We'd like to shake the hand of whoever made this new amendment to the Arcade site hoardings (and no, we honestly don't know who did it!).
By changing an R to a D, St Modwen has been outed as "The UK's leading degeneration specialist". We couldn't agree more. Signing a development agreement on a big site in the heart of Walthamstow, then leaving it as rubble potentially for years because of the recession, is really dragging down our area. It's literally a waste of space and it's about time the council did something else with the site.
The new improved hoardings are even better than when someone added a comment on a sticker a while back - after the caption "This image is indicative and does not resemble the final scheme" someone quite reasonably added "So what is the point of it?"
Anonymous graffiti people of Walthamstow, we salute you!
Thursday, 27 November 2008
Arcade site hoardings become that little bit more honest
Friday, 21 November 2008
Trashification and Zombification
Click on the picture above to view, in full, Rowan Moore's [Evening Standards Architecture Critic] castigation of the Olympic Big Screens, and the damage he believes they will do to urban public space. Click on the second picture to read Barry Coidan's letter to the Standard pointing out that contrary to LOCOGs [Largely Overpaid Consultants of Gibberish] claims about Big Screen popularity, no official consultation ever took place in Walthamstow, but all recent surveys suggest the Big Screen is decidedly Pasonica Non-Grata. Saturday, 11 October 2008
St Modwen Credit Crunched
"The residential land market remains virtually non existent. We do not expect this market to recover for some time, and are planning our business accordingly."
Surely no council would be dumb enough to buy these skills, ......................would they?
Thursday, 25 September 2008
One bit of River Lea saved from tower block hell
Seven Storey Tower Block - REFUSED
The council has refused an application for a horrid cluster of tower blocks.
Essex Wharf - three seven-storey blocks near Lea Bridge Road, would have overshadowed a beautiful section of the River Lea. It has been refused for various reasons: Its unsightly impact, dominating the landscape, the poor quality of the 'affordable' living accommodation, unsustainable local transport provision, and the negative environmental affects on the neighboring Lee Valley Regional Park. Of course the developers might well appeal the decision, but with the current property slump, fingers crossed that they don't!
There are a number of other towerblocks planned beside the Lea near Tottenham Hale and alongside the general Olympic (over)development that is fast transforming the riverside further south. We've won one battle....... but there's still a war going on.
Big Shot Property Developer visits Walthamstow
"THE ARCHERS" [Radio 4] COME TO WALTHAMSTOW
Last week property developer Matt Crawford [normally found concreting over farmers fields in Ambridge, or converting the barns of struggling tenant farmers] paid a visit to Walthamstow. Ostensibly he was here to meet his real mother [he was adopted at birth], having tracked her down to an old people's home in The Stow. This first meeting didn't go very well, and to the strains of wailing sirens, the old girl told him he needn't bother visiting again.However, passing back through Walthamstow, wide-boy Crawford [no stranger to making a quick buck from forcing through unpopular and controversial developments] could not have failed to be impressed by the gargantuan tower block, gaudy cinema and hopeless retail development proposed for the Arcade Site by St Modwen. As the Dog Track faded into the distance, one can only assume that he was salivating at the opportunity, and maybe tempted to make another visit to see his long lost mum. Move over St. Modwen, the big boys from Borchester Land are in town.
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Queens Market go to City Hall
The FoQM banner had been unfurled and stretched across a section of crowd barrier. As protesters we naturally stood behind it. By 9:15am a small, tight group of us were quietly explaining their concerns to interested passers by and to a couple of reporters from "The Guardian". They aim to visit the market and do a follow up piece.
Overhead a helicopter hovered and security guards, cleverly impersonating security guards, kept a watchful eye on our small knot of campaigners. Then the megaphone revv'd up, with FoQM organiser Pauline Rowe, quietly haranguing the seagulls and the Thames barges as they passed by.
Apparently the area around City Hall is a non leafleting zone. Surprisingly the FoQM banner stretched across the crowd barrier was classed as a leaflet so it had to be removed. Also we weren't allowed to hand out leaflets but if someone asked for one that was ok.
