Competing views about East End life after London 2012 are sharply crystalised amid the public housing architecture of the Carpenters estate in Stratford, which stands on the fringe of the Olympic Park, overlooked by the red spirals of the Orbit tower.
The vision of the planners, led by Newham council's ebullient Labour executive mayor, Sir Robin Wales, is for the Carpenters to make way for a new campus for University College London (UCL), enhancing the life prospects of the neighbourhood and enriching hard-up Newham as a whole.
An estate resident, Mary Finch, takes a bleaker line: "I think that the Olympics has lost me my home." She has lived on the Carpenters for 40 years and is disinclined to depart quietly. "I think they're gonna have to come in here and drag me out. Why should somebody be able to force you out of your home? A home that's got nothing wrong with it, that's standing solid? I do not want to go."
Slow dispersal of the estate's residents, mostly to alternative dwellings nearby, has been in progress for some time. This has been justified for Wales by the need to embrace a host of development opportunities created not only by the draw of the Games and the park but also, just as importantly, by the economic arteries formed by the improved transport hub at Stratford station. Already, the giant Westfield Stratford City shopping centre has been a hit."It's always a balance if you want to do something for an area," Wales says. "What is the wider community getting at the expense of the inconvenience caused to local residents? People in Carpenters are concerned. I would be too. I completely understand that. But with UCL we would get an amazing, top university coming to the area. Our vision is for science and hi-tech providing jobs and skills. It would be such a good offer from the point of view of our kids."
Finch is not alone in being unenthusiastic. Two younger residents, Joe Alexander and Osita Madu, are driving forces in the campaign group Carp – Carpenters Against Regeneration Plan – which has been quarrelling with Wales's pledges to treat residents properly, bombarding him with questions at public meetings. They reason that the Carpenters works well as a community, so why dismantle it? "We're not some kind of social ill or blight on the landscape that needs help," says Maduu. "Somehow Newham council thinks we're a social problem that needs to be addressed."
"We voted for a mayor and got a dictator," adds Alexander.
It is, in many ways, an archetypal urban regeneration conflict between local authorities on a mission to improve, and those on their patch who fear they only stand to lose. Strife also marked the clearance of the Olympic Park site, when a twilit labyrinth of small industrial concerns was removed from the land on which the array of sports venues now awaits the world's athletic elite.
Among them was H Forman and Son, a family salmon-smoking business founded in east London by a Jewish migrant from Odessa in 1905. The proprietor, Harry Forman's great-grandson Lance, had his premises where the Olympic stadium now is. He fought a long compensation battle and celebrated victory with an email to the Games organiser Lord Coe, a former Olympic champion whom he'd been due to cross-examine at a public inquiry. The email said: "You can run, but you can't hide."
The upshot is a handsome, salmon-pink building on a bank of the river Lea, containing not only a smokery, but also a restaurant and an art gallery in a location long called, with glorious suitability, Fish Island. Olympic dignitaries and others now congregate there. The stadium looms across the water. Forman will soon erect a pop-up corporate hospitality venue on a piece of adjoining land he owns, complete with recreational beach volleyball court. Speedo was the first big name to take space in this Fish Island Riviera, and Forman is finalising discussions with others.
"We're going to have some luxury yachts along the riverfront," he enthuses. "Sixty palm trees are being shipped in. We're going to have this beach club that turns into a nightclub."
Forman hopes to emerge a winner from the Games, but says business is still recovering from the disruption caused by compulsory purchase. He hopes to be part of long-term rejuvenation by developing the land his Riviera will briefly occupy, perhaps with a mixture of homes and boutiques, and facilities for the arts community that has flourished in recent years in former warehouses along the towpath in Hackney Wick. Forging links, he invited a graffiti artist to enhance his restaurant's toilets. In the gents, fine silver fish leap skywards above the urinals.
"I think the area was regenerating anyway," Forman says, looking across at the stadium. "But the existence of the park ought to help. I think when people come here they're amazed at how impressive it already is and how easy to get to."
London's outgoing Olympic legacy chief, Margaret Ford, also gives an upbeat assessment of the post-Games future of the 200-hectare park and its immediate surroundings, although she warns that expecting it to be "the catalyst for the regeneration of the whole of east London", has "never been entirely realistic". Citing prior experience with renewing England's coalfield communities, she stressed the need for "continued investment and belief over a long period".
