On Saturday 16 May, our local MP Meg Hillier, and London Assembly Member Jennette Arnold came to Kings Park to hear residents views about local buses. We held a joint meeting to discuss what can be done to improve the 242 service through Clapton Park and whether there's support to extend the 308, which would give residents direct access to Stratford.

Residents expressed their concern that the 242 often stops early, leaving passengers living on Clapton Park to struggle back home with bags and buggies. Residents also shared frustrations, that with just one bus route covering the whole of Clapton Park, it simply couldn't cope during rush hour, with buses often simply bypassing Clapton Park as they were full before even turning onto the estate.

Both Jennette and Meg agreed that action was needed and have committed to campaign on the issue. As your local councillors we'll be working with residents, alongside Meg and Jeanette, over the coming months to show Transport for London (TfL) the strength of feeling. In the meantime, every time there's a problem with the service please make sure you report it, either on the TfL website or by emailing us at kingspark@hackney-labour.org.uk.

Improvements start on the Kingsmead Estate

As a result of residents' hard work, Sanctuary Housing have started to make changes to services on the Kingsmead Estate. 

Following the residents’ meeting with Sanctuary Housing last year:

• Sanctuary have employed a dedicated repairs team for the estate, based in the office on Kingsmead Way. You can now report your repairs in person in the Kingsmead Office, as well as via the usual phone number – 03001233561 – or email kingsmead.residents@sanctuary-housing.co.uk.

• The Sanctuary repairs team are also holding twice-weekly surgeries in the estate office between 5pm-7pm on Tuesdays and between 1pm-5pm on Thursdays so that residents can discuss any issues about repairs. There's no need to book an appointment, just turn up.

• A maintenance team will begin repairs and renovations of all blocks on in early February, including work to fix blocked drains, leaking roofs and flooding balconies. Sanctuary plan to complete the work by end of March.
• A new cleaning rota, started on 2 February, which Sanctuary say will increase cleaning on the estate. From this date there will also be a weekend cleaning service to make sure the estate is kept clean. 
  
• Work to ensure entry doors are more secure has started and will be completed by the end of February 2015. Over 400 bulbs have been replaced in the communal lighting and Sanctuary are currently assessing the work needed to fix lifts.
• Sanctuary are carrying out a "stock condition survey" of all properties to find out which properties need work to address issues, including  damp. Savills have been commissioned to carry out this survey and have written to all residents with further details. 

Hopefully you will have seen the new Sanctuary newsletter? You can now contact the local Kingsmead team, Natasha Pin, Stephen Wells, Nyomi Alexander and Samson Sunmonu at kingsmead.resident@sanctuary-housing.co.uk or by telephone to 0800 1313348 or 0300 1233511 to discuss issues relating to Sanctuary.  

As your ward councillors, we are very aware that there is much more that Sanctuary need to do to improve the estate, but we hope that these improvements are a start. We want to see them sustained and to ensure that support for residents is improved. We are of course still here to support you - you can raise any issue with us. 

There will be a meeting in March with Simon Clark, the managing director of Sanctuary Housing to discuss progress on the estate. We'll circulate details as soon as a date for the meeting is fixed. We hope to see you there. 

In the meantime, we'd love to hear from you about how changes are progressing. Have you noticed anything different on the estate?  Please get in touch at: kingspark@hackney-labour.org.uk.

Clapton Park AGM

Hopefully you will have had a letter through your door and seen the posters, we just wanted to remind Clapton Park Estate residents that the Annual General Meeting of the Tenant Management Organisation is at 4pm on Saturday 7 February. 

The meeting is resident's opportunity to elect the group of residents who will oversee the organisation that is responsible for running the estate. It's responsible for cleaning, repairs, tackling anti-social behaviour, management of the parks and gardens and day to day life on the estate. 

The meeting will be held in the Vi Forester Hall on Gilpin Road. 

We think that it is really important that people turn up and take part in choosing which residents are members of the Board and so we hope to see lots of people there. If you are a resident of the Clapton Park Estate, you might also want to consider putting yourself forward for nomination to the Board.  You should have received a nomination form with your letter telling you about the meeting. You'll need to return them to the estate office by 21 February. 

Any questions then get in touch with the officers at the TMO office or we're happy to help out if we can. 

See you on the 7th. 

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 

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.  

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!

Kingsmead Estate meeting on 3 December

Sanctuary Housing have agreed to meet with resident's to discuss the Kingsmead Estate. This is great news. 

The meeting will take place at 7pm on 3 December at the WallyFoster Community Centre on Homerton Road. 

Come and meet the Sanctuary Housing Management team, share your views about Kingsmead and hear the action they will take to improve the estate.

We've told Sanctuary about the issues raised by residents at the meeting on 3 November, and they have agreed to hold an open meeting, available to all. This is your opportunity tell them about the action that is needed to improve life on the estate.

This is an open meeting and everybody from the estate is welcome. The more people that turn up, the stronger the case for change. We hope to see you there.