By 9:30 am, about 10 people had stopped to ask what we were doing there (and why weren't we in an office somewhere doing something useful). An attractive young woman asked me what's it all about and then went on to express her dismay at what was happening to Shepherd Bush with its massive shopping mall overhanging the Green there.
As Mayoral Question Time at 10 am drew near the FoQM activists were briefing and being briefed by their elected representatives. And then they marched in an orderly fashion into the beating heart of London's politics to hear Mayor Boris lay out his policy on dropping lumps of concrete haphazardly on London's thriving communities.
I'm afraid, having got up rather too early for me, your reporter sneaked off for a late breakfast before attempting the rest of the day's challenges."
Friday, 29 August 2008
Ugly tower blocks... beautiful art!
Visit the E17 Art Trail 6-14 September to see dozens of local artists, many of them exhibiting either at home or in quirky locations. In particular, do check out two artists whose work is inspired by the Fight The Height anti tower block campaign:
Valeria Bateson has a window display at 25 West Avenue Road - the picture above left is part of her artistic exploration of the impact of tower blocks, present and potential, in our local area (open every day within daylight hours).
Alke Schmidt is one of many artists exhibiting in The State of the Borough 2008 at Wood Street Market, 98 Wood Street (open 10am-5pm most days; closed Thursdays and Sundays). The picture above right is part of a collage she's exhibiting. Oh and there's a rumour that our tomato-throwing antics from the June demo may be featuring in another artist's piece at the same exhibition... so you might be immortalised in a work of art!
For more info see the E17 Art Trail website.
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
Fancy becoming a planning geek?!
Over years of campaigning, we've discovered that not only is it too late to fight developments when the bulldozers arrive, it's also sometimes too late when they apply for planning permission.
Why? Because months, often years, earlier the council has agreed a planning policy which sets in stone what will happen. For example, a policy might mark out a particular area for development, dictate what the housing density should be, maybe even state that a specific site is suitable for a tall building. Once a policy is agreed, it's extremely hard to fight applications that fit it.
So... if you like getting into the nitty-gritty of the policies that will shape Walthamstow over the coming years, check out the council's new online "consultation portal" where you can read draft documents and comment on them. Anyone can register to comment... so please do! (a couple of the consultations end Monday - but there will be others in the near future)
Hmm, sounds a bit boring - why should you?! Well, we can promise you that other interested parties - especially the big developers who are planning tower blocks for Walthamstow - will be all over the website leaving detailed comments. This is one of those times where we need to fight them at their own game.
Don't worry, we'll still be chaining ourselves to bulldozers too ;-)
Thursday, 21 August 2008
Comment on the Giant Telly
Democracy seemed absent in the decision to erect a giant telly in Walthamstow Town Square. But at least the BBC website is giving the public the chance to comment on the screen. It'll be interesting to see whether your opinions are published...!
Visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/bigscreens/get_involved.shtml to tell them what you think of it.
Friday, 15 August 2008
March to Save Our Stow
Join the march on Saturday 16th August to try and save Walthamstow's world-famous dog track from housing developers. Meet outside the track at 12 noon for a march to Walthamstow town square.
For more on the campaign visit https://saveourstow.wordpress.com/
To sign the petition visit http://www.petitiononline.com/savestow/
Thursday, 7 August 2008
Council turns giant telly on
The "screen on the green" – the Olympic "Live Site" giant telly plonked on Walthamstow town square gardens, with the childrens' play area directly behind it, flickered into life today, after a last-minute planning hearing by the Waltham Forest Planning Committee. The committee agreed to 16 hours a day operation, seven days a week, 7am to 11pm, until at least the end of 2012.
Despite the Director of CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) calling the screens "intrusive" and suggesting our town square could become "an outdoors Currys", as well as fierce arguing from the Cleveland Park Residents' Association representative, a local dad and a Civic Society member, councillors rejected limiting the hours to "when something good is on" and also rejected a formal six-month review. Mainly due to "computer says no" counsel from two of Waltham Forest's Planning Officers.