Ford steps down as chair of the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) this month, having led it and its predecessor, the Olympic Park Legacy Company, since May 2009. She says the park should be an example of how you "change the psychology" about an area. "You're hoping that the whole view of investing in east London changes by persuading people that it is a fabulous place to come to and do business and invest."
She accepts that a great fear with large regeneration projects is that the wealth they attract fails to benefit existing residents, many of whom are in pressing need. Canary Wharf, whose glass towers pierce the skyline a short distance away, is often condemned as the ultimate example. "The concern is that the park will become a sort of golden city on a hill surrounded by a sea of poverty," says John Biggs, a former City analyst and senior Labour member of the London Assembly, who represents three of the six Olympic boroughs – Tower Hamlets, Newham and Barking and Dagenham.
Ford, a Labour peer held in high regard across the political spectrum, says she and her board have been "utterly preoccupied from day one" with ensuring that local people derive the maximum value from the post-Games plans, and with facilitating the Olympic boroughs' goal of economic convergence with the richer west and centre of London. She is proud of creating training and schemes and close links with local schools. "The big game-changers will be jobs and changes in educational attainment and aspiration for a lot of families in east London," she says.
Ford will depart with most of the arrangements made for putting the permanent sporting venues and other attractions to post-Games community use, and with decisions in the pipeline for the three big jigsaw pieces not yet in place:
• The commercial occupants, either a fashion hub or digital "innovation city", for the two buildings the media will use during the Games.
• The long-running search for tenants for the main stadium, very likely to include a football club.
• The determination of planning applications for the future development of the park as a residential area and visitor destination.
Five neighbourhoods will form within the boundaries of the park over the next 20 years, with the first, Chobham Manor, due to be completed at the end of 2014. Ford emphasised the importance of including sufficient genuinely affordable housing. "I think we need to remember there was quite a big promise made to the communities in east London about the houses being affordable – either affordable to rent or affordable to buy. I think it's one they are not going to forget."
While pointing out that the LLDC remains committed to 35% of the up to 8,000 homes it plans to see built on the park being affordable – in addition to 3,000 that the Athletes' Village will be converted into – she felt it was a matter for regret for London as a whole that the government's new funding approach means "affordable" rent can now be up to 80% of local market rates, which even in poorer parts of London are high compared with the rest of the country.
"I think Londoners are desperately short of affordable housing. It's definitely short of good-quality social housing [which has far lower rents]. If we mean what we say about needing to house all of our key workers, we need to house lots of people in lower-paid jobs who make this city work then, yes, I would say moving to 80% of market rents will cause some of those people not to be able to afford properties."
Another Olympic borough mayor, Tower Hamlets' independent Lutfur Rahman, who, like Wales, is a member of the LLDC board, has called for more homes for social rent among the 800 housing units proposed for the Olympic Park neighbourhood to be called Sweetwater, which will fall within his boundaries.
Ford, who has 33 years' experience of delivering regeneration programmes under both Labour and Conservative governments, is to be replaced by the Conservative politician Daniel Moylan, the appointee of London's mayor, Boris Johnson, to whom the LLDC is accountable. The selection of Moylan, an experienced councillor in Royal Kensington and Chelsea whom Johnson made his deputy as chair of Transport for London two years ago, has caused some disquiet among political opponents.
Biggs says that although he likes the urbane Moylan – "he's fun to talk to" – he worries that he is not equipped to follow someone with Ford's track record. "The truth is, he doesn't know anything about regeneration." There's an ideological issue too. "The point of bodies like the development corporation is to do the things the market can't or won't, and Daniel is the sort of politician who thinks red-in-tooth-and-claw market forces will take care of everything."
Ford, though, says she's confident Johnson has made a good choice and praises him for allowing her and her chief executive, Andrew Altman, to produce a new masterplan for the park. The one she'd inherited, she says, "pretty much had the place populated by high rise buildings. Why would you stuff it full of flats when it's an obvious family housing neighbourhood, given the green space and the venues? We didn't want to create some pastiche of the Old Curiosity Shop, but a place that had squares and crescents and little pocket parks – the kinds of things that make London quite higgledy piggledy but recognisably London. Boris was hugely encouraging."
She gathered intelligence for the masterplan on "mystery shopping" excursions – chatting to people in cafes and the old Stratford shopping centre. "They wanted front gardens, back gardens for their kids to play in, really good lighting, lots of storage space, nice green spaces, somewhere they can afford and a decent school – it's not bloody rocket science."
