Leabank Square Cootlings Doing Well!!

The nesting island on our riverbank has raised two families this season!! Now that last years swans (http://leabanksquare.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/leabank-square-swans-expect-triplets.html) found somewhere safer to nest - a family of coots - as well as a family of mallards took advantage of the British Waterways Nesting Island.


The coots had 5 eggs in their nest - and all of them were hatched in mid May. One of them was definitely weaker than the rest - and didn't survive a particularly heavy downpour one night. One disappeared a few days afterwards - but the 3 rd was seen being carried off by a seagull - so maybe that happened to both of them.


So the family has 2 cootlings now - and they're almost as big as their parents - with a lot more fluff about them. But they look very healthy - and are still very protected by mum & dad! To see the daily battles being played out by the parents to keep other coots, passing swans, loads of gulls, and the olympic patrol boats - spend a very enjoyable hour up on the riverbank. It's very entertaining!!

Olympic Soldiers Patrol Lea Bank

Many of us feel like Leabank Square is under siege!! The Lea Towpath & Cycle path has been shut. This is despite the fact that the Olympics have 4 metre high electric fences, thousands of CCTV's cameras, dogs patrolling inside, vigilante boats sailing up & down, very noisy & irritating helicopters circling etc, etc - they still see the need to shut off the main cycle & pedestrian route for thousands of people daily.


Add to that - now we have to stare at these soldiers marching up & down the riverbank all day & night. Still - it's probably better tan seeing the previous G4s plastic police that used to walkie-talkie along up until they cocked up their contract with the ODA.


So while Mayor Boris is encouraging us to all walk, jog & cycle to work each day - you can only do it alongside the highly dangerous trucks, buses and rat-run cars thundering down Berkshire Road.

Sccop: Pigeon Poos on Olympic Rings!!

Leabank Square Residents Speak Out!

Communities and Housing//

Building the good society from the bottom up

 

 

Some of us Leabankers had a chat with Bryn Phillips on 5 April, 2012 about how we felt we were managed. This is his report for Shifting Grounds (http://shiftinggrounds.org/) - a very lively 'politics 4 the people' kind of website. Thanks to everyone who spoke so passionately about our situation - I think he captured some of our feelings in that spirit!!

Here goes:

It’s an unusually hot spring afternoon in east London.

As colourfully painted barges chug past the new Olympic Media Centre and day trippers wave from the boats, I find myself standing with a youngish woman in a slightly ramshackle – but nonetheless luscious – communal garden on the banks of the canal.
And things are getting radical.

I’m visiting Lea Bank Square Community Garden, on the edge of the Olympic Park, and a plan is being discussed to form a new Civic Parish for the neighbourhood that would bring democracy closer to home.

Originally a forlorn strip of derelict land along the Great Hertford Canal, the community garden we’re standing in began twelve years ago, when a fed-up rates-payer cut the locks on the gate and squatted it for the residents. As an act of public repossession, this sums up the ethos of active citizenship that feels so tangible amongst the inhabitants of the square.
Perhaps at the time they wouldn’t have imagined their pet project would turn into such a popular, local institution. But with its ‘do it anyway’ attitude and ‘dig for the neighbourhood’ ethos, it has become totemic of the emerging pop-up politics that’s gripped London ever since the financial crash, and regularly draws in visitors from the surrounding estates.

‘This is a community space that people created themselves,’ Keira James Shackleton, 30, tells me. ‘It’s a place to relax, somewhere where we can support the local wildlife. I know its a cliché, but isn’t this just a perfect example of the Big Society?’

As a result of the hard-nosed intervention of their Community Association, they’ve now also got a grant from the Olympic Delivery Authority to re-develop the plot and to upgrade the hitherto neglected communal gardens at the entrance to the estate.

There’s also a suggestion to draft in London Citizens for advice on community organising, and vague talk of forming a Tenant Management Organisation is floating around on the breeze.

‘Full self-management would make a big difference to everybody here,’ says a young, single mother I spoke to, as she kept an eye on her daughter playing on the communal green.

‘If everything was done in-house by the residents, that would give everyone the chance to have a fair say,’ she emphasises.

