ARCHITECTS SLAM LAMBETH OVER CENTRAL HILL
Lambeth council’s attitude over their planned total demolition of Central Hill estate, Crystal Palace has been slammed in a lengthy report by Architects for Social Housing.
In a damning indictment ASH (Architects for Social Housing) – which produced their own plans for the estate including infilling on unused spaces and NO demolition – say some of Lambeth council’s claims have been “plucked from the sky” and “produced from thin air”
“The comments from Lambeth council demonstrate their complete unwillingness to explore the proposals ASH has put forward in a constructive way, and their desire to dismiss them as quickly and quietly as possible based on fabricated figures, withheld information, inaccurate assessments, false claims and deliberate misunderstandings.
ASH have produced a lengthy response to Lambeth’s comments which they say “is to point out only the most glaring and cynical of these, which raise serious doubts about the integrity of the councillors making decisions about the homes and lives of thousands of Lambeth borough residents.”
In their introduction ASH say: “Architects for Social Housing undertook to produce an architectural proposal for The Alternative to Demolition of Central Hill estate pro bono publico and with very limited financial resources.
“Lambeth Labour council have not provided us with a brief, a housing needs survey, a measured survey of the existing estate, a consultant team, a criteria for deliverables, and of course we have received no payment.
“Not a single member of Lambeth council, including the cabinet member for housing and ward councillor for Crystal Palace, attended ASH’s formal presentations of our proposals: not when we presented to the Central Hill community in February 2016; nor again when we presented to the Residents Engagement Panel in May.
“Instead, with the backing of PRP Architects, Lambeth council dismissed our design proposals even before they were published; and they continue to refuse to answer our Freedom of Information request to see their viability assessments months after it was issued.
“So Lambeth Labour council’s ‘dialogue’ with us has been anything but ‘constructive’; on the contrary, it has been unrelentingly negative, dismissive and obstructive.
“Finally, as further evidence of their unwillingness to engage in ‘constructive dialogue’, Lambeth Labour council has not invited ASH to discuss the issues they raise in this report, or to present our responses, which we are, therefore, publishing here.”
(To see the full report please see separate story: “LAMBETH LABOUR COUNCIL’S DIALOGUE WITH US HAS BEEN ANYTHING BUT ‘CONSTRUCTIVE’ – ON THE CONTRARY IT HAS BEEN UNRELENTINGLY NEGATIVE, DISMISSIVE AND OBSTRUCTIVE” – ARCHITECTS FOR SOCIAL HOUSING’S RESPONSE TO LAMBETH COUNCIL