When the park begins to reopen for the public next July, its name will change to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Ford believes the royal touch will enhance local attachment: "It's about creating a different feel about the place. It's about people having a pride in it."
Even so, while Olympic borough schools gear up for the excitement of the summer, renaming their classes Helsinki, Tokyo and Beijing, parents express a mix of views about the value of the changes underway. Martin Sadler, a resident of Hackney who works in education and lives with his wife and two daughters not far from the park, foresees a good and a bad side.
"I think this part of Hackney will start feeling a bit more like central London and less like east London," he says. "I've lived here for over 20 years, and it's always been a traditional East End sort of place – a real mixture of people, plenty of cheap accommodation. It's already becoming more affluent, partly because the schools have improved. That brings good things with it, but there are worries too. I think London could be getting more like Paris – that doughnut effect, with the poorer people having to move out of the centre."
That is not the outcome legacy idealists say they have in mind. Time will tell if they manage to avoid it.
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
At Dale Farm it took ten years. Yesterday this farmer and his digger saw off invading travellers in just three hours! - Daily Mail
- Dave Dawson threatened to remove travellers by force himself after declaring: 'I won't tolerate it.'
- Police say travellers left of their own accord in two hours 50 minutes after Mr Dawson's intervention
By Luke Salkeld
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Not having it: Dave Dawson, left, responded to travellers moving on to his land by leaping into his digger and threatening to move them by force
When he found travellers’ caravans had arrived on his land, Dave Dawson had two options.
He could either alert the authorities and wait for the slow turning of the wheels of justice and officialdom.
Or he could rely on the somewhat quicker wheels of his digger – and remove the caravans by force.
Taking the second course of action, Mr Dawson put in a call to the police to inform them of his intentions, which risked leading to his arrest.
Officers arrived to oversee what appeared to be a few heated exchanges before – remarkably – the travellers left of their own accord.
His swift action stands in stark contrast to the decade-long battle to shift travellers from the notorious Dale Farm site in Essex, which only came to an end in October last year.
Mr Dawson, whose farm is near Shoreham in West Sussex, discovered the intruders early yesterday morning. ‘I would have used any force possible to get them off my land,’ he said. ‘I got down here about 6am and told them to move off. There were four vans there at the time and more parked up outside.
‘I came down with the digger and tractor and told them if they didn’t move I was going to move them.
‘I just won’t tolerate it. It is my land. I bought it and I have worked hard for it. I called the police and told them I was going to get the digger and move them.
‘I didn’t care if they got squashed, flattened or left on their own, but one way or another I was going to get them off my land.’
'It's my land': Undeterred by the sudden arrival of the travellers, Mr Dawson called police and told them he was prepared to remove the intruders by force
'I would have used any force possible': Officers were forced to stand between Mr Dawson's digger and the travellers' caravans to prevent him from carrying out his threats
He said that at one point in the clash the officers had to stand between the two sides.
‘The police told me that once they are on the land they have rights. But what about my rights?’ Mr Dawson added.
‘If I had left it to the authorities they could have been on my land for weeks. I wasn’t going to wait for a court order to get rid of them.
‘As it was, the police threatened to arrest me. It has already cost me a day’s work and about 500 to repair the damage. They cut through a metal gate and put their own lock on it.’
A spokesman for Sussex Police said: ‘Six caravans turned up on land at 6.45am. The landowner also turned up and threatened to evict the travellers.
Furious: Officers oversaw what appeared to be several heated exchanges between Mr Dawson and his uninvited guests
A traveller talks to officers: Mr Dawson feared that if he left the eviction to the authorities, the caravans could have been left on his land for weeks
‘Police attended and remained on scene to prevent a breach of peace. The travellers left the site of their own accord at 9.35am.’ Removing travellers who have occupied land without permission is usually a much more costly and time-consuming exercise.
At Dale Farm, the decade-long legal battle cost taxpayers an estimated 18million.
A total of 43 people were arrested and several injured after protesters fought running battles with riot police over the eviction of about 80 families from what was the UK’s largest illegal traveller settlement.
As soon as Basildon council had declared a final victory, there was a massive leap in the number of caravans pitched on the legal Oak Lane site next door – and an adjoining road – prompting more expensive legal action.
In 2009, a convoy pitched up at another controversial travellers’ site just hours after a group had been evicted following a six-year legal battle costing 400,000.
The new arrivals rolled on to a field adjoining the notorious Smithy Fen site at Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, where travellers had set up an illegal camp.
