I Don’t Think Peabody Are To Blame For This…

Bexley residents opposing plans to demolish their homes have been given notice to end their occupation of empty homes in the area in order to object to a scheme to deliver nearly 2,000 new units on the site.Protestors have been occupying homes on the Lesnes Estate in Thamesmead for five months in the hopes of blocking plans for Peabody to build 1,950 new homes.

But I thought everyone was in favour of cramming more and more tiny rabbit hutches onto every singlr square inch of London? Have the press been lying to me again? 

Maria Ivanova, 72, has lived on the Lesnes Estate with her son since purchasing her home there in 2007."At this time, my family from Bulgaria visits me every summer. For the last two years they said this area has never been so dirty. It’s full of waste on the streets. It’s like nobody lives here… This rubbish stays there. There are flies and there is a smell when you pass it.”

And are Peabody doing that, Maria? Or is it someone else? 

The homeowner claimed she felt the slow decline of the estate had been done intentionally by Peabody. Pictures seen by the LDRS show multiple cars on the estate with broken windows as well as a variety of fly-tipped household items including mattresses, bathtubs, chests of drawers and armchairs left in both communal areas and gardens of derelict homes.

Flytippers, Maria. The sort of people that make up your neighbourhood, most likely. Not the housing firm.  

I Guess We Don't Have A Council Housing Crisis After All...

A 'house of horrors' where a 'truly evil' monster murdered his pregnant partner and three children with a claw hammer is set to be demolished after the killer was jailed for life.

North East Derbyshire District Council, which owns the property valued at roughly £100,000, came to the decision after tenants in the adjoining home in Killamarsh asked to leave.

Not if we can indulge in such utterly pointless gestures. Not that there isn't precedent, of course. Lots of it.

...a spokesman added that the building would be replaced with a 'fitting commemoration' to those who lost their lives there on September 19 last year.

Two houses lost to the council stock for what..? 

And The Beat Goes On...

It's never ending, is it?

Haslington councillor Steve Edgar (Con) said: “Of all the applications I’ve seen, this is one of the better ones. It has its faults, it has its problems, it’s not perfect, they never are, but overall I think it’s a good application.”

He moved the recommendation that it be approved. Seven councillors voted for approval, two voted against and two abstained.

I'm assuming the 'Con' stands for conservative, but maybe it's more a reflection on what they are doing to us all...

End Of An Era...

Bristol Zoo has provided animal magic to its visitors for 186 years – so successfully, in fact, that it even became the setting for the TV show of the same name.

But now – after welcoming 90million people and having saved 175 species from extinction through its conservation work – it is to close for good.

What a shame. I visited this about 20 years ago, and it was a fabulous zoo, on a par with London zoo as it is now.  

Its animals will go to a new zoo at Bristol Zoological Society’s Wild Place Project near the city after it shuts on September 3.

Well, at least that's something... 

Parts of the site will become housing... 

To squeeze humans into spaces so small, if the former site inhabitants were housed there, the protestors would never leave! 

...but the gardens will remain open to the public.

Dr Justin Morris, the society’s chief executive, said: ‘This is our legacy. They will remain an important destination for people to visit and enjoy.’

Until they become a litter-strewn spot for drug deals, that is.

The money from the sale will pay for the new Bristol Zoo, which is due to open in 2024.

Wait, where will the animals go in the intervening year and a bit? 

The Developer's Gravy Train Hits The Buffers...

Plans to buy land for new homes around the controversial Beam Park development and in Rainham have been dropped.

After receiving legal advice and consulting with the planning inspectorate, on December 2 Havering Council decided to withdraw the compulsory purchase order (CPO) it initially made in 2019.

And it all revoles around that important - and often missing - element: infrastructure. Or rather, the lack of it. 

Last month, the council asked the inspectorate to delay the CPO inquiry while the Greater London Authority (GLA) and Department for Transport (DfT) discussed the future of Beam Park Station, which has remained uncertain since September 2021.

However, the planning inspectorate recommended the CPO be dropped until a decision around the proposed station has been made.

Without a nearby station, who'd buy a home there? Given that the GLA and TfL are so hostile to drivers, you'd be mad to, especially if you worked in London. 

Beam Park station was initially included in the council’s 2016 Local Plan before being taken over in 2018 by the GLA, which picked two developers to build up to 9,000 homes around it.

In September, Dagenham and Rainham MP Jon Cruddas wrote to the DfT seeking assurance after hearing rumours the station had been axed.

On October 6, transport minister Chris Heaton-Harris informed him the department had never given support for the station.

Oops! 

Mr Heaton-Harris has claimed the GLA were told as early as 2017 the business case for the station was “very poor” and the department had made it clear it would not approve the station unless it was held immune “in perpetuity” from financial risk relating to the project.

It's always wise to follow the money, isn't it? 

A spokesperson for the DfT reiterated its position on immunity from financial risk but said it fully supported the housing development in Beam Park.

They said the financial offer proposed by the GLA did not cover the full risk the department believes Beam Park station imports, particularly around operating loss forecasts and revenue abstraction from neighbouring stations.

In other words, they don't think it'll be used enough to justify the build. And that's - presumably - before the covid effect on changing work patterns. 

If You Want To Keep Something, You Need To Own It...

An Abbey Wood family are "heartbroken" after learning their home of more than 60 years will go back to the council, after their grandmother's death.

'Their' home? It's a council property.

Veronica Davie, of Panfield Road, sadly died at the beginning of this year, January 9. Ms Davies' granddaughter, Alison Basset, of Grovebury road, says the home should be kept within the family.

