State of the High Street event

We've arranged a special meeting on 23^rd April, 7pm at St Paul’s Church to discuss the ‘State of the High Street’.

Stoke Newington High Street is a lively and vibrant town centre, and is increasingly attracting visitors from all over London. 

However, residents in Stoke Newington have repeatedly raised the following issues with us, and most recently at the Stoke Newington ward forum:

• Noise and anti social behaviour from pubs and clubs
• Issues associated with the one way system
• Keeping the pavements clean and clear of obstacles
• Street drinking
• Persistent cycling on the pavement

We decided it would be a good opportunity to bring people together for a wider debate on these issues, to look at the High Street as a whole.

There will be three guest speakers - the Head of Regeneration from the Council; a speaker on night time economy and environmental issues from the Council, and Lucy Saunders from TfL who will talk about what makes a 'healthy street' and transport issues.

There will then be an open debate, where we can identify a set of priorities with residents to take forward.

Please do come along and have your say and we look forward to seeing you on Tuesday.

New licensing application

86 Stoke Newington High Street, London N16 7PA have made a licensing application for:

• live music and facilities for making music from 18:00 to 00:00 Sun to Thur and from 18:00 to 02:00am Fri and Sat
• recorded music, performance of dance and facilities for dancing from 15:00 to 00:00 Sun to Thur and from 15:00 to 02:00am Fri and Sat
• supply of alcohol from 07:00 to 00:00 sun to Thur and from 07:00 to 02:00am Fri and Sat 
• late night refreshment from 23:00 to 00:00 Sun to Thur and from 23:00 to 02:00am Fri and Sat.

If you wish to make a representation these must address the licensing objectives:

    •    prevention of crime and disorder
    •    prevention of public nuisance
    •    public safety
    •    the protection of children from harm

There is a guide to making representations here. Representations can be made in writing to The Licensing Service, 263 Mare Street, London, E8 3HT or by emailing licensing@hackney.gov.uk.

The deadline is 2/5/13.

Wilmer Place development rejected by Planning Committee

Last night Hackney Council's Planning Committee voted to reject plans to redevelop Wilmer Place.

Local residents packed the Council Chamber to observe the Committee's deliberations. Following a presentation by the Council Officer, who was recommending that the Committee approve the application, councillors Daniel Stevens (Lordship) and Louisa Thomson (Stoke Newington Central) spoke in opposition to the plans. The speech Louisa gave is here and Daniel’s is online here.

Louisa highlighted concerns about housing, transport, noise and light, and the damaging effect a large supermarket would have on the local economy. Daniel focused on the detrimental impact the development would have on the historic character and biodiversity of Abney Park.

Our contributions were followed by speeches from local campaigners Nick Perry, Russell Miller and Damian Duggan-Ryan, who had the difficult task of covering a wide range of objections in just five minutes between them.

Stokey Local have run a very effective campaign over the last 18 months and it's been great to see so many people across the area come together united by their enthusiasm for Stoke Newington. Labour councillros in Stoke Newington have supported this campaign, and also worked tirelessly since the first proposals were revealed in August 2011 to highlight the concerns of residents, lobby for changes, and outline the real planning concerns about the proposed development.

The developer have said that they will appeal the decision, so we will keep you informed of what happens next. But for now we can celebrate a great victory for Stoke Newington.

Louisa's speech at the Planning Committee can be downloaded here.

Cycling parking on Kynaston Road

Hackney Council is committed to promoting cycling as an alternative to private car use. The number of cyclists in Hackney continues to grow at a significant rate and the Council regularly receive requests from residents and businesses across the borough asking for more secure cycle parking stands. 

In some locations the Council has been trialing 'car bike ports'. These are temporary cycle parking facilities that hold up to 10 bikes. They are trialed for up to 8 weeks to see if they are used by cyclists, and if demand is high, then permanent cycle parking facilities will be proposed. The full details are here.

There is currently a temporary car bike port outside 55 Kynaston Road. Let us know your views! Is more cycle parking needed in this location? Do you have any other areas in Stoke Newington where more cycle parking would be useful? We look forward to hearing from you.

Wilmer Place development - update

As you may be aware, a revised application for the Wilmer Place site was submitted by the developer recently.

Over the past year, we have been working with residents and local groups and organisations on the proposed development of Wilmer Place, and we had a number of concerns about the size of the building, the low level of affordable housing and the impact on Abney Park Cemetery in particular. We repeatedly raised these issues and concerns with the developer and Sainsbury’s.

The latest application is online here. The deadline for comments is 14th March, and we understand that if you made a comment on the previous application this is still taken into consideration. We will be submitting a response on the latest version outlining that many of our original concerns still stand. You can read our full submission here. We also intend to represent those residents who have asked us to when the application goes to the Planning sub-committee.

