Bit of a flap on Edge Lane-or Streets of Shame
July 25, 2007
If you ain’t from round these ‘ere parts, then you won’t know what has been happening on Edge Lane. It’s a bit of land grab, of Klondyke proportions, in 2001 large chunks of Kensington were deemed to be unsustainable, i.e. the house prices were around the £15,000 mark and falling, the place was described as unused and underused in the CPO (the high court didnt agree with them on this one) so it was decided the best way of saving the situation would be to knock the houses down as part of the government New Heartlands programme, build spiffing new houses and hopefully sell some of them to th displaced residents and attract new people into the area. At the time the rest of the country and most of Liverpool house prices were soaring.
They (Liverpool Land Liverpool City Council, Kensington Regeneration and C7) cleared everyone out, buying and cajoling and finally getting a Compulsory Purchase Order to shift those pesky homeowners.
Two things happened to change the whole scene, firstly the local hosue market recovered so houses very similar to the cpo’ed ones got for £60,000 if they need fixing up to £90,000 to £100,000 if in good nick, and more importantly the suits of LLC ran crash bang into Liz Pascoe. Liz msut have shook them up, they must have thought everyone round here was a dick head, after all you would have to be one to live around here>
Liz stopped them by taking them to the high court and winning, thereby stopping the process.
Now at this point you would have thought they would have had a bit of rethink, as the area would have been sustainable just through the action of market forces, but hell no, when they get an idea in their heads, don’t let common sense get in the way of a quick buck. So instead of maybe renovating the properties as Urban Splash did in Manchester, they ahve decided to try and shift the remaining people by issuing a new CPO on the basis that the area has lots of vacant properties and the area is run down…….I wonder who did that then?
So on Friday I decided to find out how to appeal against the CPO, phoned Liverpool Land, who told me to look at their website, and sure enough there was reply form.
The reply I got back briefly told me I couldn’t appeal but I could pass any comments on to them. I felt this was bit wrong, so I sussed out a CPO notice, which happened to be stuck to a local lampost. The notice basically states that anyone cen appeal and they need to be sent to the Government Office in Manchester. Confused, well not really as I knew this was the case. So I emailed LLC back asking them who was right them or an inanimate object, and could have definitive answer before I phoned the Radio Merseyside phone in on the Monday. Well this galvanised LLC into action and I was quickly emailed back to be told that they had made a terrible mistake, or rather she had, and she then immediately phoned me up to apologise and on Monday the head of Marketing phoned me to apologise too.
Well I must have touched a raw nerve, and if it was the girl’s fault then I feel sorry for her, but the question is how many other people had she put off in this way.
Anyhow I’ve sent my appeal off printed below if you have the time to read, and if you want to you’ve got until Friday to appeal so get writing.
KENSINGTONVISION CIC
Dear Sir,
Re: CPO 21.7 acres of LAND IN Edge Lane West area.
I am writing as a local resident and I am also a Director of a local social enterprise/Community Interest Company.
I am currently setting up a Community Land Trust to develop another piece of land and will be making application to Futurebuilders, the Charity Bank and the Ecology Building Society to fund the project.
I am writing to make an objections and comments regarding the above Compulsory Purchase Order for the scheme on Edge Lane.
My main objections centre around proposed demolition of the housing stock along Edge and Royston Street
<!–[if !supportLists]–>1. <!–[endif]–>The argument that the area is “unsustainable”
In the early part of the New Deal Programme when the demolitions were first proposed, this action was carried out on the basis that the area had been deemed “unsustainable” in the New Deal development plan, this was due mainly due to the state of the housing market in 2000-2001. House prices in the area were as low as £10,000 for a habitable domicile, but since that time and in line with the rest of the country and city, the housing market in Kensington has risen significantly .
For example houses on Jubilee Drive 50 metres away from the Edge Lane houses cost in excess of £100,000 and the remaining owner occupiers in the CPO are being offered circa £58,000.
Given these profound changes in the housing market, the question about whether the area is sustainable is therefore open to question and should be reappraised. .
This shift upwards in house prices happened over three years ago so there was a long standing opportunity for all parties involved to reappraise the “sustainability” and the demolition plans for the area. The housing market today is even more healthier than it was three years ago, so the need to offer an alternative to demolition seems even more compelling.
<!–[if !supportLists]–>2. <!–[endif]–>Liverpool Lands current justification for demolition is based on number of voids and condition of houses
The current reasoning for the demolition as stated in the Liverpool Land Leaflet “Edge Lane Project Update” dated July 2007 that “The CPO covers an area running half a mile from Botanic Road to Hall and affects around 370 houses, most of which are empty or in poor condition” When the redevelopment process started in 2001; when the sustainability argument at least notionally held water, but the houses were not in “poor condition” (the remaining occupied houses testify to this fact) and large numbers were not vacant. The Liverpool Land Company are therefore using their own actions as a justification for the current CPO.