Bye bye: The travellers eventually moved off Mr Dawson's land at 9.45am - three hours after they had arrived
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
London 2012 Olympics will come in under budget, government says - The Guardian
The government has promised the Olympics will come in under budget – at a cost of less than £9bn to taxpayers – but will spend extra money within that on crowd control measures in light of a bigger-than-expected turnout for the jubilee celebrations and the torch relay.
The sports and Olympics minister, Hugh Robertson, admitted that organisers had underestimated by around a third the amount that would be required to pay for signage, stewarding and crowd control measures such as crush barriers and temporary bridges that will ease congestion in Greenwich and Hyde Park.
It is expected that larger than expected crowds could throng the capital in the three days before the opening ceremony as the torch enters central London and will turn out in huge numbers for the marathon and the cycling road race, which finish on the Mall.
"There is a certain amount of this that you assess as the thing develops and these costs emerge. As a government, you're caught here. The first responsibility of a government is the safety and security of its people," he said.
"We have to do everything we can reasonably do to ensure the safety and security of the very many people, judging by the jubilee, who will attend. There is an element of managing success here."
An extra £19m will be added to the budget for crowd-control measures and managing central London, taking it to £76m. Overall, there was an increase of £29m in the money released to Locog over the most recent quarter, including £8m for putting in concessions and toilets around the Olympic venues.
That will take the total that the London organising committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog) has received from the public funding package to £736m, including a security budget to cover guards within Olympic venues that almost doubled to £553m.
Robertson said that the crowds who lined the river during the jubliee river pageant despite the inclement weather, estimated at around 1.2 million, and the popularity of the torch relay showed that numbers attending might be even higher than expected.
"We knew this would be the moment when people suddenly got this. But we have been pleasantly surprised by the sheer scale of it. If you consider that the torch is coming down the Thames [on July 27] the capacity for lots and lots of people to come and see it is increased," he said.
The additional investment was an insurance policy to ensure that London could cope with the influx, he said.
"London is going to be the place this summer, if the rain holds off, to come and have a party. It is very difficult to estimate how many people will take the car, the train or the ferry and come here for a party with a rucksack on their back."
Transport for London is planning on the basis that there will be 1 million extra people in the capital, although that could be offset by a decline in non-Olympic tourists.
Critics have claimed that Locog, which has a privately raised budget of £2bn to stage the Games but has now received £736m in public money on top of that, should be subject to greater scrutiny. But the government argues that all the public money that has flowed to the organising committee is either for pre-agreed elements of the budget such as security or is for new tasks that it has taken over from the Olympic Delivery Authority.
With the project 98% complete, there is £476m of contingency funding remaining, and Robertson said he could now be confident that it would come in under £9bn.
The National Audit Office had warned there was a real risk that the budget would be bust, but the Department for Culture and Media and Sport and the Government Olympic Executive have continued to insist that they would come in below £9.3bn.
The original bid estimated the cost of the Games at £2.4bn but didn't include VAT or security costs.
The Labour government, chastened by the experience of the Millennium Dome and Wembley, built in a huge contingency fund of £2.7bn when the current funding package of £9.3bn was set in March 2007. The huge increase was justified on the back of the regeneration of east London and other claimed legacy benefits.
Robertson said that the large contingency was a wise move because it allowed the project to weather the economic downturn, bearing the cost of building the Olympic Village and the International Broadcast Centre from public funds before selling them back to the private sector.
Much of the credit for coming in on time and on budget will go to the Olympic Delivery Authority, which came in more than £500m below its baseline budget through savings made during the construction process. Delivering the venues on time, despite the ongoing debate about the future of the £428m stadium, meant that it avoided the prospect of escalating costs as contractors rushed to finish venues.
Robertson said the publicly funded budget had delivered value for money: "I have been a cheerleader for this process right from the beginning. There was a recognition right from the word go the original figure would have to change dramatically. Everybody's eyes were opened to the possibility that this gave us once we had won the bid."
Attention is now likely to turn to the use of a surplus of more than £400m. Despite lobbying from some sports organisations, Robertson said there was no chance that it would remain within sport and would instead flow back to the Treasury.
But campaigners said that would "verge on money laundering", because lottery money that was partly used to fund the Games was diverted from other causes.
"It will be an utter outrage – and verging on money laundering – if lottery revenues raided by the government to fund the Olympics go back to the Treasury," said Jay Kennedy, the head of policy at the Directory of Social Change.
