Dalston Square’s Cookin’
….Starts here. 😉
With with post, we are asking for your help in the shape of feedback. Over the past month there have been, as I am sure you are all fully aware, 4 film screenings in the Square by The Lost Picture Show, as part of the Dalston Children’s Festival. To accompany the screenings, small-scale barbecue catering was made available, selling beef (half was halal) and veggie burgers. This was basically a test-run to see if this was something that could be rolled out during other screening events, without causing a nuisance to residents. Before getting the go-ahead, a surprising number of factors were looked at: Everything from ensuring the food providers were registered with the council’s food safety department, to hygiene issues, to cooking smells swirling around the Square (not much chance of that with the Square’s wind-tunnel effect), to fire risk.
The grounds for providing catering are fairly clear: To add to the sense of fun and draw extra participants to the event, as a test to see if food provision is even popular, and as a revenue stream to help subsidise these free-to-attend events as the council are keen to provide more involvement with film club members (costumes, activities etc.) which,of course, all costs money.
So please let us know your opinion. Good idea? Was the catering a nuisance to you? Were there any issues that showed themselves after the event? Maybe just a complete success? Let us hear the good and bad (hopefully all good). This is your chance to have a say regarding events planned for ‘your’ Square. If reading this through email, simply click on the blue ‘Comment’ button at the bottom of the email. If reading this on the website, the comment button is in the small print immediately below this post. We look forward to hearing from you.
More news coming very soon.
Proposed Developments In Dalston
Hi all. As promised I have a bunch of news and updates for you, but have decided that rather than bore you all with a monster long post, I will break it down into, probably, 3 posts of related topics. To get the ball rolling then is news of recent and upcoming development proposals that are close to home.
First off, the proposed development of the Holy Trinity School site at the south-east corner of Dalston Square. I have referred to this development several times over the last 6 months or so, and there are a couple of threads over at the forum (HERE and HERE) that document the work of a truly dedicated team of Dalston Square residents (who have been battling to stop Telford Homes’ ludicrous plans), and so will go no further into the details. The news though is the decision, decided at the council’s public planning meeting last Wednesday, that the application has been rejected. This is excellent news and proof that democracy and a well presented argument can still stop big developers in their tracks. Whilst plans to expand the existing school to provide much needed school places was generally accepted as a good idea, Telford’s attempt to use this as an excuse to build 101 apartments that would have seriously affected current and future residents of both Dalston Square and the Rhodes Estate, it was argued, was simply unacceptable. The application was rejected on the grounds of not sticking to the council’s own DAAP (Dalston Area Action Plan), and issues with the design of the proposed structure. After celebrations had died down, the Dalston Square team unanimously decided that an approach would be made to the principal of the school to see if any assistance could be offered with regard finding sources of funding that would allow the school to go ahead with expansion, without the need to involve big property developers. A magnanimous gesture I am sure you will agree.
Now though, there is a new cloud on the horizon. Ben Collins, as Chair of the DSRA, was recently approached by a consultancy with regard a pre-planning meeting on the proposed development of the Kingland Shopping Centre. If you are unfamiliar with this proposed development, Loving Dalston did a piece on it HERE, and Dalstonist covered the story HERE. More high-rises (up to 14 stories in places), more high-rent retail space (no doubt to be filled with the same chains you find on every high-street these days), a serious threat to Ridley Road market, and the loss of the Eastern Curve Garden are all on the drawing board. The DSRA is discussing where we go from here and will work on a plan to ensure that, as with the school development above, the interests of developers do not drive forward a project that is in the interest of neither local residents nor local businesses. If allowed to proceed as currently planned this would completely change the village we love. Watch this space for updates as the consultation process progresses and more details become available.
That’s it for this post, the next installment of news……..
Consort Customer Alerts
Hello everyone. A couple of alerts from Consort you should know of: An update on the elevator issue in Ocean/Dekker, and warning of upcoming works to the gates of the underground parking. These and other Consort alerts can be found over at the forum HERE.
I will be in contact again soon with news and updates to all that has been happening in the busy couple of weeks since my last post very soon: Watch this space.
Community Events In Dalston Square
Hi neighbours. Just wanted to pass on some news I have received from Lucy McMenemy, Cultural Programme Officer from Hackney Council. As you all know by now, the council has plans to make Dalston Square a focal point of the local community by laying on a wide range of events and activities. The news from Lucy comes in 3 parts: Firstly, posted to the forum are the minutes from the latest meeting of the Culture & Community Engagement Forum HERE (scroll down to the last post on the thread).
