Wednesday, 17 December 2014

Kingsmead residents demand improvements from Sanctuary Housing

Earlier this month over 100 residents from Kingsmead came together to demand that Sanctuary Housing tackle long term problems of damp, blocked drains, unfinished repairs and a lack of investment on their estate.

On Wednesday 3 December, together with their local councillors, they met with Simon Clark, the Managing Director of Sanctuary Housing, and his team to outline their concerns.

Having heard residents’ concerns, Sanctuary Housing committed to working with residents to improve life on the estate. 

They promised: 
  • A dedicated repairs team for Kingsmead, based in the Kingsmead Estate Office. Residents will be able to discuss the nature and progress of repairs with staff in the office and there will be a twice weekly surgery to discuss progress with the team's supervisor.
  • A Hackney based maintenance team, carrying out a programme of painting and renovation on the estate. 
  • An estate survey to establish the extent of issues like damp, flooding, drainage and identify the priorities for improvement. 
  • Work to tackle anti-social behaviour.
  • Improved communication with residents. 

Simon Clark promised to meet with residents again in three months to hear feedback and reports of progress. We'll let residents know as soon as there is a date for this meeting. 

Following the meeting Cllr Rahilly, said:
“It’s great to see so many residents with such passion for improving their estate. Kingsmead residents deserve a better deal from Sanctuary Housing, who I think had their eyes opened by this meeting. It was good to see residents listened to and I know residents will work together to hold Sanctuary to their promises.”

Local resident Patti Bee said:
“This has pulled our community together.  We’ve heard horrific stories of people living with damp that affects their children’s health, of repairs that are left unfinished for years and anti-social behaviour ignored. This is the worst it’s been for years and has to be put right. We’re looking forward to working with Sanctuary to change this situation.”


Residents are planning to set up a committee to work with Sanctuary and oversee a programme of work to improve the estate. We're looking for a representative from each block of flats on the Kingsmead Estate. If you want to get involved, get in touch - kingspark@hackney-labour.org.uk 

Wednesday, 10 December 2014

Next Steps for the Daubeney Road Garages

Many thanks to everyone who filled in our survey on the future of the Daubeney Road garage site; it was great to see so many responses.

We’re moving on to the next stage of the development and looking for local residents to help out – see below.

A significant majority of people told us that they were in favour of the regeneration of the garage site to provide studio / workspace for small business. We’ll keep the survey open and update our analysis as new responses come in.

Your feedback will help us shape the future of the site. A lot of people said how they would also like the site to be a green space for the whole King’s Park community, including growing space. Residents raised concerns about the impact on parking on Daubeney Road and the need for parking provision for staff at the school. And finally, lots of you made helpful suggestions about how we could ensure the regeneration was a benefit to local residents.

And so, the next steps….

Some of you will know that in the DaubeneyField’s User’s Group have recently been awarded funding for a Pocket Park” on the site.  This will help clean up the site and provide growing space. It is great to see it progressing so well!  

A fuller regeneration of the site will take a little longer.  The next steps are:
  • The Council will need to apply for planning permission for change of use for the site. As part of this they will formally consult with residents.
  • If this is successful, they will tender for a partner to work on the regeneration of the site. This will take up until Summer 2015.
  • After this we will work with the successful partner on the regeneration of the site. 

After discussing it with the council we expect that this will take a minimum of a year.  As the first step the Council need to appoint a surveyor to check the site to confirm that the proposal is possible. Once this has happened we should be ready to go….


Once we have confirmation that the project is possible, we’ll be looking for local residents who would like to get involved in the project, helping to develop the tender for the regeneration partner, help assess the bids, and importantly helping make sure we communicate and engage with as many local residents as possible.  We want to make sure a broad cross-section of King’s Park residents are involved in the process. If you can help out please get in touch - Kingspark@hackney-labour.org.uk.  

Monday, 1 December 2014

Clapton Park growing project sowing seeds across Hackney!!

This weekend, Cllr James Peters from De Beauvoir ward, came to see some of the fantastic examples of community growing across the Clapton Park estate. 

Seeking inspiration for his own ward and having heard about the great work going on across Clapton Park, he visited a range of different sites from the secret allotment to the bee hotel. Cllr Peters was particularly impressed at the canal side allotment and table behind Willington Court:



“It’s great to see so many people coming together on community projects like this and I hope we’re able to create something similar in De Beauvoir.”

We were also interested to see a rather unique use for an old bathroom suite!