Councillors did ask the Olympic arm of the council (the applicant in this case) for a (non-binding) six month review of how the screen was doing. And asked also that the review included local community representatives and ward councillors.
More news on the six-month review and how intrusive the screen is in action soon…
Monday, 21 July 2008
Giant telly: object now!
ACT NOW if you object to the giant telly in Walthamstow Town Square broadcasting (with sound) 16 hours a day, every day of the year, for the next four years.
Please send a quick email to Rachel.Jagger@walthamforest.gov.uk with your objections. She must receive them by the morning of Tuesday 5th August for them to be considered by the planning committee that night.
The screen already has planning permission. That battle is lost. But the applicant (the council) was told to return to the planning committee with revised operating hours. Instead it has (rather arrogantly, in our opinion) sent a letter attempting to justify the original operating hours proposed. These are 7am-11pm - the screen would be broadcasting both video and sound for all those hours. And it wants to start on Friday 8th August!
The truth is, the contract with the BBC (as yet unsigned) insists on those hours. But there is no real justification for them. And plenty of reasons for concern.
Our proposal is that the hours are approved... but only for six months. That way the screen can prove itself through the Beijing Olympics and beyond. Or else our concerns will be proven to be valid. It's called giving them enough rope...
OBJECT NOW!
Below are two documents to download: a detailed objection that has been sent in by the Cleveland Park Residents' Association. Plus a template to make it easy for you to write your own objection letter/email. It basically says that you support the main points in the CPRA objection and then gives room for you to add your own comments/points (which is important - the council will take your letter far more seriously if you personalise it).
Deadline: morning of Tuesday 5th August at the very latest.
CPRA objection letter
Objection letter to personalise
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
Giant telly - the fight continues
If the sight of the huge Olympics-funded telly in Walthamstow Town Square being built is hardening your resolve to fight the height... then good! We're going to need everyone to get involved when it comes to opposing the tower block plans.
Meanwhile, there is still something worth fighting regarding the screen. The screen got planning permission on two conditions. One that it was only until 2012. The other was that the insanely long proposed operating hours, of 7am-11pm every single day of the year, were rejected - the applicant (the council) had to return with revised hours.
And guess what? They have now applied for approval... with the exactly the same operating hours!
So... watch this space. We'll be posting details of how to object ASAP. Meanwhile the application number is 2008/1087/RSM if you want to check it out at the town hall for yourself.
St Modwen posts £20m losses
If you heard a high-pitched sound on Tuesday, it was probably the world's smallest violin playing for Arcade developer St Modwen. Thanks to the property market collapse, it posted £20m losses for the first half of the year (last year it posted £65.1m profit in the same period). It has written £54.6m off its portfolio in what it describes as the worst period for the industry in almost 20 years.
Quoted in this Telegraph article, St Modwen says: "For residential land, there is currently no genuine market, as the major housebuilders are unwilling to invest in land until they can see the way ahead more clearly."
Meanwhile this BBC News story says that St Modwen is delaying its housebuilding plans in Longbridge. This comes just days after it announced it's delaying a development in Hatfield (see story below).
Again this suggests we will face delays (or maybe even get a reprieve - after all, St Modwen doesn't own the land yet) for the Arcade...
Sunday, 13 July 2008
St Modwen delays elsewhere, demands money from council
We'd already heard that St Modwen (the company behind the Arcade site plans) was delaying developments elsewhere. But the incredible news is that according to a local newspaper story St Modwen say their Hatfield town centre plans will be delayed by two or three years... unless they council makes "a substantial investment" to help make up for the flailing property market.
Is this the shape of things to come in E17? We've already seen written proof that Waltham Forest council is going to receive barely more in the St Modwen deal than the £4m they have already spent on the Arcade site. If they spend any more, they will have made a loss... in order to bring an unwanted tower blobk to our High Street.
Friday, 27 June 2008
Boris advisor: Towers will not be allowed in inappropriate locations
Good news: We had feared that Boris Johnson was about to backtrack on his pre-election pledges to oppose tower blocks in low-rise suburban London. But yesterday his senior planning advisor Sir Simon Milton said tower blocks must fit into the "local context" and will not be allowed in inappropriate locations, even if they have "wow-factor architecture". He said Boris will favour "high-density development" but not necessarily "high rise".
