Stop the Islington City Road Basin 'Redevelopment' Plot
Joy Bailey's letter & how to scupper the FOGSP ploy

Joy Bailey, a resident of the adjacent Jesspo's Court, organised the leaflet many of you received about the Park Plot.

Here is Joy Bailey's letter. The emphasis has been added by your webmaster:-

Dear Friends,

I am writing to thank you for your reply to our leaflet about the Graham Street Park, and to tell you the latest position. We have received a very large response. Nearly 80 people replied to agree that the park should be kept intact.

There is good news and bad news. As a result of the enormous local opposition to the original proposals, the length of the proposed new flats along Graham Street has been shortened. This means that the Graham Street Park will now have a longer frontage on to Graham Street.

However, a substantial slice of the park and the open space on Graham Street will still be lost. The flats will extend up to Coomb Street, which is way beyond the existing buildings they are replacing. The whole of the kick-about area and a large slice of the children’s playground will be built over. All the trees and bushes and play equipment along this frontage of the park will be ripped up and replaced by a seven story building.

This scheme is part of the City Road Basin Masterplan which the Council is currently producing. Copies of your comments are being sent to the second stage of the consultation on the Masterplan, and will be handed in to the Council as a petition at the next Council meeting.

I have questioned Cllr Steve Hitchins and the architects responsible for the Masterplan about why they are so determined to give away a large chunk of the park to the developers. They say:

  • It is OK to build on this bit of park, because it is not a very nice bit of park anyway, and the kick around area is not used much.
  • There will be extra green space along the basin behind the new flats, and some more beside the new flats on Wharf Road (on the other side of the basin).

These are not logical answers, and they do not justify giving away Islington’s precious existing Green Space to developers, for the following reasons:

  • If this bit of the park is not very nice – improve it. If the kick around area is not used very much, replace if with another play or recreational facility that will be used more. Building a 7 storey block of flats on it will not improve it.
  • This will be a huge new residential development with many hundreds of new flats all around the basin. It will make large profits for the developers. The very least that the people of Islington can expect in return is some new green space along the basin and on Wharf Road, as part of the “planning gain”. There is no need to give away some of our existing space in exchange.

Cllr Hitchins admits that Islington is only just off the bottom of the league table of boroughs with the least green space in Europe.
Why does he want to give away green space we already have?

If you would like to do more to help our campaign please tell the Council,

“ We do not want you to give up any of our precious green space in Islington for developers to build on. We should retain all of the existing green area including the kick around area, and gain more as well.”

  • A new organisation is being established to watch over the development of our local park:
    The Friends of Graham Street Park.
    We recommend that you join this organisation if you want to influence the way the park is developed and managed.

To join "The Friends of Graham Street Park" contact: Greenspace on 020 7527 4953
or e mail: bob.gilbert@islington.gov.uk

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URL: http://www.art-science.com/crb/joy.html Last revised 14/3/2004

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