More than a hundred people turned out to shape the future of one of Hackney’s most diverse and vibrant streets, Chatsworth Road in Clapton.
Over the last two weeks, the Chatsworth Road Neighbourhood Forum has held four workshops for residents to share their concerns and suggestions for the area.
The feedback from these workshops will form a ‘neighbourhood plan’ which, subject to a referendum, will be adopted by the Council.
High among residents’ priorities is keeping Chatsworth Road free of chain supermarkets.
Apart from a few betting shops, the street has only independent stores.
Jon Alderton, 63, who has lived in Clapton since 1990, said:
“Chatsworth Road is fairly unique in London as being a High Street which doesn’t have chain shops, that doesn’t have a Sainsbury’s local or a Tesco Metro or a Morrisons whatever they’re calling them. People like that.”
He added:
“In some ways it’s one of London’s last real High Streets. It’s a whole mix of individual and sometimes quite quirky shops.“
There are fears though that the tough economic climate will harm these independent stores
Robbie de Santos, a member of the forum, said:
“A big issue for the future is ‘Will business rents go up and make it unviable for the kind of businesses we know and love in our area to stay afloat?’”
The forums focussed on five key areas; jobs, shopping, housing, getting around and amenities.
For each of these subjects, there was a large map where residents stuck post it notes outlining their concerns.
A wide range of issues was raised, from jobs for young people to worries that the market was becoming too expensive.
In such a burgeoning and diverse area, there are inevitably contrasting views about how Chatsworth Road should develop.
None the less, there is general agreement its overall diversity should be retained and encouraged.
Residents and workers also agree that community dialogue is important.
Shameen Vessamia, owner of A&S cycles on Chatsworth Road, said:
“It’s really good that we are having these forums and getting local people involved.”
Euan Mills, 33, chairman of the forum was pleased with turnout and quality of the discussion.
He said that one resident’s suggestion of a monorail was probably not suitable though.
Ben, did you go to the workshops?
Anthony,
But that “consultation” will never be representative. The assertions that “High among residents’ priorities is keeping Chatsworth Road free of chain supermarkets”, is an example of that. I heard the same rubbish when Tesco announced its plans to open an Express store by Clapton Pond. A campaign group emerged (headed by the same old faces) claiming “Clapton Pond says ‘No’ to Tesco”, and yet as soon as it opened local residents flocked there in great numbers. It is precisely the mainstream appeal of chain supermarkets that some middle-class residents object to.
We all know that such consultations disproportionately attract the participation of more affluent, property-owning middle class populus. Please, let’s stop pretending that these suggestions are representative of the whole community.
The group’s “vision” includes aspirations to values which include ‘Accessibility’, ‘Diversity’ and ‘Sustainability’, and yet, as I’ve mentioned before, their desired model is Stoke Newington Church St, ie, the least accessible, least diverse high street in Hackney. On the other hand the most accessible, diverse and probably sustainable stores are local chain supermarkets.
It is obviously difficult to translate a number of suggestions from residents into coherent policies, but I suggest it is problematic when that is done via some “distillation” process – with its inherent confirmation bias (disproportionately identifying evidence that reflects ones own ideas) – by Euan Mills.
A free-market isn’t a perfectly democratic system – it is obviously already biased to those with money – but when you start to block demonstrable popular businesses which compete on price you create a marketplace which is grossly exclusive.
Ben, the only agenda these guys have is to give their spare time to the community to make it better for everyone.
For instance, ‘opposing chain supermarkets’ isn’t a policy, unless that’s what people want. It might be a suggestion by Euan Mills, or a fervently held belief. Whatever his opinion, it is only one of however many live in the catchment area. A neighbourhood plan can’t have legitimacy if it is just the opinions of a local ‘visionary’ who has steamrollered the wishes of the local community.
Did you go to the workshops? There are many people like you who care about the direction of the area, but are understandably sceptical of the motives of these do gooders. Once one goes and talks to these people like Mills et al, one finds that many of one’s fears are unfounded.
Robbie
The Chatsworth Road agenda is about creating exclusivity as a catalyst to gentrification. The urban planning model worshipped by Euan Mills and his colleagues is that of Stoke Newington Church Street which is the most exclusive, least accessible, least diverse of any of Hackney’s high streets. That is not a coincidence. More here;
http://www.chatsworthroade5.co.uk/forum/#/20121112/the-crtra-planning-vision-2036555/
Hi Robbie,
Now the workshops are finished, how is the consultation going? Overall, what are the main conclusions you’ve drawn? Any surprises?
Henry
Hi Ben,
This is just the very first part of the process of developing the neighbourhood plan, and there will be lots of opportunities for people to feed in. We had substantially more than a hundred people turn up and hundreds and hundreds of comments! As you might imagine from an area as diverse as ours, lots and lots of different views, all of which will be taken into account.
If you live in the area make sure you come to the next events (not yet sure when they’ll be) or feed in your views on the Chatsworth Road website.
Robbie
If, out of the large catchment area of the proposed forum, only “more than a hundred” turned out over four days, surely this does not suggest a credible amount of support from the community to be affected.
Opposing chain supermarkets will only make the high street increasingly expensive, niche and exclusive as many residents are already stating loudly.
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