Read the full story in the Evening Standard.
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
ITV coverage of our demo
At last... here's the ITV coverage of our first demo (on 1st June). Sorry, it took ages for someone to find the time to do all the technical stuff to put it online! But if you haven't seen it already, it is worth the wait.
If the video is jerky then we recommend hitting play, then hitting pause for a moment, and then play again.
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Planning Magazine story
Planning Magazine recently ran a little diary piece on our June 1st demo, which you can read here. You need to subscribe to read the whole thing - or just click on "Read more..." below where we have pasted a copy of the story.
Diary - Planning, 13 June 2008
Developers got a fruity local response over retail plans for Walthamstow town centre last week.
More than 200 residents, using tomatoes supplied by local traders, pelted effigies of the developers behind plans for a major scheme in north-east London.
Residents and market traders are up in arms over St Modwen's proposals for an 18-storey tower, a Primark store and a Vue multiplex cinema. The site is directly next to Europe's longest daily open market.
"The development will cast a shadow over Walthamstow, devastate the market and kill off any hope of bringing back our cinema," says Caramel Quin, co-founder of the Fight the Height campaign. It is calling on the developers and the London Borough of Waltham Forest, which owns the site, to reconsider the proposals.
"This is being done to 'regenerate' the area, according to the council and St Modwen. If they won't reconsider, we'll be asking mayor Boris Johnson to call them in," Quin adds. Could this see the first test of Johnson's election pledge to veto tall buildings?
Sunday, 8 June 2008
Please help our sister campaign!
Friends of Queens Market are also fighting St Modwen, the developers behind the Walthamstow Arcade tower block plans. And they are fighting to save their own historic East End market (Queens Market in Upton Park) from being blighted as a result! In short, we have lots in common and we must help each other...
St Modwen has recently submitted a planning application for Queens Market. And it will see tower blocks of up to 30 storeys, while the market is halved in size. Increased rents for stallholders will mean collosal changes to this ethnically diverse market that helps huge numbers of families on low incomes eat healthy food. (Sound familiar? it'll be Walthamstow market that's threatened by St Modwen's next planning application!)
Anyway, FoQM have checked with Newham council, and it turns out that residents from other boroughs can send in objections to the plans. Please download the two files below, which make it very quick and easy to object, and SEND YOUR OBJECTION TODAY!
And when it's our turn to fight a planning application from St Modwen - which could be very soon indeed - we hope that the good people of Upton Park will return the favour.
Downloads:
FoQM objection info
Objection letter template
Giant town square telly approved :-(
The bad news is that this week the council planning committee ignored public opinion (39 letters of objection and a number of public speakers) and approved plans for the Olympic-funded giant telly in Walthamstow Town Square, backing on to the children's play area.
The only tiny bits of good news are that...
1) Rather than being there forever, the screen only has planning permission from this summer till summer 2012, after the London Olympics. So if it's unpopular, too loud, vandalised or otherwise a failure then we can hope the council won't grant planning permission for it to stay.
2) The insanely long operating hours of 7am till 11pm every day of the year were not approved. Instead the applicant will have to come up with revised operating hours and return to the planning committee with them for approval. So we will have the opportunity to lobby for shorter hours (i.e. only switch it on when there's something genuinely worth watching!) and for the sound to only be switched on when appropriate. This would also result in energy savings - by our estimates, the screen would have the same carbon footprints as 59 households if switched on for the proposed 18 hours a day.
Oh, and finally, one councillor made a big thing of the fact that there weren't many people in the public gallery - suggesting that this meant no-one cared! We don't really see why people should have to spend their evening watching a council meeting, at which they're not allowed to speak, in order to prove that they care. But if this is the way that the councillors see it (i.e. they might have even voted differently if they had a bigger audience) then it's essential that a huge number of us turn up when it comes to the planning applications for tower blocks in Blackhorse Road, the Arcade site, etc.