In other words, if they hadn’t had started this process of emptying properties, then the area would not be blighted, would not have empty houses or ones in poor condition. What’s more the area’s house prices would have recovered as they have elsewhere in the area. The current justification for demolition is therefore a spurious one.
<!–[if !supportLists]–>3. <!–[endif]–>Too rigid approach to regenerating the housing stock, demolition and rebuild might not be the only choice.
The Liverpool Land Company, Liverpool City Council, The Registered Social Landlords and Kensington Regeneration have all been guilty of not offering a flexible approach to regenerating the housing stock in the area. As the housing market has changed it would have made sense to re-examine the plans for redevelopment. Restoration and regeneration of the housing stock should be one of the options allowed to be considered. The current plan still seems to involve complete demolition and due to the fact that the area has been depopulated consulting the residents as to the type and style of replacement housing seems to have been missed. The redevelopment will be done carried out by the preferred builders Bellway with purely commercial considerations, i.e. smaller houses at the highest achievable prices. It might make sense now to ask a developer such as Urban Splash who are not purely builders to consider the feasibility of restoration of the current properties.
<!–[if !supportLists]–>4. <!–[endif]–>Using community empowerment and capacity building to ensure created wealth stays in the Kensington Economic Community.
The current plans for demolition, and rebuilding by Bellway means that any opportunity for the local community to actually control the process and benefit from it, will not happen. A possible option could be to establish a Community Land Trust. (http://www.communitylandtrust.org.uk/) . Using this model the housing stock and land could be given or sold at an affordable price to this new community body, the regeneration would be done with total community engagement and consultation. The houses could then be either sold an an affordable level, with a percentage for rent. Any profits made in this process would be then available for the local community to use the wealth and profit for community benefits. Considering this is a New Deal for Communities area, it is a surprise that Kensington Regeneration have not considered or promoted this type of scheme Firstly it would contribute to the community capacity building and sustainability, secondly the wealth created would stay in the area and thirdly the housing regeneration (either new build or restoration of the current housing stock) would reflect the views of the local community. The proposed plan would build houses people don’t really want, at prices they can’t really afford and the profit created would end up in the pockets of Bellway’s shareholders. This scheme could be funded through the Government’s Futurebuiders scheme and fits in with current Government thinking on communities taking control of many areas in particular affordable and housing.
Recently Ruth Kelly when she was Minister for Communities noted “I am determined that the starting point for our new deal for neighbourhoods must be the people who live there. Whether it is ensuring greater responsiveness to neighbourhood issues or – when people want to – giving greater control to local communities, it makes sense to make sure local people can have a greater say in their areas.”
The latest incumbernt Hazel Blears concurs “I believe that the best experts, advocates and leaders for local communities are local communities themselves. There isn’t a single service or development in Britain which hasn’t been improved by actively involving local people, and there’s more common sense on the average street or estate than in all of the think tanks and seminars put together”
I would like to end with a plea for this department to try to understand that the way this has been handled is nothing short of scandalous. It seems that a bunch of highly paid professionals have decided on a course of action which has resulted in many old people, vulnerable and longstanding members of the community being decanted in a process aptly described as “Social Cleansing” by the local MP Jane Kennedy or left to sit and watch their community systematically dismantled
It is not too late for the situation to be recovered and some of the damage repaired and the community to be rebuilt and really regenerated.
Yours Sincerely
Stephen Faragher
Just got back from the very enjoyable fun day at the Police Club in Kensington, the event is an annual one and is run and managed by Kensington Regeneration (yes you heard the word fun and Kensington Regeneration in the same sentence).
The event was good and the weather held out despite looking a bit dodgey, it looked like it could be another Newsham Park. I even managed to get interviewed by Radio Merseyside’s Sports Expert Alan Jackson. The ever vigilant Mr.Jackson noticed I had a Manx surname and managed to namecheck KensingtonVision several times, as well as getting me grid on the photo of the ribbon being cut by some girl who is on Hollyoaks, who looks like someone who works in Home and Bargain.
The only fly in the ointment, dog in the manger, fart in the diving suit was the staffing of the event. You must remember that Kensington has been given all this New Deal money because of things like community cohesion and high unemployment. The event was co-managed by ubiquitous Kenyon-Fraser,http://www.kenyons.co.uk/ a Liverpool based PR company, who from the early days of the New Deal. I struggle sometimes to understand why a regeneration organisation needs PR, as surely the act of regeneration if real, speaks for itself. Another early decision seems to be that absolutely nothing can be sent out of the organisation without having be digested through the body of Kenyon Fraser and produced by their deign company Kaleidoscope.
This means a couple of things, firstly promotional material takes a long time to produce, secondly it’s very very expensive to produce (one story I heard was 2000 A5 leaflets were going to cost a whopping £2500 for the design and print, over a quid each) and thirdly the work (i.e. the money) goes straight out of the area.
This seems not to contribute in any way to economically regenerating the area. It’s actually degenerating the area, it’s deskilling it’s disempowering, there s no capacity building, it’s like a big black PR hole sucking the goodnes out of the area.
