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Ghetto would sow seeds of future social problems
• A COUPLE of weeks ago Arsenal circulated a glossy flyer outlining its proposals for Queensland Road – 21-storey towers with 700 apartments. To all intents and purposes, the flyer gave the impression its plans had been signed and sealed. Nothing could be further from the truth. Neither councillors nor Islington planning staff were even aware such a document had been distributed. As though this slight was not enough, the detail of the plans themselves beggars belief.
Under the proposals, the plan is to construct about 200 social housing units sited together in one block on the south side of Queensland Road. While I recognise the need to provide social housing, the effect of the proposal is to create a ghetto.
There has been absolutely no attempt to integrate social housing within the wider community of the development. Have Arsenal’s planners and architects never heard of the very real social problems that have been, and still are, associated with dense social-housing developments in Islington and other London boroughs. Have they learned nothing from history?
Add to this the fact that there are no amenities in the immediate area for the occupants of the social housing in Queensland Road. Surely Arsenal’s consultants are not suggesting that the residents of the social housing should become members of the proposed private health and fitness club, which is also to be built in Queensland Road?
Unfortunately, a much more likely scenario will be gangs of youths with very little to do other than commit mischief in the community. An obvious answer which might just mitigate the situation would be a community sports centre or even just some green space in Queensland Road itself. As part of the detail in the flyer, Arsenal offered to build new back-garden walls “to ensure safety and security… to a height to be agreed with residents” on the north side of Bryantwood Road. And now we know why! These homes will be overlooked by the social housing blocks in Queensland Road. It is obvious Arsenal is aware of the potential negative social impact of its plans. How low can Arsenal stoop?
Building a potential ghetto in Queensland Road is a cheap and easy short-term solution which will sow the seeds of real social problems for the whole of Highbury in the future. The council should reject Arsenal’s latest plans unconditionally.
D THOMAS
Bryantwood Road, N7
• IT is well known that disruptive young people can learn positive life skills, such as respect for others, to keep to the rules, that you don’t always get it your way, that it is not over until it’s over, that money isn’t everything and that keeping to one’s word is important. Learning about life in a positive way and acquiring positive emotional skills is what sport is about.
And what is Islington Council doing about promoting sport among children and young people? Not much, it appears. By allowing Arsenal FC to do away with its promise to build a replacement for the JVC Centre in Queensland Road, the council is foregoing a golden opportunity to tackle anti-social behaviour, one of the main concerns of residents. And by doing so, it is antagonising an ever-growing group of voters in Highbury who have the impression that the council is more concerned about Arsenal getting richer than listening to its constituency.
More than 3,000 signatures have been collected asking for the JVC Centre to be replaced, and councillors should be aware that, if even a percentage of the 3,000 signatures materialises as votes against them, some might not be re-elected.
It may be that tackling anti-social behaviour in Islington, and getting re-elected by the way, is easier than you think: just listen to what voters are asking for, which is simply to tell Arsenal FC that promises are to be kept. The JVC Centre at Queensland Road must be replaced.
RICHARD SCHURNEMANN
Bolton Walk, N7
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