Secondly, a poster for the community wide project, Dalston Children’s Festival: A summer’s worth of events, to run throughout Dalston. Click on the thumbnail below this message to see it in full. Those of you who follow our Twitter feed (@DalstonSquareRA) will have seen us mentioning this already: If you have kids, get them out there and support this wonderful initiative. Saturday 25th May should be a great community gathering, if the weather is on our side, as it is the launch of the Dalston Children’s Festival and it is also the first night of the Dalston Square Cinema. The square will be temporarily transformed into a cinema by the Lost Picture Show, and the film programme has been been chosen by local teenagers. That night the film programme includes the 70’s hit musical Bugsy Malone.
Thirdly, in order to ensure that residents do not feel left out of the loop of what is going on in what many feel is their Square, Lucy’s team is to produce a newsletter, posted out to every residence in the Square, which will contain a full programme of events. The first edition will be with you shortly. Lucy apologises for the ‘corporate’ feel of this first edition, but assures us future editions will be better. For anyone who loses track of their copy, and for followers of this blog who do not live on the Square itself, I will be posting copies of this newsletter to our discussions forum for all to download. The first edition is available HERE.
One last thing before I leave you in peace: Don’t forget our Twitter feed at @DalstonSquareRA. Although these DSRA posts go out on it, 99% of our tweets are regarding the wider community: Everything from Hackney Council updates to pop-up restaurants to local community events. And if you tweet yourself, and know of something going on we have missed, tweet at us and we will re-tweet you!
That’s it for now folks, have a great weekend.
New Consort Alerts
Hi all. A total of 4 new alerts from Consort to advise you of:
1) Roseberry Place will again be closed due to a Barrat crane in the road this weekend: HERE.
2) Labyrinth Tower’s intercom should be repaired this Thursday: HERE.
3) Sean Stone is to re-start the monthly Development Manager’s surgeries: HERE.
4) A warning not to throw burning cigarettes into bins: HERE.
That’s all folk! 😉
New Consort Section In Forum
Hello neighbours. In a recent meeting between DSRA representatives and Consort management, it was acknowledged by both sides that any attempt to improve communications between Consort and residents would be a good thing. To this end, a new system has been put in place. This will not replace the current system of notice boards, text & email service, and standard mail, but rather will compliment these in the hope of reaching some who miss the other communication streams.
The new system is a new section within the DSRA discussions forum. The new section, titled ‘Consort Memos & Notices’ is divided into 2 sections. The first, ‘Important Notices‘ will contain important information relevant at all times to all residents. The second, ‘Memos & Updates‘ will contain, you guessed it, memos and updates (which will generally be relevant for only a limited time). As mentioned in the ‘Read This First’ post in each of these sections, although posted to the forum by me, these are reproduced, unedited in any way, from emails sent to me by Sean Stone (ConsortPm Development Manager). If you have any questions/queries/feedback regarding these posts, please feel free to reply, but do note that if you want a reply from Sean, you should also contact him direct at sean.stone@consortpm.co.uk.
I would also ask that if you do contact Sean regarding any of these notices, please say you are doing so by way of a reply in the relevant forum thread so others need not contact Sean with the same question. And of course please also share Sean’s reply when you receive it. This could potentially save everyone a lot of valuable time.
Latest Minutes Plus…
Good morning all (and a beautiful sunny morning it is too). Just a couple of updates/items of news to share with you. Firstly, some minutes of recent meetings for those unable to attend: The Consort chaired budget meeting of 19th March (held in the library) HERE, and the DSRA meeting of 21st April (held in the Bootstrap building in Ashwin St.) HERE. There will be more news regarding the issues raised in these, connected, meetings soon, but for now the minutes will give you the gist of what is going on. (As always, these files are hosted over at our discussions forum. Simply click the highlighted link to save a pdf copy of the document to your computer for your perusal. If you are unable to access the links, read THIS, and, if you qualify, follow it’s instructions HERE.)
Next up, something all mums and dads may be interested in. This from The Trinity Centre:
Dear All Dalston has few public play spaces and we have been working to improve the Wards play provision for children. Not only have we been arguing for the new Dalston Square to be promoted as a place for children and families to gather, since the Beechwood Road Street party and the Council Play Street Policy we are keen for more streets to be adopted for play on a regular basis. Working with Play Out and the local play streets organizer for Hackney we are hosting a meeting next month to inform residents and parents on how to go about organizing streets for play in their area. As well as being invited to the attached event could you please be so kind as to publicize it to your residents and members.
For further details check out their poster below (click on it to see it full-size).