Wednesday, 4 June 2008
Please join BAG... now!
It takes 2 seconds to fill in an online form to join Blackhorse Action Group and to give them your comments on the insane overdevelopment planned for the area. The plans include 10 tower blocks, the tallest of which will be 23 storeys (230 feet).
So please visit the Blackhorse Action Group website and sign up now!
And also check out the BAG Flickr page where they have posted yet more fab pics from Sunday's demo. Are we the world's most photographed (and photogenic) protestors or what?!
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
Indymedia demo coverage and Evening Standard article
Do read this Indymedia story, including yet more fab pics of Sunday's demo. Many thanks to Peter Marshall for coming along (and for letting us use this pic).
Also forgot to post a link to this Evening Standard feature from last week that singles the Arcade out as one of the tower block proposals that Boris Johnson may veto.
Monday, 2 June 2008
Pics from Sunday's demo
Thanks to the 200+ of you who turned up on Sunday for the tomato-chucking and the TV cameras! And thank you to the countless residents who emailed with their support - it's great to know that we have even more supporters (and we're going to need you all when it comes to fighting these tower block plans!)
Many thanks to photographers Nick Watts and Tom Glendining for the pics. And of course huge thanks to Alan, Tina and Rowena for being game enough to have tomatoes chucked at them.
Finally, before this turns into an Oscars speech, we mustn't forget to thank the London Borough of Waltham Forest and St Modwen Properties Plc, not to mention their allies Primark and VUE Cinemas. Without their hideous, market-killing proposed tower block development, none of this would have been possible...
We have uploaded a few more pics from the protest - click on "Read More..." below to see them. (Oh and if you're from the media and need print quality pics, email us!)
And here are the rest of our favourite pics...
BBC coverage of Sunday's demo
Will post the ITV news story too, as soon as we have time! Or if anyone else has recorded it and has time to stick it on YouTube and send us the link, that'd save us a job...
Oh and as ever with YouTube, if the video is jerky then we recommend hitting play, then hitting pause for a moment, and then play again.
Friday, 30 May 2008
Fight The Height needs you! Demo at noon on Sunday 1st June
The demo against the Arcade tower block - and tower blocks in Walthamstow generally - will be at noon this Sunday, 1st June in Walthamstow town square.
Please save the date, please come along and please tell all your local friends and family. Everyone involved in tower block decisions - from local councillors on the planning committee to Mayor Boris who has the power to veto tower block plans - cares about public opinion. So put simply, the more of us that turn up the more notice they will take!
The demo promises to be short and fun for all the family. Hope to see you there...
About us - why Fight The Height?
Fight The Height was originally founded by Cleveland Park Residents' Association but now has members from all over Walthamstow. What brings us together is our opposition to the tower block planned for the "Arcade" site (on the corner of High Street and Hoe Street) and to the many other tower blocks planned for Walthamstow, such as the ones currently being fought by Blackhorse Action Group.
The general problem with tower blocks in Walthamstow is that they're out of place in an area that's typically low-rise, two- and three-storey Victorian houses. Plus no-one wants to live in them - according to a recent survey by the Architecture Commission, less than one per cent of people would live by choice in a tower block. What's more, the main argument in favour of tower blocks is that we need high density housing, but there are better alternatives - as explained in this interview with the experts from The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment.
There are a couple of other reasons why the Arcade tower block in particular - which developer St Modwen and LBWF council plan to be around 18 storeys - would be disastrous for central Walthamstow. For starters, it will contain a massive Primark, which would put many small shops and traders on Walthamstow Market out of business. And it is also due to include a VUE multiplex cinema... and while Walthamstow certainly needs a cinema, the right place for it is undoubtedly the highly listed EMD/Granada two doors away. A multiplex in the Arcade development would be the final nail in the coffin for plans to get the beautiful EMD reopened.
What do we propose instead? Put simply, we think the council - which owns the land - needs to go back to the drawing board. And this time it needs to: a) genuinely involve the community in the design process; b) come up with a low-rise design that includes facilities that the community wants and needs; and c) balance the need to recoup money from the site with the need for a quality development that residents want - right now the council is simply planning to sell to the highest bidder!
