28+November+2007+-+Meeting+with+Grainger+Report

Dear All

I have been v. remiss in not circulating a note about last week's meeting at Tottenham Town Hall between (on the one hand) the Bridge New Deal for Communities, Grainger (the council's preferred developer for Wards Corner) and their architect, and (on the other hand) various residents associations, TCS (i.e., me) and representatives of the traders and shopkeepers who will be affected by the redevelopment of the site.

The mood of the meeting was initially fairly edgy, with hostility being directed at Grainger and the NDC, although as the meeting went on much of the hostility was transferred to the NDC alone. It seemed clear to me that the Grainger personnel felt somewhat embarrassed at have been dropped in it by the NDC, having hitherto been proceeding (I assume) on the assumption that the NDC had been keeping the community informed at every step of the way....but for the NDC individual chairing the meeting to admit almost at the start of it that, six years on from being set up in 2001, it was time to bring people into what they were doing.

!!!!

Grainger and their architect (who bore some resemblance to a younger Michael Palin) had set up to talk us through the history of the redevelopment proposals for the site, but all present said they were familiar with that and wanted to cut straight to the discussion. A truncated presentation nevertheless indicated that while the initial (2002-2003) design sketches had included passage through the site from all four sides (as in the alternative plan) LBHaringey had said that it didn't want a public space in the centre of the block because of fear of crime; and LBHaringey's instructions to the developer had been for a comprehensive plan which did not retain or conserve any of the existing buildings (which thus contradicts the planning brief's statement that the former Wards Department Store building should be retained if possible).

The outline design has also been varied since it was first put to an Area Assembly meeting in May; instead of two eight-storey towers at the corners of the High Road frontage, the proposal is now for four-five storey blocks wrapping around the Seven Sisters Road and West Green Road corners. Grainger and their architect said that the chief problem they had with the site was the closeness of the Underground Station's ticket hall to the surface (it's only one metre down) and thus the need to keep the loading in the centre of the site as low as possible; this in turn had meant that the required number of residential units could only be achieved by building upwards....which would cost more, meaning a need to add more height in order to have more residential units to sell....which meant the development would cost more, and so on ad infinitum. (Offering fewer residential units and keeping the building low did not seem to have occurred to them.) The current drawings had what the architect described as "quiet massing" (i.e., unadorned facades) on the Seven Sisters Road and West Green Road corners, but were still some way from being finalised; Grainger thought that their formal application would not now be made until early next year.

(The NDC individual chairing the meeting said, inter alia, that the problems caused by the Underground Station's ticket hall were one of the reasons it had voted money to Grainger, as without these subventions it would not have been willing to continue paying the architect to produce successive designs, and would therefore have pulled out. The NDC carefully avoided mentioning how much had been voted in this fashion, but none of those present felt inclined to reopen this contentious subject.)

The status of the second floor garden space was clarified: it would still have only one entrance from the street, but this would be to ensure that only the residents had access to it via a secure entry system -- in other words, it would be a gated community. The architect tried to argue against our use of this term ("it's the same as being able to lock your front door") but was not at all convincing. It was also clarified that although the ground floor retail units facing onto the High Road would be quite large, those on Seven Sisters and West Green Roads would be smaller and intended for local businesses. The point was made that the local businesses to be evicted from Wards Corner to make way for the redevelopment were unlikely to return, since they would have lost their customer base and have closed down, and that the rents likely to be charged would (because of the need to recoup the redevelopment costs) be more than local businesses could afford. I also made the point to the Grainger representatives after the meeting (because we'd run out of time and the LBHaringey personnel present wanted to close up the Town Hall so they could go home for the evening) that high street chains were unlikely to take space in the High Road retail units because they would perceive Seven Sisters as primarily a transport interchange and recognise that people arriving to catch a bus or train would not suddenly decide to go shopping instead.

The Grainger representatives said that the redevelopment would take a minimum of two years to complete. I said in response that this would seriously compromise people's perception of the safety of the area (particularly after dark on a winter evening, even with other transport users around) and that without commercial activity to colonise the pavement area there would be a return of the anti-social behaviour and low-level crime which had previously blighted the area. The perception of the area as unsafe would probably persist well beyond the completion of the building work, and make it very difficult to attract meaningful (never mind) quality commercial activity to the area; as a landmark gateway, therefore, it would fail. I pointed to the example of Wood Green, where an open-air market opposite the Underground Station had been replaced by a multiplex cinema, a large "chain" pub and an expanse of blank pavement: the area was now a hotspot for pickpocketry and similar activity and was similarly considered a failure.

One very interesting comment was made by Wendy Keenan of the Fountain Area Residents Association, viz: Seven Sisters is ten minutes by Underground from Kings Cross/St Pancras, which is now less than two hours by Eurostar from Paris and Brussels. Seven Sisters is therefore not just a gateway to Tottenham but a gateway to Europe -- and yet all LBHaringey can think of putting on the site is a couple of blocks of flats. As a systemic failure of vision and imagination, this surely takes some beating.

Joseph Nicholas Tottenham Civic Society