DSRA Meeting & Social
As many of you will know, at the disastrous meeting held by Consort in the library a few weeks back (a meeting at which Consort failed miserably to justify the latest proposed increases in our service charges), they promised to get back to us by mid April with answers to our many questions. Mid April is, but for a couple of days, now upon us and we have heard nothing (though in fairness we have also not received the latest bill which should have been with us by now). Where do we go from here? Ben Collins (DSRA Chair) has been weighing up our options and has come across a couple of very interesting organisations: The Federation of Private Residents’ Associations (FPRA – www.fpra.org.uk), and the Leasehold Advisory Service (a government funded Non Departmental Public Body – www.lease-advice.org). The former, a not-for-profit organisation who offer legal and organisational advice to it’s members (we would have to pay a membership fee to join in order to receive this advice) work very closely with the second and are very familiar with Consort and the problems we are encountering. I think you would agree it is perhaps time to take our grievances to the next level and see if this may be the way forward. In this regard then, we will like to call a meeting, open to all residents of Dalston Square, leaseholders and Tenants alike, to discuss these and other options and decide on a way forward. Hoping this will not take that long (we have scheduled 45 minutes for the meeting), we thought we could then break out the drinks and nibbles and have a bit of a Spring get-together: Nothing overly long or fancy, just a chance to have a chat and get to know each other a little better. Click on the thumbnail below for all the details. Hope to see you all there: The meeting is important and we need your input!
Holy Trinity Planning Objection Advice
Hi all, sorry for the late notice on this one. As most of you will be aware, a group of residents from the southern end of the Square have organised themselves into a group to fight several aspects of the proposed development of the Holy Trinity School site (more details can be found over at our forum in THIS thread). To this end they have arranged a meeting with a representative from Planning Aid (website HERE), who will be offering advice and answering questions. The meeting is set for today (again, sorry for the short notice), at 2pm, in Cafe Route, here on the Square in Gaumont Tower (why not arrive nice and early and have a spot of lunch first: I can testify that the food really is very good).
Holy Trinity School Consultation
I have been contacted by Sophie Hoskin of Telford Homes with details of an upcoming drop-in event planned for Wednesday 3rd April from 4pm – 8pm. This is the last of 5 events that have happened over the last 4 months or so that allows local residents to view the plans for the proposed development which will greatly enhance the facilities of the school and provide 101 new homes. And with representatives from ‘The Team’ (hopefully the school, Telford Homes, and the architects), this will be your last opportunity to ask questions before Hackney Council’s planning committee make their decision as to whether to give this project the green light. I would like to think that residents of the Square will be receiving flyers in their post boxes, but just in case, you can click the thumbnails below for full details.
Security And Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) On Dalston Square
Hi all. A note from Chris Rivinus, Vice-Chair of the DSRA:
Dear Fellow Resident,
The Dalston Square Residents’ Association are working with the Dalston Square Development Manager, Sean Stone, to make improvements to how various security and ASB-related issues are managed. Accordingly we’d like to ask you to help us determine whether or not you feel the efforts are working by taking a simple 6 question survey. You will find the survey online by clicking HERE.
We will use your answers to take a pulse of how residents feel now, and follow up later this year with another survey to see if residents feel progress has been made. Filling out the survey should take you less than 5 minutes and will help steer efforts to address these areas.
Regards,
Dalston Square Residents Association
As Chris said, this survey will take than 5 minutes so please help us out by sharing your opinions. Many thanks.
Hackney Council Working On Our Behalf
In a sprawling city like London it is easy to forget that politics stays local through the borough councils. And after reading the recent reports regarding absenteeism in our own Hackney Council (see our recent Twitter posts @DalstonSquareRA) how reassuring it is to know that our representatives are listening to, and working for, residents here on the Square. For those not aware, Hackney is a Labour controlled Council, the Square is in Dalston Ward, and we are represented by 3 Labour Councillors: Michelle Gregory, Sophie Linden, and Angus Mulready-Jones (more info HERE if you are interested).
Why am I telling you all this? As many will by now be aware, plans have finally been submitted to the council for the redevelopment of the Holy Trinity School site at the southern end of the Square. As well as a doubling of the school’s capacity, 99 apartments will also be included in the proposed 10/11 storey building that will pretty much fill the whole site. Those directly affected (residents of the south facing end of Labyrinth Tower as well as the 4, soon to be 5, blocks that overlook the site from across Roseberry Place), are understandably upset that their outlooks, and more importantly light, will be seriously impacted if this project goes ahead as planned. Because of this, many have been contacting Cllrs. Gregory and Linden directly, rather than/as well as going the official route: Using the comments page on the Hackney Council Planning Department’s webpage HERE: The deadline for comments is April 15th. Because of this the DSRA (via Ben Collins, Chair) has been contacted directly by Cllr. Gregory. On our behalf she is working to arrange a meeting, in her words “…with the school and developers to which Dalston Sq. and other residents will be invited………. to which Cllr Linden and myself will aim to attend”. Cllr Gregory will be contacting me directly when this has been organised and I will be passing on the details via this website and our forum. Cllr. Gregory will be replying to all those who have contacted her thus far, but asks that residents now cease contacting her directly as all she can do is pass comments on to planning (which is not as efficient or valuable as your comments posted directly through their website). Cllr Gregory has also recommended the website of Planning Aid For London, who provide valuable information and support on planning objections. Watch this space for further details as I receive them.