This desire for more autonomy seems clearly borne out of the sense that, as tenants, the residents have little say in how their affairs are managed.

‘Across the canal used to be the playing fields for the local children,’ says Keira, who works as an artist nearby.
‘It used to be just open green space. It was lovely. We’ve lost all that now. We’ve just got the ugly media centre instead.’ she says, referring to the Olympic development opposite.
Likewise, Dawn, 27, who lives in a ground-floor flat backing onto the canal, isn’t pleased about the cameras that have recently been installed across the water from her.

‘The CCTV over there? I’m not really too happy with it to be honest,’ she says, referring to the Olympic ring of steel, smiling but looking slightly annoyed.
‘You know – it’s quite intrusive. It’s right outside my bedroom window. I don’t remember anyone consulting with us about where they were putting the cameras. You know – they just went ahead and did it.’

As I talk to people I begin to understand where they’re coming from. It’s clear that the feeling of disenfranchisement that abounds around the square comes from a dislike of being micro-managed from above.

In contrast, just up the road from Lea Bank Square is the Nye Bevan and Clapton Park Estate – a totally self-managed community since 2003, adorned with homely looking signs, which proudly announce, ‘run by residents for residents’.
It is a beacon of hope in an otherwise atomised part of the capital. The striking landscaping that has helped re-define the estate, not to mention the drop in crime rates there, all started from modest beginnings. I start to consider how in a way this echoes the experiments taking place at Lea Bank Square too.

The Tenant Board in Clapton can also be proud of the fact that they are among the most effective institutions in Britain. Even when compared to three quarters of local authorities, they’re statistically better at delivering services.
‘We used to be terrified here. It was all guns and drug-dealing,’ says Margaret, a retired carer and local resident.
‘The Council couldn’t have cared less really. But under tenant control, things have really improved.’

This is a sentiment echoed by John Little, one of the estate gardeners.
‘This is probably the most democratic estate in the Borough,’ he tells me proudly, as we chat in the sweet shop on the shopping arcade.
‘The tenants just stopped Hackney Housing from making this a gated development,’ he proclaims jubilantly, but he also feels the Labour Borough Council isn’t as supportive of local democracy as it could be.
‘The Council doesn’t like Tenant Managed Organisations (TMOs). They’re always trying to get rid of them. It’s because they take power away from the centre. That’s a shame really, because ultimately we should all be pulling in the same direction.’

Many of the residents I spoke to here also support the creation of a new neighbourhood council for their area, with tax-raising powers.
On reflection, there seems to be broad agreement on both estates I visited on the need to relocate decision-making to more immediate units. But it’s important to stress that the problems still blighting some of London’s neighbourhoods are more serious than just poverty of representation alone.

Neighbourhood councils need to have muscle and method in order to be proper assets to communities, especially those with high rates of poverty and overcrowding.
In the more expensive parts of town, the damaging effects of gentrification and ghettoisation are verging on the chronic. Community hubs are being lost at an alarming rate too: fourteen pubs are closing a day, post offices are disappearing rapidly and youth clubs and other vital community services are all under duress.

Having any real impact on the social fabric may seem out of the remit of a parish council. But by becoming institutionalised proponents of community organising schemes, the new parishes could define a more radical role for themselves without overstepping their statutory powers.

Listening more closely to local concerns is clearly one advantage to having a neighbourhood council, but as the first tier of local government they could also play an influential role in spreading schemes like the London Living Wage and agitating for radical change.

If neighbourhood councils also made it part of their constitution to promote Community Land Trusts, they could do something positive to prevent families being uprooted from the areas they’ve lived in for generations, so that a rich mix of people from different backgrounds are able to live together.

In theory there would also be nothing to stop grass-roots councils from campaigning for the formation of local trade associations, something artists in Hackney Wick, who are campaigning for the creation of a modern artists’ guild, would definitely support.
Back at Lea Bank Square, we start to chat about the proposal for grass-roots democracy in the area. Not surprisingly, Hazel, 34, endorses the plan.
‘It’s definitely a great idea,’ she enthuses, animatedly.
‘Sometimes it seems when you’re a small community, that no-one’s ever going to listen to you. To be honest, it would be good for us to just be heard.’
And that’s the most important part. People are desperate for their voices to be heard, and they feel that the existing structures just don’t work for them any more.

