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Why Arsenal’s neighbours deserve close-season break
• I AM writing as a member of the local clergy as well as a resident about Arsenal’s application for a licence to hold events that are not football matches.
I believe the planning consent for the new stadium gave Arsenal permission to hold three such events per year, though I am unclear why this was agreed by Islington Council.
It would now seem Arsenal is asking that these can be held on any day of the year between 10am and 10.30pm, although I believe it is limited to holding only one of these on a Sunday or a bank holiday.
I have only heard about this application secondhand, which seems rather curious given the proximity of the church, so I wish to say first that I do not believe the notification has been extensive enough.
I strongly object to the giving of any licences on this basis. Residents already have to put up with dislocation of their lives on many days during the football season. We find it very difficult to plan ahead because dates of matches get changed.
We have a small window of opportunity between the middle of May and the middle of August, though this is fast being eroded by extra footballing events. I certainly object to any more events on Sundays when we have regular services in the church until 4pm, sometimes later.
Before anyone is tempted to suggest we knew there was a football ground when we came to the area, I need to remind them that the church was here more than 25 years before Arsenal moved from Woolwich onto what had previously been church property.
If there are to be extra events they should be during the football season so we have a degree of liberty during some of the summer months.
The other problem with summer events, like concerts, is noise. Towards the end of November there was an extraordinarily loud noise coming from the new stadium one Wednesday evening. It was music and kept stopping and starting. It was deafening and could easily have been heard in the adjacent boroughs of Hackney, Haringey and Camden. Are residents of these boroughs being consulted? If not, why not, as they will be affected?
We had a service on that day as on every Wednesday evening. The noise was so loud at certain points inside the church that I had to stop the service until it grew quieter again.
Anybody else trying to think or speak or listen to their own radio/music/TV would have had a similar problem.
I have no faith that a concert will be controlled to the level it will only be audible within the stadium itself, but if it is not then it is a public nuisance and should be prevented.
How long is it intended that the concert should continue producing noise at this volume, from 10am until 10.30pm? Also, in the summer months windows are open and people sit out of doors into the evenings and at weekends. We won’t be able to do this comfortably.
This is no way to try to encourage people to live together in a densely packed city. I also object to the proposed use of the podium.
How will the number of people coming into the area be controlled? The stadium holds up to 60,000 but presumably it will not be necessary to have a ticket to use the podium.
People live above the podium and they and their friends will require access to their homes. The area simply cannot take that number of extra people.
The sop of offering tickets to residents as some kind of compensation is insulting. In any case we won’t need to waste the money as we will hear it all clearly enough.
Arsenal does not need this extra money. It is a public fact that it is one of the wealthiest football clubs in the world. This is simply greed and it is the responsibility of the council to protect the citizens of the borough in a way it has singularly failed to do in most respects since the first proposal for the new stadium was made.
This has nothing to do with whether one likes football or not. These concerts are unnecessary for the financial viability of the club. The extra events on the podium will remove any potential small gain for local businesses too.
If the permission for three events is a fait accompli then these must be held during the football season, not on a Sunday or a weekday evening as that will further inconvenience hard-working commuters. The noise level must be tightly controlled so the concert cannot be heard beyond the stadium and there must be no extra events on the podium to attract even larger numbers of people into the area.
One final thing: if this is a consultation, why has Arsenal sold all the tickets for the first concert before being given a licence?
The word arrogance hovers in my mind. My work here over the past 18 years has brought me into contact with many people who feel intimidated by Arsenal, that the club has a way of getting what it wants, and that the council never seems to represent the concerns of local people adequately.
This proposal, if it is not rigorously controlled, will seriously diminish our quality of life still further.
STEPHAN COLES
Vicar of St Thomas’s Church N4 |
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