Stop the Islington City Road Basin 'Redevelopment' Plot |
Last updated 16/4/2004
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Islington Council have rightly decided that City Road Basin is ripe for redevelopment & have allegedly commissioned a 'master plan' for the basin. Nothing wrong with that, except that the plan which has been circulated seems to include all the developers' dreams & none of those of the local people! Update 8-3-2004 At the South-West Area Committee, the architects presented a revised plan which still showed half the Childrens' Playground swiped by the developers, who can only surely put an extra 6 flats on it, woth a couple of million. The Council said they would reinstate the playground but ex-Cllr. Keith Sharpe naively suggested the formation of a 'Friends of Graham Street Park'. In your webmaster's opinion, the Leader of the Council immediately saw the possibilities of this: by packing the Friends with existing flat-owners & Liberal Democrat members, the FOGSP would doubtless campaign not to have any Childrens' Playground at all, as the people in these tiny 'luxury flats' do not have children. Go to this link to find out how to scupper this plot. Read Eric Sorensen's brilliant analysis for the Angel Association on this link. |
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This (left) is the model they have been showing. Note the green strip on the right. This shows two blocks of flats along Graham Street. The first (further) block is unobjectionable. The second is built on the Childrens' Playground. The revised scheme 'only' takes half the playground! |
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| Islington is one of the London Boroughs with the worst provision of public open space. As can be seen from the photo (right above) of Graham Street, the gardens with the playground provider a valuable 'lung' of open space (marked 'A'). There are already new 'luxury' flats (i.e. poky but expensive) to the left & more being built to the right. Yet, the market for 'luxury' flats is saturated locally. The new plan does not envisage any change to the hideous Electricity sub-station marked 'B' on the photo. | ||
Despite the plan not yet having been adopted, the Council are already changing the gardens. The bushes & little shelter have gone. |
Half the threatened Childrens' Playground. |
Gates to the kick-about area still locked after 10am, when they should have been opened. The Council are trying to create 'facts' to say it is not used. |
The gardens from Pickford's Wharf. Half of this is saved under the new plan. |
The Electricity Offices (centre) will be replaced by flats (ok) but the public access strip seems the same narrow width in the new scheme as the path is here (on the other side). |
From the City Road. This private open space will become public, because the developers want to put 32 story towers of flats either side of it. |
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What can we do about this? The Council have circulated their expensively-produced leaflet to a few (not all) of the nearby houses. Make sure you get your copy from the Town Hall. Make sure all your neighbours know about this dreadful plan. |
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Who is responsible for Urban Regeneration in Islington? Who knows? |
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URL: http://www.art-science.com/crb/index.html Sponsored by ASL in the public interest. Its web site is stuffed full of interesting things |