‘CONSULTATIONS’ BRANDED A SHAM BY CENTRAL HILL RESIDENTS
Residents campaigning to save their Central Hill homes have launched another hard-hitting attack on Lambeth council.
They say:
- ‘Consultations’ with residents have been a sham
- Lambeth have used misinformation and “cherry picking” of negative comments in an attempt to justify demolition
- Any demolition of the estate could affect not only the people on the estate – but also the wider community of Crystal Palace
- There has been NO documentation to back up statements claiming Lambeth cannot afford to repair the estate
In a new leaflet informing the wider area, Save Central Hill Community say: “The reality is that the social housing tenants on the estate will lose their secure tenancies and potentially be forced to move from the estate – and possibly out of London – due to lack of affordable housing in the area.
“All leaseholders will go from owning their own home to forced shared ownership , only owning a percentage of the replacement flats (the rest owned by the council0 or forced into compulsory purchase, also pushing them out of the area as market values will be further inflated due to the new-build homes.”
News From Crystal Palace asked anyone living on the estate who responded to the item by Lambeth council’s housing committee chairman Cllr Matthew Bennett to let us have a copy. Andrew Smith sent us his reply:
I live on the Central Hill Estate, so am able to say quite categorically that this article is scurrilous nonsense.
The estate is anything but broken: it is home to a close, safe, thriving community, most of whom love living there.
There are indeed many maintenance issues, caused mostly by incompetent management on the part of the council over the years – and it hardly need be said that bad management won’t disappear with the demolition and rebuilding of the estate, in fact it is likely to be exacerbated (ask the residents of Myatts Field, as we have).
Worse, the statistics Mr Bennett quotes in his piece are misleading in the extreme, as Lambeth council’s communications and dealing with residents have been throughout this business.
What we have here is a Labour council doing the Conservatives’ work for them.
Distinctive and thoughtful as the architecture is, no one lives in Central because they are wealthy, least of all the leaseholders who will nearly all be driven out under Lambeth’s plans, leading to yet further economic cleansing of the area.
The likely outcome of all this?
That the so-called ‘Regeneration’ programme becomes Lambeth council’s Iraq. But then, Mr Bennett’s political ambitions probably ensure that he’ll be long gone by the time all this plays out, leaving only the people of Lambeth to rue his destructive arrogance.
all best, Andrew Smith