Then maybe you should have exercised the right to buy while she was still alive.

Ms Basset could not be classed as a joint tenant on the property, and is currently on band B1 priority for overcrowding and has reportedly been on the housing list for 10 years.

I bet she has some of the usual reasons for...

Yup! Called it!

“Nan would want us to have her house and her grandchildren to grow up there.

“My 17-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son share a room and I share with my nearly 3-year-old.

“My son has autism and my daughter has psychogenic non-epileptic seizures.

“I have had no luck getting re-housed with the council and have continuously been messed about by them."

*sighs*

Sometimes, Even They Have A Point…

Environmental campaign group Extinction Rebellion staged a protest over plans to build 172 homes in an area thought to be at risk of flooding.

What are the developers thinking...?!?

The homes, planned for Gunners Park, Shoebury, would be below the current high tide mark.

Plans for the homes were previously approved, but stalled because of fears over flooding.

The Environment Agency would only allow the homes to go ahead if work planned on nearby seawalls offered a one in 200-year flooding event protection but those now in the pipeline will offer less than half that.

Then how did it get through planning?

Sob Stories...

The couple’s ordeal began last year when Roxanne suffered from serious post-natal depression and other mental health issues following the birth of her youngest child, Aimee.

Roxanne and Craig lived in Cornwall, where Craig worked long hours as a chef.

Roxanne’s illness meant he kept having to take time off work to care for her and his children, and so he lost his job, and the couple fell into rent arrears on their council house in Camborne.

They were eventually evicted by Cornwall Council on May 1 this year, and have not had a permanent home since.

Hmmm, sure, it can happen to anyone. Right?

Craig met Roxanne, started a family and his mum Lou was a huge help as the couple - at that point - had three children, Catelynn, Freddie and Harry.

Freddie, particularly, needed more help - he has a range of special needs, including cerebral palsy, and has to have his legs rubbed vigorously after any exercise.

But three years ago, Lou ‘retired’ back to her native South Bristol, moving into an over-55s flat in Stockwood, and when Aimee arrived last year, Craig and Roxanne struggled on their own.

Wait, so a chef and his partner unable to support the existing children decide to have another? Despite the fact one child already has issues?

What did they think would happen?

Cornwall Council told them their efforts to find them a home had failed, and hit them with another bombshell.

“They told us we had made ourselves intentionally homeless, because we left the day before the bailiffs came,” Roxanne said, as she fought back the tears.

“They told us that there was nothing more they could do, and we would have to find our own privately rented accommodation, and pay for it with our housing benefit.

“I spent weeks searching for somewhere to live. It was impossible. We didn’t have a guarantor. There is absolutely nowhere in Cornwall that will take a family of six on benefits in private rented accommodation,” she said.

You can't blame them. Landlords want people who have some common sense and sense of personal responsibility. It's patently clear you lack either...

Beware The Wrath Of The Pensioners!

An 85-year-old woman who was threatened with police at a Croydon Council meeting has spoken out about the upsetting experience.

“When the councillors voted to approve the flats I stood up and said ‘excuse me I am the 85-year-old lady that lives there’ and when Toni Letts said ‘sit down madam’, I said ‘no I won’t, because I have no-one to speak for me so I am going to say my piece’.

“I think I got angry when she said ‘I am getting angry now’.

“I thought, ‘you’re angry? I am angry, it’s my home’.”

Of course it's your home. It's never going to be Toni's, is it?

On Tuesday (October 1) Paul wrote to complain to the council on behalf of his mother and says that since then he has been told the incident would be referred to the council’s ethics committee.

I expect the commentariat is rather unsympathetic, as they often tend to be.

But wait!

Still, could be worse! 

This could get interesting!

Suffer The Little Children...

...to lecture us all:

Yeah, sure. As soon as 'young people' can be trusted not to do stupid things because 'it's the fashion':

According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, the area of the brain responsible for reasoning and thinking, the frontal cortex, continues to change and mature throughout the teenage years and into adulthood.

I'll not be lectured by someone who takes their gin up the back door, rather than in a glass with ice and a slice....

Gavin's Played 'Sim City' Then, And Kevin Hasn't...?

Councillors in Basildon are divided over whether the government should scrap planning rules that allow offices and industrial buildings to be converted into homes without planning permission - known as permitted developments.

What are the issues, then?

Basildon Labour party leader Gavin Callaghan said: “I am of the opinion that reforms are needed to make this work.

“In theory permitted developments are a good idea and can expedite the process of getting more homes built and more people onto the property or private rented ladder.

“However, in practice they put huge pressures on local infrastructure. For example, the increased traffic flows around Cherrydown East and Cherrydown West and the bowl car park near the station from the Trafford House development, was never properly accounted for.

“Under the current scheme, we cannot hand on heart say that the road, rail or public service infrastructure will be in place to cope with large scale changes from office blocks to residential housing units. Added to that is a question about what this does to the culture of a community.

“If an area of the town is earmarked for commercial office units but becomes residential housing because that’s more profitable for the landlord, then the foundations of our economic development and commercial offers to business, is immediately undermined.”

Well, well, well. Someone's a gamer! And...someone's not:

Tory deputy council leader Kevin Blake said: “A conversion like Trafford House in Basildon has been very successful and has brought in income to the town centre.

“Providing a conversion is done in a nice way, with a good design I don’t see why we shouldn’t build on these sites.

“I don’t see why there would be an issue relating to this as there are far bigger things to worry about. Developers should of course be ensuring that they look at infrastructure, parking and greenery.”

They don't make money on those, so why would they?