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We usually meet on Monday evenings, either at the Pueblito Paisa cafe in the market, at the Polish cafe Pause just round the corner in Seven Sisters Road, or at The Garden House / Kitap Evi, 410 Tottenham High Rd, N17 9JB (just past the Police Station, about 1/2 mile up the High Road). Please check our Facebook page for current info. (You don't need to be a FB member to read it.)
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The Wards Corner Community Coalition (WCC) is a grassroots organisation working to stop the demolition of the homes, businesses and indoor market above Seven Sisters tube station and fighting the attempts of Grainger PLC to force out the local community. Active since 2007 the WCC has been working to empower the community in Seven Sisters to take control of its future and determine how Wards Corner should be developed.

The WCC continues to fight for a fairer future and has received planning permission for a sustainable, community-led development of the Wards Corner Site. So far we have detailed plans for the indoor market and corner store. In the long term we will work on the other three corners of the Wards site to restore and improve this town centre that has been neglected for over forty years by Transport for London and Haringey Council.C || ||

We still **owe £29,000 for legal fees** for putting our case at the inquiry into the Compulsory Purchase Order. We are gradually paying it back but it's taking a long time. There is no legal aid for such work. Our crowdfunder is still open at tinyurl.com/savewcc We raised the first £20k for the research before the CPO hearing, the rest is the cost incurred at the inquiry - and is from special concessionary rates from our lawyers. We were opposed by two QCs who are on £1000 an hour, paid for by Grainger and the council (ie council tax payers) []  and here is the interview with the UN guy that Jon Snow did afterwards.  []
 * Channel Four News ** included a report on 26th October about the market, including a live interview with the UN rapporteur Surya Deva. Thanks to film maker Daniel Davies. Links to view it here:
 * Channel Four News ** included a report on 26th October about the market, including a live interview with the UN rapporteur Surya Deva. Thanks to film maker Daniel Davies. Links to view it here:

== The Compulsory Purchase Order was served by the council, in order to force the sale of the site and allow Grainger to commence demolition. This CPO inquiry finished its three-week hearing in July and the result will be available in six to nine months after this. This was a very costly process and therefore was a very unbalanced tribunal. But with our limited resources, we put up an excellent defence which involved the backing from an eminent artist and the support of the United Nations. We have someone who wishes to take over the lease for the building and the market, but Transport for London and the Council are refusing to cooperate. We still owe money to the legal team and are in urgent need of funds. We have already raised over £20,000, but need much more to cover the legal cost of the CPO. You can donate via this crowd funding site: [|https://www.youcaring.com/latinvillagewardscorner-714518]or (short form) tinyurl.com/savewcc Grainger would have you think that the Seven Sisters Market is in safe hands and that it will be rehoused in their plan. This could not be further from the truth. Grainger have employed a market manager who is working hard at getting rid of the market by pricing out the current traders. At present, he is hiking up their utility bills and then serving eviction notices. Transport for London refused to give the market lease to the traders, despite their higher offer. Our barrister proved that the market cannot survive this and the two relocations and the future rent rises. Grainger will then be free to obtain a bigger return from this valuable site. We do have an alternative community plan to restore this building and preserve the market. Go to Community Plan in sidebar on the right >>> and click on WARDS CORNER COMMUNITY PLAN for further information. We are currently working on updating the plan as it ran out of time. The Grainger plan is not just for the market. Their plan encompasses West Green Rd, Suffield Rd, and Seven Sisters Rd. This has meant evictions for all those living on this site. These evictions have been badly executed and has resulted in some shocking stories of cruelty and insensitivity against single mothers, refugees, and vulnerable people. This is social injustice of the highest order. =**_**= =**CPO Inquiry**= https://haringey.public-i.tv/core/portal/home
 * Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) **
 * Update on Seven Sisters Market **
 * The Community Plan **
 * The Bigger Picture **
 * Live webcasts are shown on the Haringey website and can be viewed there for several months:**

Rather that paste in long reports here, please see our FB page as linked above, or follow our posts on the local forum, Harringay Online: (latest first) Thursday: http://www.harringayonline.com/forum/topics/day-three-of-the-wards-corner-cpo-public-inquiry Wednesday: http://www.harringayonline.com/forum/topics/two-days-of-the-wards-corner-cpo-done?xg_source=activity Monday: http://www.harringayonline.com/forum/topics/wards-corner-cpo-public-inquiry-begins?xg_source=activity

=**CPO Inquiry - the Public Inquiry begins Tuesday.**=

This is the provisional timetable. Most of the first week 11th to 14th is their case, the second week 18th to 21st is our resistance, the third week 25th to 28th July is London Underground, who own part of the site, and winding up.