Also from Hackney Council, I have again been contacted by Lucy McMenemy, Cultural Programme Officer, with an invitation to all residents to the next public event to be held here in the C.L.R. James Library, the public space of the Square, and the Eastern Curve Garden. Hackney Wow! is a new kids’ online guide to all the fun stuff they can get up to in the local area, created by pupils at Rushmore Primary School. The planned events, on Wednesday 27th March, are to publicise the launch of this new website. As part of this, Dalston Square will be taken over by Hoxton Hall’s street performers: Cool. For full details of all that is planned see the flyer below (click on the thumbnail to see the full size image), and check out their website at hackneywow.co.uk.
One last thing before I leave you in peace: The minutes of the latest meeting of the Dalston Lane Community Working Group are now available for download from the Document Depository over at the forum HERE. Of particular interest at the meeting was the latest schedule, from Barrat Homes, for completion of every aspect of Dalston Square: Definitely worth a look. And as I always say with links to that section of the forum (the hidden, DSRA specific section), if it will not let you in you need to read the post titled ‘Please Read this…….’ HERE.
Consort Meeting Reminder
Just a quick reminder that the meeting, arranged by Consort to explain the continuing rise in our annual service charges, is this evening at 6.30pm in the C.L.R. James Library, here in the Square. This is your opportunity to hear what Consort have to say, and to put your questions directly to the team who calculate these charges. As owners you need to be there to hear why our charges will rise again this coming financial year (2013/14) despite rises, in some cases, of close to 300% over the last 4 years (based on actual charges for 2012/13 against estimates given at time of purchase). As renters you need to be there to support owners, as continued cost increases will inevitably lead to higher rents. I realise the timing may be awkward for some who will still be commuting home at that time of the early evening, but please attend if you can.
Updates To Previous Posts
Hi all, hope this post finds you well. The first item is not so much an update as a reiteration. You may have noticed Sean Stone’s note on the notice boards, and should of received your letter from Consort, regarding next week’s meeting, called by Consort, to explain to us all the reasons for the rises in the coming year’s service charges. (Regarding the letter, please note there is a mistake contained therein: Charges will rise from the current range of £900-£3800, depending on block and size, to a range of £1000-£4000. Not, as it is poorly written, an increase of £1000-£4000). Those of you registered with the DSRA (via the forum or by attending our regular meetings) will have today received my email but I will again publish here a note from Ben Collins, Chair of the DSRA, regarding this meeting:
Service Charge increases 2013- 2014Consort MeetingTuesday March 19th6.30 pmCLR James LibrarySome of you will be aware that our Service Charges are due to increase again this April.In some cases, we the Residents Association believe, these could be very significant. (From our estimates this could possibly be more than 25% in the case of some buildings)Leaseholders received a letter this week from Consort Property Management (dated March 12th), which is somewhat confusing. It describes ‘an increase of between £1000 and £4000 per apartment… dependent on the block’.If these figures are correct, they are alarming. They do not reflect the provisional figures the DSRA committee was given in a recent budget review meeting with Consort, but they do confirm the need to attend the meeting next Tuesday, to ask questions.For the past three years the Residents’ Association has asked for greater transparency in budgeting and more accurate predictive information for Service Charges for each apartment, to be sent out well in advance of the new financial year. This is to avoid the surprises many of us have had in past years from late notices of increases, based on unexplained or questionable cost increases in running our buildings.The increase in Service Charges will impact on ALL residents including tenants.We are very concerned about the confused message from Consort and hope that as many residents as possible will attend the meeting on Tuesday March 19th, at 6:30 in the library. We need a strong showing to impress upon Consort that we expect better from their financial management, and better value for money for their Service Charges. If you can, please come to the meeting to make your case.Ben CollinsChairDalston Square Residents’ Association
Last Night’s Power Outage
Good morning all. Just a reminder that after the brief power cut throughout the Square (and beyond) last night, be sure to check your heating/water timer. I checked mine to find the heating was still fine but the water had changed it’s timings to match the heating: Not ideal. I seem to remember it did the exact same thing the year before last when we had a similar outage. Have a good weekend all.
Dalston Square Residents' Association 