I still cannot understand this relationship, like how they got the job, why they cant be sacked and how much are KF likely to have taken over the ten years of the New Deal out of the area for services rendered.
Today was a fine example most if not all the stewardign staff at today’s event were not from the area and were either employed temporarily by Kenyon-Fraser or Kenyon-Fraser staff doing a bit of extra work.
Given one of Kenny Regen’s remits is to improve employment opportunities for the people of the area, why weren’t local people taken on to do this job, are local Kensington residents under qualified or over qualified. Maybe they weren’t even considered in the first place. It’s not rocket science Regeneration=Money in+PR Co=Money Out.
The Alt Valley Regen Board have a simple philosophy, “We check whether anyone in the area can be paid to do it, if no then we go to the rest of Liverpool, If still no we go further afield to the North West and then further afield.”
Given this philosophy Alt Valley would have ended up setting up their own PR and design company.
You never know who is reading this stuff
July 6, 2007
As a post script to the Norwich Union, I received a comment on the orginal story from a customer relations officer from the said same company. I am trying to find out if she is paid to look through blogs for disgruntled NU customers, especially those hacked off with India.
I was talking to a mate about this and the funniest thing that has happened to him was with a well known car breakdown company which has shifted its’ Call Centres to the sub continent, he had broken down adn was requesting his car get picked up, he gave them where he was, and where he was going. an hour later he gets a call from the breakdown company asking he was, well actually he was 200 miles away, the breakdown lorry had been sent to Oldham, the destination not the starting point.
Any more Indian Call Centre stories are most welcome.
As a bizarre postscript to “Goodness Gracious Me” Insurance/Indian Call centre story, you may be all glad to hear that I no longer have to scramble over the wall to empty my WheelieBin, Recycle Boxes (yes the plural, two boxes I am really getting into saving Gaie) and tend to my Scouse Worm Farm.
The reason I can get into my yard now is that the original Norwich Union contractor came round and replaced the door.
NU obviously forgot to cancel his visit and so all is well in the Faragher Household.
I hope you all sleep tight not worrying whether the fat, old, grey, white, diabetic, guy falls off his wall trying to save the planet and tend his worms.
Rain rain rain
July 1, 2007
It is only a mere three weeks since we had our Summer, the cracking weather went someway to helping the success of the last festival event in Kensington at the Edge Hill Station cum Art Gallery, (see last blog post).
So this Saturday Lisa at The Academy had organised the second Newsham Park Festival, I diodnt go to last year’s (can’t remember why), the weather was great last year and as I like to say a good time was had by all. I was looking forward to this year’s especially the chance to see and hear Shaun Hodgers (Kenny’s answer to Eddie Grundy) performing with his country and western band.
Alas the event wasnt spared the bad wet weather we are havng and instead of the thronging crowds, a couple of hundred soaked folk, tip toed around the wet festival area.
The big draw besides Shaun H. was of course Eaton Road off the telly. One thing which was apparent was that kid’s don’t mind getting wet, in fact they seem to revel in it. I did bump into Alan the Warden and asked him whether Tom McGuire was performing a la Stars in their eyes as Old Red Eyes singing “His Way”, it could be the Berrybridge tour.
Anyhow down to the serious bit I was also talking to a long time resident of Kensington who despite being involved in the Regeneration process since the beginning had basically had enough and was moving against their will and with regrets to Walton. She has had to put up with promises of new better self designed houses to replace her terraced house only to be offered an overpriced Bellway “Doll’s House” on Tunnel Road.
She was taking her compensation and buying a real house with a garden and space somewhere else.
This is a person has been involved in many community projects and the area is losing her, bit of an own goal there I reckon by Kenny Regen and C7. I am pretty sure her story will not be featuring in the next Kensington News.
I can understand her frustration as you get to the stage when broken promises and hope that something real is going to happen when in point of fact all that seems to be happening especially in Edge Lane Royston Street is that the locals seem to be getting screwed so that Bellway can make a fortune out of housing people never really wanted or asked for.
I feel quite helpless and sad really and to some extent this lady’s story has given me some impetus to do something about this.
It’s now three weeks since the splendid Edge Hill Truck Stop Festival, you must remember that day, you know it was sunny.
It was a fine fine day and the video is now finished.
Watch it and enjoy.
Liam Hussey local teenager and prospective Oscar winner videoed it and I helped him edit it.
It features the wonderful Cathy Tyson who brightened up the whole day, stayed far longer than the usual celebs do and is probably the only reason to watch Emmerdale Farm, and I promise I will only write bad things about her if she ever decides to appear on the ghastly “Hollyoaks”.
The weather obviously helps these events succeed, but the day presented a nice cross section of events, stalls, artists, people, nice food (no dodgey burgers) and a good day was had by all.
This event is likely to become an annual affair. It was a great mixture of the Kensington Community, organised by METAL and originating from the community.
Comments opinion are most welcome!!!