Attached is the provisional timetable. Nearest tube Wood Green, the 243 bus goes to there from Seven Sisters in about 1/2 hour, then ten minute walk.
 * It's at the Wood Green Civic Centre, High Road,** N22 8LE



== =**Salsa Shutdown**=
 * Please encourage everyone to come and be witness, it is open to the public. Twelve days altogether, Tuesdays to Fridays 11th to 28th July, 9.30 to 5.30**

The second Salsa Shutdown for Seven Sisters happened on Sunday 25th June. It was a fundraiser towards the legal costs of objecting to the Compulsory Purchase Order for Wards Corner. The inquiry will run from 11th to 28th July, Tuesdays to Fridays, at Wood Green Civic Centre. The developer Grainger has assets of £2.8 billion. There is no legal aid for CPO’s. The campaign to defend Wards Corner and the Latin Market can only pay for the barristers it needs by fundraising, and they are still short by about £10,000 of the cost of having a barrister throughout the hearing. The council and Grainger each have a QC (the council’s paid for from Council Tax) and their job will be to cross-examine the witnesses. Not something most of campaigners look forward to, so the more they can have their barrister to support them, the more fair it will be. Please help if you can via [|this crowdfunder site]. The serious hard work of all this dancing raised about £250, many thanks to all contributors.

=**The CPO Inquiry begins**=


 * On Wednesday 3rd May, the pre-inquiry meeting to set out the terms for the Inquiry, was held in the Wood Green Civic Centre.**


 * Here are the minutes from that meeting. [[file:PIM notes - PO.doc]]**

The Inquiry will be at that place from 11th July, Tuesdays to Fridays, for three weeks ie to 28th July.

The documents for the case are being uploaded to http://seven-sisters.persona-pi.com/. Persona is the company that does the admin for this CPO.

The Grainger/Council Statement of Case is on the Documents page. We have submitted our response, it's not on that website yet so we have attached it here. We have till 9TH MAY, to respond with any obvious omissions. Then till 20th June to submit all our final statements.

This is a big pdf file, 52 pages.

All comments welcome, email wardscornercommunity@riseup.net

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzFcb78S0Pw
 * See this great short video of the Hug and Salsa Shutdown**
 * See this great short video of the Hug and Salsa Shutdown**


 * On Saturday 8th April** we are having a day full of events at Wards Corner, 2 to 4pm. We want to repeat our 2008 action of surrounding the block, to give it a hug. We need about 500 people for this, so please come along. We're having a salsa band, dancing, children's music, and lots of updating for those who want to catch up with the campaign. Please join us and bring everyone you know. Right on top of Seven Sisters tube station.
 * On Saturday 8th April** we are having a day full of events at Wards Corner, 2 to 4pm. We want to repeat our 2008 action of surrounding the block, to give it a hug. We need about 500 people for this, so please come along. We're having a salsa band, dancing, children's music, and lots of updating for those who want to catch up with the campaign. Please join us and bring everyone you know. Right on top of Seven Sisters tube station.




 * We now have the dates for the Public Inquiry on the CPO.** There will be a preliminary hearing on **Wednesday 3rd May**, where the Inspector will consider what is involved. Then the Inquiry proper in July for three weeks. Tuesdays to Fridays, **11th July to 28th July.** So thirteen days, where will will need to pay a barrister to defend us.
 * We now have the dates for the Public Inquiry on the CPO.** There will be a preliminary hearing on **Wednesday 3rd May**, where the Inspector will consider what is involved. Then the Inquiry proper in July for three weeks. Tuesdays to Fridays, **11th July to 28th July.** So thirteen days, where will will need to pay a barrister to defend us.

All this is planned to be at Wood Green Civic Centre, which is far from ideal. We were told before that the hearing would be at the local college or the old Town Hall, both of which are just five minutes' walk from Wards Corner. The Civic Centre is at least two bus rides away, so it is much more difficult for those affected to go except for whole days. Another unfair move by Haringey Council.

We need people to come to the hearings, so please note these dates in your diary.


 * Please support our legal challenge to prevent evictions at Seven Sisters**

Dear friends,

The time has come to challenge the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) for Wards Corner - Haringey Council have issued a CPO to help the developer Grainger force the sale shops and homes at Seven Sisters.


 * We have launched a crowdfunder to raise some of the £1000s we need for legal fees to challenge the CPO. PLEASE circulate this link on all your networks - FB, twitter, snapchat, all of them. If you can donate, even better. **


 * [] is the short form, easy to send. **

Grainger need the CPO to happen so they can demolish the whole block and build private flats. No social housing, not even 'affordable'. Meanwhile Grainger is going ahead on the opposite corner, with building a huge tower block, 23 storeys, with 165 private flats, replacing the council's Customer Service facility Apex House.


 * We have a better plan. ** Rather than just saying No to demolition, we have an alternative. Our Community Plan would restore the building and open the 2446m2 of closed-up space above the market and in the 1910 corner store. //This also has planning permission from Haringey Council.// If they and Transport for London would work with the community, we can create a brilliant resource with much improved market, an arts centre, starter workshops, a restaurant and office space; it will become a tourism magnet. Directly above Seven Sisters underground station, it is just 13 minutes from Oxford Circus. It will save the unique indoor market which has become home-from-home to many of London's Latin American people, the market will not survive the double displacement and rent hikes that the Grainger plan would effect. Our plan has financial backing, we can't wait to get started but need the CPO is out of the way; we've waited four years already since getting planning permission. We know we can bring Wards Corner back to a new life.

In addition to the market, the Grainger plan will mean the demolition of the whole town centre - ten shops including the Beauty Shop with flats above, other cafes, and twelve homes in Suffield Road.

