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Tenants’ belts have been tightened for a very long time, councillor
• IT’S possible that Councillor Andrew Marshall has not had much of an education with regard to social history, which may account for his extraordinary outburst (Slowdown to mean ‘tough choices’, November 6).
To refer to the last decade of Camden’s housing record as one of boom will come as a surprise to many council tenants who when that rarity, an empty property, comes available have been offered the kind of home that post-war slum clearance was thought to have eliminated.
The residents, the “nimby,” business-opposing, residents he refers to, undoubtedly council tenants, have had their belts tightened for a very long time.
He states: “We need to recognise that the businesses here are what create jobs. It can’t just all be about residents…” When was it otherwise?
Camden have lined pockets in exchange for a few social homes and built in Swiss Cottage what looks like a vast ghost liner from the deceased Newcastle shipyards.
The Visage is an estate for the international globe-trotting rich.
These wealthy transient beings offer nothing for a sense of cohesive community spirit that might contribute to a feeling of belonging and caring. Those living in the few social flats that were built there, pawns in the deals made by suits in high places, do have some kind of social cohesion – when they are brought together to sort out the endless ongoing breakdowns.
The Swiss Cottage open space, while providing a charming community spirit in the daytime, has been a playground for the increasing numbers of feral youths who cannot fit into the overcrowded properties their parents occupy and so are decanted into the night looking for relief from the nihilism of desolate city life.
Not just content with the Visage, the council has now allowed another building to be packed into a small and overcrowded space at Swiss Cottage.
These properties, not yet built, are already sold to absent internationals who might actually be a bit miffed when they arrive to see their “homes” fully built, packed between a ghost ship, massive tower blocks and finally with a huge comprehensive school destined for the same spot.
Business has to have a moral conscience and so, too, do councillors.
This quick-buck-greed will indeed bring jobs to the city, largely in the form of social services to ameliorate the mental breakdowns, domestic violence, and violent feral youths while those who can will reside elsewhere.
Elaine Chambers,
Address supplied, NW3 |
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