"This money was taken away from supporting vulnerable people and communities across this country at a time when they needed it most. Government needs to keep its promises and do the right thing – any underspend must be used to refund the Lottery as soon as possible."
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Reader poll - should we make more effort for Sussex Day? - Lewes Today
SATURDAY June 16 is Sussex Day - but how many people realise this and how many are celebrating it?
Despite publicity by West Sussex County Council, has the message got round about this special day?
Since its launch in 2007, Sussex Day, June 16, has been a chance for residents of Sussex to celebrate their county’s rich heritage.
Everyone in the county has had the opportunity to use the day to display in word and deed everything that is good about Sussex.
The date - June 16 - was chosen because it is St Richard’s Day – which marks the life of St Richard, who was Bishop of Chichester from 1245 until his death in 1253.
In Medieval times West Sussex was an important place of pilgrimage. Thousands made their way to the shrine of St Richard at Chichester cathedral every year.
The county council has been encouraging everyone to hang out bunting and make their own Sussex flag.
They have also launched a competition for schoolchildren to create a new school meal using the best of the county’s local produce.
Should we make more effort to celebrate all the good things in Sussex or is it not worth the effort?
Join in our poll (right) and add your comments below.
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Print this pageSource: www.sussexexpress.co.uk
Essex Fire Crews Vote Two To One In Favour Of Strike Action - Market Wire
ESSEX, ENGLAND--(Marketwire - June 13, 2012) - Essex fire crews have voted TWO to ONE in favour of strike action in a dispute over frontline cuts and changes forced through without proper negotiation or agreement. Current plans for cuts would see the loss of one in five frontline crews in Essex since 2008, with the public already waiting longer for fire crews to turn up to fires in the home.
The strike ballot result will be considered by representatives from fire stations and workplaces across Essex and the fire authority will be given notice of strike dates by the General Secretary in due course. The Fire Brigades Union said there was still time to resolve the dispute before any strike action takes place.
Prior to the ballot the union was told that all issues in dispute would continue to be implemented and cuts imposed regardless of any talks with ACAS or national fire service conciliators. The union believed this undermined moves to resolve the dispute.
Mick Rogers FBU brigade secretary said: "Essex fire crews have shown the strength of opposition to frontline cuts and changes being forced through without their agreement. The result explodes the myth peddled to councillors that fire crews have no genuine concerns.
"This damaging myth has led the councillors to support disastrous plans to impose changes and press ahead with cuts. There is a window of opportunity to negotiate and reach an agreement acceptable to both sides in this dispute if councillors want that to happen.
"No one in the fire service ever wants to take strike action and no one will be happy if we are forced to do so. It is crucial the fire authority now wakes up and joins with us in genuine moves to resolve this dispute."
Ballot result
The number of frontline full time firefighters have been slashed by 100 since 2008, loss of one in eight. The number of retained 'on call' firefighters has dropped by 60 since 2008, a loss of one in ten.
Further planned cuts would bring total losses of frontline fire crews to one in five since 2008.In the same period of time, Essex Fire Service has increased back office staff by 7.5% - from 238 in 2008 to 256 today.
Source: www.marketwire.com
West Sussex sea defences may have trapped flood water - BBC News
The Environment Agency is investigating whether or not sea defences in West Sussex trapped flood water, making flooding there worse.
Flood water is being pumped away from parts of West Sussex where many people were forced to flee their homes.
Residents living in Bracklesham Bay said the water level only dropped when an emergency channel was dug.
However, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said the defences were not to blame.
The Environment Agency said no further properties had flooded overnight but it was keeping a watch on river levels.
It added that teams had been working round the clock with other emergency responders, checking flood defences and clearing blockages.
Gordon Wilson, from the Environment Agency, said: "We're investigating to try to understand what has led to such severe flooding here.
"And it is possible that given the diameters of pipes we put in as an interim measure, they were not sufficient to cope with such a huge amount of rain in such a short space of time."
Bracklesham resident Christopher Purchase said the water level remained static until the digger cut through the sea defences.
"It's pouring out of there like a plug out of the bath," he said.
However, Ms Spelman, who was visiting the area, said the Environment Agency did not believe the sea defences caused the floods, but the "sheer volume" of rainfall.
She added: "I've been very impressed by the emergency services response and all the other partners involved... but above all the community, and the way everyone pulled together to deal with an extreme weather event of this kind."