Stokey Local have done a round up of the main changes:

• A height reduction of approximately 1.5 stories, although the height is largely removed from the bottom/retail unit ceiling height.
• Height has also been reduced towards the cemetery around the two storeys that were on top of the retail unit
• 15 fewer residential units; we are unsure of the mix at this stage.
• Given this change there is likely to be a remodelling of the financial viability of the project
• The proposed retail floor space and frontage arrangements remain unchanged
• There will be a new bat study and enhanced Ecology study around the cemetery
• TfL and Highways previously had no strong views on transport issues so it is expected that this will remain broadly the same.
• There is still concern about the actual height and it seems that officers have requested more CGI views, a model and even suggested a scaffold be built to actual height to properly assess the scale and height, the committee could defer the scheme if it is unconvinced the point has been properly proven.

Hackney Council's Budget 2013/14

On February 27th, Labour councillors passed Hackney Council’s Budget for 2013/14.
This Budget has been set in the context of the deepest spending cuts to local government since the Second World War. Over £80m has been cut from the Council’s Budget over the last three years, with the Coalition Government’s cuts falling hardest on the most deprived areas in the country.

Hackney Labour’s approach has been to protect front line services and ensure better value for money, and we have been determined to do what we can to shield residents from the impact of these cuts.

Speaking at the Budget meeting, Jules Pipe, the Mayor of Hackney, highlighted how this represents an ideological attack by the Government on public services. He spoke about the challenges of providing services for less, but that Hackney Labour had protected libraries, leisure centres and vital services such as street cleaning. He stressed that the Budget in future years will be even more challenging with the Government having made it clear that local government will be subject to more cuts.

The Budget contains £1.1bn of spending on a wide range of services. Our priorities are to keep Hackney clean and safe; bring investment and jobs to the Borough and protect those residents in need. There has been no increase in Hackney’s council tax for the last eight years.

• £38m on Children’s social care, including child protection, supporting families, children who are permanently looked after by the Council
• £13.5 on youth services including our 5 youth centres
• £257m on education and schools
• £49.5m on the public realm which goes towards keeping Hackney’s streets clean, removing graffiti, fly tipping, recycling waste, cycle training and environmental enforcement
• £90m on Adult social care supporting vulnerable adults in the borough
• £21m on health and wellbeing services including our eight libraries, Hackney Museum, 56 parks and the Drug and Alcohol action team
• £7.3m on regeneration and planning
• £4.6m on safer communities including the gangs unit, domestic violence, CCTV and safety wardens

You can read the full Budget online here.

Stoke Newington ward forum - 28th February

The next Stoke Newington Ward Forum is taking place on Thursday 28th February at 7pm in Yorkshire Grove Community Hall, Gunstor Road.

At the last ward forum, we focussed our discussions on the High Street, recognising that this runs through the centre of our ward, and issues around waste, the state of the pavements, the gyratory, noise and anti social behaviour, affect most people who live in the local area. 

Following feedback from residents, and a number of casework issues that have arisen over the past few months, February’s ward forum will focus on licensing issues and the night time economy on the A10. We’ve invited along licensing officers from the Council to talk to the ward forum.

We will also discuss the proposed ‘State of the High Street’ debate, and any other issues that residents wish to raise at the meeting.
 
We’re keen for the meeting to be an opportunity to bring people together and for us to work collaboratively to improve how we respond to licensing issues. Just a reminder that the idea behind the new forums is that local residents and councillors will work together to identify priorities for improving our area.

New yoga classes starting at Yorkshire Grove Community Hall

Yorkshire Grove Estate Tenants and Residents Association have organised yoga classes in the community hall.

These start on 14th Jan, and will be every Monday from 9.30am-11am.

The cost is £3 per session and mats are provided. The contact details for the session are Madeleine Heinemann on mad4yoga@gmail.com.

Poster with all the details here.

Another licensing application: 55 Stoke Newington High Street

55 Stoke Newington High Street N16 8EL have made an application to vary their premises license:

• to extend live music, recorded music, performance of dance, making music, facilities for dance, supply of alcohol and late night refreshment till 5:00am Thur to Sat.

These premises recently applied for a late night license and the licensing sub-committee granted opening hours until midnight only. The details of this decision are online here.

If you wish to make a representation these must address the licensing objectives:

    •    prevention of crime and disorder
    •    prevention of public nuisance
    •    public safety
    •    the protection of children from harm

There is a guide to making representations here. Representations can be made in writing to The Licensing Service, 263 Mare Street, London, E8 3HT or by emailing licensing@hackney.gov.uk.

The deadline is 18/1/13.

Have your say on policing changes in London

As we mentioned before Christmas, we have concerns about some of the proposed changes to policing in London and are opposed to any cuts that would put at risk the year on year fall in crime we've seen in Hackney. 

Hackney Labour has been highlighting this and the importance of ensuring police officer numbers remain the same and that police stations remain accessible to residents. 

The Draft Mayor of London's Police and Crime Plan has now been published and on 24th January at 6pm, there will be a consultation event on 24th January at 6pm at the Town Hall Assembly Rooms to discuss the plans. This is an important opportunity to feed in your views to the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC).

We know that Safer Neighbourhood Teams in Hackney provide a strong local link with residents, and we want to ensure this is protected. 

The Police and Crime Plan also outlines plans to close Hackney Police Station, and reduce Shoreditch opening hours. Stoke Newington will remain open 24 hours.