[Many thanks to the Walthamstow Guardian for the use of the photo. It was taken by David Edwards and is copyright Newsquest]
St Modwen flags are coming down
Haha! As suspected, the arrogant St Modwen flags on the Arcade site are indeed illegal because they don't have advertisement consent.
Responding to our complaint, a council officer said: "The matter has been raised with St Modwen who have undertaken to remove the flags at this time. They have however indicated that they will be making an application for advertisement consent to put them back, and we will consult on this in the usual way." He adds that the flags should be down by early next week.
Hmm, small victories. But this isn't just about the illegal flags themselves... although they are pretty obnoxious. It's about the fact that St Modwen have pitched up in Walthamstow and think they can act like they own the place. They've put up hoardings that boast they will be on site in Spring 2009 but they haven't even applied for planning permission yet, let alone got it. They make it sound like it's a done deal. Trust us, it isn't!
Thursday, 22 May 2008
Could St Modwen's plans be delayed?
Arcade site preferred developer St Modwen has delayed plans for revamping Hatfield town centre, blaming "the unstable state of the finance, retail and property markets", according to this Herts 24 news story.
Could this happen to their tower block plans for Walthamstow? We very much hope so... but a delay isn't enough. We're hoping that the impending housing crash will make the council and St Modwen do a complete u-turn on their plans.
What Walthamstow really needs is for the council to go back to the drawing board - this time with genuine involvement of local residents and market traders - and to come up with a scheme that will actually be good for Walthamstow. Time and again councillors and officers have come up with plans that won't work, and that never materialise anyway. Locals seem to have a much better idea of what Walthamstow needs - so why don't they just ask?!
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
St Modwen's Arcade site flags illegal!
It turns out that St Modwen isn't allowed to fly those horrid big flags on the Arcade site! We've consulted a planning expert who tells us that flags are regulated under advertisement consent, not planning permission, but that a developer is only allowed to fly such flags on site once they have full planning permission for the development itself. St Modwen hasn't even applied for planning permission yet.
We're not in the least bit surprised. Flying corporate flags illegally fits perfectly with a developer that arrogantly boasts that it will be working on site in Spring 2009 (almost as if the council has promised that it will get planning permission...). Ordinarily a council would serve an enforcement notice on a developer for putting up flags illegally, but because they're working together we're guessing the council is unlikely to do so unless we remind them.
So... we have complained to the council and asked them to get St Modwen to take those flags down at once! If you're furious about them too, please send a quick email saying so as well - to LBWF's assistant director for development Shifa Mustafa and CC it to the cabinet members for environment Cllr Bob Belam and regeneration Cllr Terry Wheeler.
Many thanks to the resident who tipped us off about this. Please everyone keep all those ideas and relevant newspaper clips coming!
Antiscrap: Calling all artists
Fab campaign group Antiscrap is organising an exhibition for the E17 Art Trail called "State of the Borough 2008" (a response to the council's invitation only non-debate of the same name) and are asking artists to give vent to their feelings about the state of Waltham Forest... celebrate life here, get involved with the debate, produce mock film posters, postcards, prints, paintings or what you will.
For example, they've suggested local campaigns could translate their messages into art works: a film poster for "Withering Heights" from Fight the Height, a "wish you were here postcard" from the St James St library, a "where are they now" set of photos for all the closed and missing cinemas, etc.
Entries have to be ready for hanging on Friday the 5th of September, they must be in wooden frames with mirror plates. The exhibition will be in the indoor market in Wood St, where the "Inspired by William Morris Exhibition" was held last year. If you would like submit work or request further information drop an e-mail to exhibition@antiscrap.co.uk
So... if you feel inspired to contribute, whether for Fight The Height or with something else, drop them a line! We'd certainly love to see artists respond to the monstrous tower blocks planned for Walthamstow and the lack of council foresight that will see a multiplex and a giant Primark where locals want to see a reopened EMD and shops that compliment Walthamstow market and trigger real regeneration not corporate .