Roads impassableRising flood waters affected about 250 homes in the village of Elmer and caravans on two sites in Bracklesham.
Two flood warnings remain in place for the River Arun watercourse at the Aldingbourne Rife in Bersted and Felpham.
West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said it had dealt with about 1,000 calls in 24 hours, evacuating hundreds of homes and pumping water from them.
Sean Ruth, deputy county fire officer for West Sussex, said it had been "an incredibly busy time" and it was necessary to seek help from neighbouring fire services in East Sussex and Hampshire.
Many roads had been impassable due to flooding. Closures remain in force on the A29 Lidsey Road at Woodgate and several minor roads to the west of the county.
There are also restrictions on the A259 at Littlehampton and A281 London Road at Henfield.
Nine schools in Bognor Regis and Chichester were either closed or partly closed because of the conditions, along with Felpham Community College.
Laburnum Grove Junior School in Bognor Regis remained shut on Wednesday due to serious flooding, and is not expected to reopen until next Tuesday.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
London world's most expensive city for Aussie travellers, TripAdvisor says - News.com.au
Partying in London is a pricey affair. Picture: Thinkstock Source: Supplied
Hanoi is the world's cheapest city for a night out. Picture: AAP Source: AAP
LONDON is the most expensive city for an evening out for Australian travellers, a cost comparison of the world's major cities shows.
The British capital tops the list in a cost comparison of an evening out for two people in key tourist cities around the world.
Hanoi offers the most affordable night out for travellers, with a total cost of $141.57.
At more than triple the cost of Hanoi, London topped the list as most expensive with a cost of $520.19.
Sydney ($393.61) was the ninth most expensive of the cities surveyed.
The TripAdvisor TripIndex is tracked against the Australian dollar and is based on the combined costs for two people of one night in a four-star hotel, cocktails, a two-course dinner with a bottle of wine, and taxi fares.
"TripIndex helps travellers to see where their pound goes the furthest,'' TripAdvisor spokeswoman Emma Shaw said.
"The list shows that many Asian cities, along with some European cities - like Warsaw and Sofia - are very affordable once you're on the ground.
"Some cities traditionally considered expensive - like London, Paris and New York - actually cost three times more than the cheaper cities in the list for an evening out.''
Hotel costs were the pivotal factor in determining the cheapest and most expensive cities on TripIndex.
The cheapest average hotel room goes to Bangkok at $81.35 a night, while the most expensive goes to London, at $362.68 a night.
South-East Asia featured heavily in the 10 cheapest destinations, claiming four cities in total, including Hanoi as the cheapest city. Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta ranked third, fifth and ninth.
TEN MOST EXPENSIVE CITIES
1. London
2. Oslo
3. Zurich
4. Paris
5. Stockholm
6. New York
7. Moscow
8. Copenhagen
9. Sydney
10. Singapore
TEN CHEAPEST CITIES
1. Hanoi
2. Beijing
3. Bangkok
4. Budapest
5. Kuala Lumpur
6. Warsaw
7. Taipei
8. Sofia
9. Jakarta
10. Tunis
Source: TripAdvisor
Source: www.news.com.au
Occupy London - my protest - Daily Mail
By Anna Maxted
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Occupy London are determined to protest against the City of London Corporation, so today they set up camp on that ugly symbol of elitism and privilege, Hampstead Heath.
Sadly, in another victory for the overarching forces of international capitalism, the park's police escorted them off the premises just after teatime.
I've lived near the Heath all my life and it's one of the most serene and beautiful areas of the capital; one of the few that you don't need money to enjoy. When Karl Marx lived in London, he loved to visit with his family. Kenwood House - part of the estate bestowed to the nation by that privileged toff Lord Iveagh in 1927 - may look tatty on the outside, but if you nip inside (donations are voluntary) you can show your five-year old a Gainsborough.
A privilege to be there: When you're on Hampstead Heath, your status, your bank balance ceases to matter
I was there this morning, beaming at the exquisite views of the City, breathing in the delicious air, marvelling at the gorgeous profusion of green, along with various other capitalist pigs (an old lady on a Zimmer frame, an artist, a young photographer, an elderly man walking his dog, a young couple with a newborn...).
Eventually I spotted the Occupy London set, trudging along the sun-dappled paths, squinting at their maps - though they were hardly obvious: none of the people wandering around the Heath this morning were head-to-toe in Dior.
