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Hands off our pub
• I FEAR the Arsenal Village could be one step closer to being converted into a massive concrete cemetery. The latest rumour to gather momentum is that the Auld Triangle (alias the Plimsoll) is being prepared for demolition and that this historic site will be transformed into yet another block of flats.
This is the only pub in this residential area and it is strategically located at the meeting point of Plimsoll Road and St Thomas’s Road, where it is only a couple of minutes from Finsbury Park, yet it is conveniently tucked away. So it is an oasis in an otherwise deserted street, and as well as serving the community it also attracts musicians from across London.
This pub’s purpose is not just to serve customers: its very existence can serve as a deterrent to crime, and this benefit must surely outweigh the drawbacks of any perceived noise nuisances. On a street like St Thomas’s Road, a community pub can be worth a dozen police community support officers.
If this pub is allowed to close then St Thomas’s Road could become a muggers’ paradise from dusk to dawn. Residents will fortify their homes, anonymity will prevail and this once-vibrant part of Islington will start to resemble downtown Johannesburg.
Closure of this pub will devalue the surrounding homes. I’m referring to the overall value of a home, not just its dubious market value.
However, the one ray of hope is that it will be difficult for a Liberal Democrat councillor to condone this type of development, because on March 26 last year the party’s former leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, attended a rally in Westminster and pledged his party’s support for the Sustainable Communities Bill “unequivocally”.
Even a Martian would know that communities couldn’t possibly be sustained through irreversible closure of their meeting places.
I will end with a simple message for any property developers who might be encircling this plot of land: “Hands off our village pump and please exercise your vandalism elsewhere!”
IAN SHACKLOCK
Monsell Road, N4
• I AM extremely concerned at the proposal to demolish the Auld Triangle and replace it with yet more flats. The area between Blackstock Road, Seven Sisters Road and the East Coast railway line is almost entirely residential, and lacks local facilities, including pubs. The residents, together with the council, put a lot of effort into encouraging good community relations.
Our church and mosque in St Thomas’s Road are important to the community, as are Gillespie Park and the Ecology Centre. The Auld Triangle is another important community amenity and should be preserved as such, rather than being converted for residential use.
With the recent increase in the number of residential dwellings in the area, not least as a result of the development of the old Highbury Stadium and the area around the new Emirates Stadium, there will shortly be a significant increase in the number of residents, without a proportionate increase in amenities.
It would, in my opinion, be shortsighted of the council to agree to this further, albeit small, development, which will increase the number of residential dwellings yet further, while simultaneously losing one of the few important centres of community focus.
WILLIAM ADENEY
Plimsoll Road, N4
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