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South End
Green refurb is a total disaster and we are all to blame
• Over the past months I have watched developments in and
around South End Green with alarm, anger and a growing sense
of foreboding.
For years we were promised ‘an exciting development’
of flats (including very few, affordable homes) together with
a ‘much-needed’ Marks and Spencer Food store.
Having lost our cinema, and after supporting the independent
cafes and shoe-repair shop in their successful resistance of
the developers’ take-over bids, we reconciled ourselves
to the inevitable. The new development, we were told, would
be a ‘stunning’ addition to South End Green with the
added benefit of blocking sight of at least part of an ugly
building – the hospital.
Many months of disputes over such matters as ownership of a
section of pavement in Pond Street followed.
We have endured what feels like years of disruption for pedestrians
and bus passengers and lived through a bitter dispute over standing
space for the 168 bus. In the last few weeks, these related
strands of a sorry saga have individually unravelled in front
of us. The hoardings around the exciting new building have been
removed to reveal a stunningly ugly eye-sore clad with orange
tiles which fight with the mellowed local brick and shout, ‘cheap!’.
As for the fountain triangle the breeze blocks are being piled
up into what? A wall to make sure no undesirable types venture
into the area?
The grass has been ploughed out with diggers which may have
done who knows what damage to the roots of our trees, and slabs
are being moved into place to cover the ground. Grass in South
End Green would, presumably, be too costly to maintain.
Who should we blame for this catalogue of incompetence? Developers?
Planners? Ourselves – local people who don’t, individually
or jointly, act when we see things which make us angry, or are
denied information by the powers-that-be? Take your pick. But
perhaps the professionals at the Town Hall whose job it is to
safeguard our interests have most to answer for. If it were
not so sad it would be laughable.
Jill Aitchison
Constantine Road, NW3 |
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