 The CPO will now go to a public enquiry, in March/April. This is run by an independent Inspector. It has to judge whether the CPO - ie forcibly taking property - would be more in the public interest than not. We have a very strong case for the CPO being refused. But Grainger and Haringey Council will each have teams of barristers and solicitors, possibly QCs. There is no funding available via Legal Aid to challenge a CPO. Objectors - us - will be cross-examined by these lawyers - not a prospect most of us would relish. But Shepherds Bush market recently won against a CPO, this is a far from done deal, though the council and the developer are treating us as if they can just push ahead regardless. The council Leader said last month that 'Wards Corner is an eyesore' - so why haven't they and Transport for London (which owns the market site) done better since the Wards store was closed up in 1973? 43 years, all that wasted space and time...

We love the film at the fundraiser! It's only about the market, we will be making more information available in this next few weeks. []

<span style="font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">Thank you for your support and solidarity over the years,

<span style="font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">Wards Corner Community Coalition

Please see www.tinyurl.com/wccCPOno for lots of info The Compulsory Purchase Order by the Council to support the Grainger bid for the site has now been activated. We need all our supporters to join us in challenging this CPO. There is every chance it can be overturned, there have been some important precedents of this lately, notably at Shepherds Bush Market. The council and Grainger have to prove that there would be greater public benefit from the demolition, than not - so this is our chance to both detail the harm demolition would do, and to show what great possibilities there are for the site if our restoration plan is finally supported by this Labour council.

Thank you to the 2000 people who challenged the CPO.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">Sadly, under the much-abused misnomer of ‘ [|Seven Sisters Regeneration] ’ Haringey Council is pushing ahead with the ill-conceived plans to demolish the local heritage buildings located at Wards Corner, South Tottenham. Since council-backed, private developer Grainger has failed to acquire all the properties on the open market, Haringey Council has started the formal Compulsory Purchase Order process in order to attempt to assemble the site required to pursue this destructive development. This means that long-standing, independent, Tottenham business owners risk being expropriated in favour of a large corporate entity for a project that a sizeable part of the local community is against. The project has debatable regeneration benefits and architectural merit and would have devastating heritage effects in this important conservation area. There is more information [|here] on the Council’s own website. Or look on [|www.haringey.gov.uk/wards-corner].

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;"> The Council continues to claim that demolishing the neglected, beautiful and interesting buildings of the ex-Wards Corner Department store, the Beauty Shop and the Tottenham Wines on West Green road and building a bland and generic, seven storey, glass-fronted building will improve the area. If it does go ahead it will be another chip out of Tottenham’s disintegrating Historic Corridor.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;"> There is still hope that the other plan, the Community Plan may see the light. The Trust, formed to renovate our cherished market and neglected historic buildings, continues its work.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;"> Objections to the CPO were made to the National Planning Casework Unit, 5 St Philips Place, Colmore Row, Birmingham B3 2PW.

As it is our town centre then I think we all have an interest in the land. The deadline of 21st October has now passed, we are now waitng for the date of the enquiry.

On Thursday 25th February 2016, we had a party/launch event for the next stage of our Action Plan to regenerate the Indoor Market. It was at Zumbale, 263 High Road, N15 4RR - just past Costas,+ opposite Tescos. There was an introduction to the project, and a display of Columbian dance and music. 7pm to 9pm.

To see the Community Plan as passed by the Haringey Council planning committee, go here.


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<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">https://cc.stickyworld.com/room/presentation?roomid=11#work/122

<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The project is a collaboration between WCC, the Open University's Engineering and Innovation Department and the Royal College of Art. It is part of a larger study, entitled ‘Media, Community and the Creative Citizen’, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under the Connected Communities programme. The aim is to explore new and innovative ways to engage local people in participatory planning. || oooooooooooooo o || <span style="color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">00000000000000000000 || ||


 * = **<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Tranquillity in Tottenham **

Have a look at the rest here
 * Prints & cards for sale **

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<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 180%;">media type="custom" key="10035665" <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 905px; width: 1px;">onight Haringey's Planning Committee will consider Grainger's latest proposal for Wards Corner.ake sure to come along and show the Council and Grainger that we wont stand for any plan that destroys local independent business, destroys livelihoods and forces people out of their homes. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 905px; width: 1px;">The meeting will be held in the Civic Centre, Woodgreen at 7pm. We will be gathering outside from 6:30. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 905px; width: 1px;">This morning the Wards Corner Community Coalition sent every councillor a detailed objection to Grainger's proposals, making it clear that the plan is unviable, unsustainable and unwanted. Follow the link below to read it. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 905px; width: 1px;">[link to objection uploaded to our website? <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 905px; width: 1px;">If you havn't objected to Grainger's plan yet there is still time! You can submit your objections by following this link: <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 905px; width: 1px;">http://www.planningservices.haringey.gov.uk/portal/servlets/ApplicationSearchServlet?PKID=2596 <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 905px; width: 1px;">There is also a template objection letter on our webs <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 905px; width: 1px;">http://wardscorner.wikispaces.com/Grainger+2012+application