied for this action to the Liberal Democrat-controlled council, which resisted for months and months due to its political platform, which is not in favour of Asbos.
I find it especially annoying that Councillor Marisha Ray, the executive councillor for community safety, should have been quoted as she herself was pilloried by residents at one meeting because of her party’s policy, which was not to support the use of Asbos.
Let the record be set straight: the Lib Dem policy does not favour Asbos, despite what they may say about doing everything they can to work with the community to tackle the problem of anti-social behaviour.
STEPHAN SCHLUTE
Member, Safer Neighbourhoods panel
York Way, N1
Tenants’ lost swaps
• I WAS interested to see that in the article about the family-of-six in a “cramped” home, Councillor James Kempton advises the tenant to consider a mutual exchange (Plight of family-of-six who have outgrown their ‘cramped’ home, December 14). He says “we’re happy to talk through these options with her”.
Unfortunately, talking is all the council can do with Michelle Martin. As a Hyde tenant, she is unable to join the council’s mutual exchange scheme. This was one of the rights we, as previous council tenants, lost, despite being promised when voting on a possible transfer to a housing association that all tenancy conditions would remain the same.
Hyde runs its own transfer list. I had a look on its website and, unsurprisingly, most people want to transfer to a larger property, and the number of exchanges is much smaller. Which is why we are also in a property that’s too small; all those possible exchanges with council tenants are out of reach.
Perhaps Cllr Kempton can explain why the council’s mutual exchange scheme is not open to former council tenants as promised?
CLAIRE POYNER
Hungerford Road, N7
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