They set up camp in the Vale of Health (convenient for Hampstead High Street; Starbucks, Tesco Metro and The Gap). One doesn't have to eschew all trappings of commercialism to make a huffy point against capitalism - I don't expect them to scrape for nuts and berries and live on rainwater - but this exercise was little more than a hypocritical student jolly.
Trespassers in tents: Will we soon see scenes like this, outside St Paul's last year, on the Heath?
I feel aggrieved at the wretched difference between wealthy and poor - but I feel as aggrieved that these protestors were so witless as to think that they were doing the less privileged a favour by camping out - with their litter, and worse, judging from the mess they made of St Paul's - in the one place that is an oasis of peace, and serenity - and free to those who have everything and nothing alike.
When you're on Hampstead Heath, your status, your bank balance ceases to matter. You feel privileged to be there. You feel rich. Until you chance upon a massive bunch of trespassers in tents, and then the Heath loses its magic, and your carefree ramble becomes yet another irritating, slightly depressing exercise in trying to enjoy London despite it being stuffed full of sociopaths and egotists.
Truly, harassing a bunch of dog walkers is not a valid form of protest against bankers. It was facetious, brattish; bullying. If they wish to get their point across in a democratic manner, they have civilised options - from blogging to, hm, politics - but they made the laziest, most slovenly choice: to make a nuisance of themselves and inconvenience, oh, just everyone. A minority, imposing their selfish will on the majority, is nothing less than tyranny.
Exquisite views of the City: Misty view over London from Hampstead Heath
They claimed that they wanted to 'reach out to the community about shared concerns'... I can tell you what the community's main concern was today - that a bunch of pseudo-crusties had illegally pitched their luxury tents in a public beauty spot. (Hampstead Heath's by-laws forbid 'the training of whippets,' 'the beating of carpets,' and 'Persons in an Offensive, Filthy Condition.' And no camping, either.)
One of OL's excuses was that fans of the Heath ponds were 'up in arms' about the recent outrageous decision by the City of London to charge a couple of quid for a swim. My husband has swum there for years, occasionally with our 10-year old son, and says that most who use the pond have no objection - if they want a lifeguard, and basic maintenance, they see it makes sense to contribute a little.
As far as I can tell, this protest was a feeble excuse for a spot of glamping. If they are genuinely serious about protesting against capitalism, I suggest they occupy Legoland: nearly 200 on the gate, for a family of five. However, if they prefer to occupy a green space owned by the City of London, why not try West Ham Park? It has all the traditional trappings of privilege (children's playground and so on.) Or are the views not spectacular enough?
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
London landlords squeeze cash from dead space - Reuters UK
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - London landlords are renting out everything from vacant stores to empty sports fields, rooftops and even an abandoned quarry to cash in on the tight supply of space in the UK capital during the Olympic Games this summer.
Eleven million fans, sponsors and athletes are expected to arrive in Europe's second-most crowded city from July, stoking huge demand for storage, temporary shops and vantage points for TV cameras, in turn allowing landlords to cash in on otherwise dead space.
"You'll see usable space created that doesn't currently exist," said Mark Hughes-Webb, managing director of Space-2 Consultancy, a specialist real estate firm that finds buildings for events and film shoots.
"It's been a long time since the Games were in such a densely populated city," Hughes-Webb said. "People are having to be more imaginative."
London, the European Union's most densely populated city after Paris according to EU statistics, will host the games between July 27 and August 12. Homeowners have already hiked rents by up to six times in anticipation of the influx and commercial landlords are getting in on the act.
Unlike the last two Olympic cities of Beijing and Athens, where neighbourhoods were demolished to create venues, or they were located in more sparsely populated outlying areas, most of the 34 London sites are at the heart of built-up areas.
The Games' epicentre at Stratford in the east of the city has benefited from a 7 billion pound injection of infrastructure, sporting venues and homes, revitalizing an area better known for its polluted waterways and industrial estates.
Sites for hire include a former limestone quarry near the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, southeast England, the owner of which is targeting contractors seeking temporary staff accommodation. Its proximity to a high-speed rail link means it is 30 minutes from the Olympic stadium in Stratford.
VACANT UNITS
Elsewhere the owners of a sports field in Chiswick, west London, are in talks with an overseas group of performers to rehearse for the handover ceremony to Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian city that will host the Games in 2016.
Sites like these can cost between 10,000 to 20,000 pounds a week, Hughes-Webb said.
Also in demand are empty shops, particularly those close to busy retail areas like Oxford Street and Covent Garden, which are being snapped up by the likes of high-end U.S. clothing brand Opening Ceremony to house temporary, pop-up stores.
"Enquiries from landlords looking to lease out their vacant units during the Olympics have risen by 50 percent," said Rosie Cann, director at consultancy Pop-up Space.
Rents can be between a few hundred pounds to 20,000 pounds depending on the location and size. Stores generally remain open for between a day and two weeks, agents said.
Vacant shops around train and subway stations or Olympic venues are being rented by smaller sporting and drinks brands in need of makeshift space to store merchandise, Hughes-Webb said.
Not all attempts to find space are successful. Nike Inc's plan to build a temporary two-storey building to host exercise classes in Regents Park was blocked by Westminster council on the grounds it would ruin the park's appearance.
Equally those with empty space near venues may not see a big pay day. The London Olympic organising committee (LOCOG) bans non-sponsors from advertising within 300 metres of venues, keeping demand in check, property experts say.
Official sponsors Cadbury, BMW and British Airways are among those companies expected to seek temporary space near Olympic venues, which include a man-made beach on the Greenwich peninsula on the Thames built specially for the Games.
PANORAMIC VIEWS
Australian developer Lend Lease owns large chunks of land around the O2 arena, also on the Greenwich peninsula and the venue of the gymnastics and basketball competitions. It will lease out land earmarked for redevelopment to Olympic sponsors to make a short-term return and in an attempt to lure permanent office tenants to the area.
"We are most definitely making money from this," Simon Donaldson, Lend Lease's head of retail operations said, declining to say how much but adding it would be substantially more without the LOCOG rules.
Elsewhere demand from film crews keen to capture panoramic views of the London skyline has pushed up prices for rooftop space. Fees are likely to double from their norm outside of the Games to 300 pounds per hour over the period, Hughes-Webb said.
Developers of the 95-storey Shard skyscraper next to London Bridge train station, about six kilometres from the Olympic park, have been approached by a string of broadcasters about filming from western Europe's tallest tower, a spokesman told Reuters, declining to give further details.
Cash-strapped local councils are also getting in on the act. Newham, home to the Olympic stadium, has rented out the upper floors of two largely empty apartment blocks next to the Olympic Park to broadcasters BBC and Al Jazeera, while Redbridge council in northeast London is leasing out a forest to a temporary hotel company to house 4,200 Olympic security staff for an undisclosed sum.
Yet many landlords are missing out as they are unaware of the strength of demand for storage space, or the value of being close to the Olympic park, Hughes-Webb said.
"People are fixated on what the space is, not what it could be. They're looking at it and saying 'it's just an empty field'," Hughes-Webb added. "Well, it's not to us."
(Editing by Tom Bill and David Holmes)
Source: uk.reuters.com
Essex: Firefighters vote to strike - East Anglian Daily Times
Essex fire chief David Johnson
By Amie Keeley
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
5:22 PM
FIREFIGHTERS in Essex have voted in favour of strike action over cuts to front line services.
A total of 532 members supported the move in a ballot held by the Essex Fire Brigade Union which was announced yesterday.
The number voting against a strike was 216 out of about 1,000 members.
The news comes following a long-running dispute between the FBU and Essex County Fire and Rescue Service (ECFRS) over job cuts and changes which the FBU says have been forced through without consultation.
The FBU claims one in five firefighters will have been cut since 2008 if planned changes go ahead while back-room staffing has risen by 7.5%.
The FBU has to give seven days’ notice of any strikes and its leaders say there is still time to resolve the dispute.
FBU brigade secretary Mick Rogers said: “No-one in the fire service ever wants to take strike action and no-one will be happy if we are forced to do so.
“It is crucial the fire authority now wakes up and joins with us in genuine moves to resolve this dispute.”
But Chief Fire Officer David Johnson said the service had already agreed to the majority of the FBU’s demands and it was time for a compromise.
“This vote only represents half of the FBU members – we have 1,300 firefighters in Essex so it does not reflect the majority of our employees.
“We agree with 95% of their demands, now we need them to compromise on the remaining 5%.
“If they do go ahead with the strike, we have effective contingency systems in place, but I’d like to think that the leadership at the FBU are decent enough not to drag their members into strike action for the wrong reasons.”
Source: www.eadt.co.uk
Well done that man its about time someone stood up to these people, well stood up to them and actually WON that is!
- DB1, Nottingham ENGLAND, 13/6/2012 21:01
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