Testimonials like Hazel’s really bring it home. As Alinsky says, ‘Participation is the heartbeat of the democratic way of life.’ Radical parishes really could herald the start of a common good politics in Britain, a democratic politics that’s established from the grass-roots up.
That’s why when it come to the government’s Localism Bill, Labour should steal a march on the Coalition.

The transfer of power back to the community should become a key part of how the Labour party articulates its intention to deliver fairness in tough times.
In order to achieve this goal, Labour needs to recognise that, as partners, modern civic institutions like TMOs, community organising groups and the modern guilds are as valuable to the present day Labour movement as the unions were one hundred years ago.

Leaving the square, I take a last look back at the flurry of activity on the bank side.
As the community reasserts itself amongst the vegetation, the good society seems to be literally sprouting out of the ground.

And with all the discussion I’ve heard of reinventing democracy here, and longing for civic reformation, I’m convinced it’s time Blue Labour hit the streets and seeded itself inside the parish.

As the gardeners of Lea Bank and Clapton Park have demonstrated, it’s time to get back to basics and let the radical tradition take root.

Bryn Phillips is a community organiser in London and a supporter of Blue Labour. For the original article see: http://shiftinggrounds.org/2012/04/building-the-good-society-from-the-bottom-up/ 

Leabank Square Resident Artist Kiera James Exhibition

Cafs and Canals: An Exhibition with Kiera James and Tom Hurley

Many of us know Kiera for her stunning garden in the courtyard - but now you can see another of her many talents down in Stour Space. Some of us were lucky to see her exhibition over the canal in John Lewis - but now it's just a short stroll along the canal to see even more amazing photos.

Please do yourself a favour and check this out:

Stour Space presents ‘Cafs and Canals’, an exhibition of photography by Kiera James and Tom Hurley.
Time Out's ‘First Thursdays’ Top 5 exhibitions for June.

Private View: Thursday 7th June 2012 6:00pm – 10:00pm

Opening Hours: 8th June – 21st June 9:00am – 5:00pm (Sun to Weds) 9:00am – 11:00pm (Thurs to Sat)

Lower Lea Exposures – Kiera James

‘Lower Lea Exposures’ is a series of images documenting the regeneration of the Lower Lea Valley in east London in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics. Realised in 2010, the images capture a fleeting moment in time as the construction begins to change the face of the area forever. The double exposures were taken on a Diana+ ‘toy’ camera and reflect on the transformations taking place and the relationship between the industrial, natural and historical. The results are somewhat fragmented yet dreamy photographs that encourage the viewer to take a step back and reflect on the area’s ambiguous beauty.

Kiera James is an artist with a background in documentary photography, and draws on this tradition in her fine-art based practice. She completing a BA (Hons) in Photography at the University of East London in 2010 and is currently doing an MA in Fine Art at Camberwell College of Art.

www.kierajames.com

http://twitter.com/kjamesphoto

Small Shops – Tom Hurley

The series serves as a record of the dwindling world of small, independent shops. These unique spaces exist in harmony with their surroundings and maintain a strong sense of place. Many of the owners ‘wear’ their shops like overcoats – the businesses being almost an extension of themselves.

Tom is a professional photographer and a born and bred East Londoner. Born into a family of dock workers, he has spend most of his adult life here. He originally trained in Fine Art, studying at Central College of Art and Hornsey College of Arts and Crafts before developing his career in photography.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tom_hurley

Olympics, LSCA, Conditional Grants? What does it all mean?

Happy Shortest Day of the Year!!

Vandals Strike in Leabank Square

There was very bad news today for all the kids who designed the Leabank Square Gardening Club noticeboard (http://leabanksquare.blogspot.com/2010/03/leabank-square-recycled-notice-board.html) when some vandals destroyed it.

Sometime in the afternoon they struck and destroyed the beautifully painted recycled noticeboard. Unfortunately no-one saw who did it - but a few of the younger Gardening Club members told me that they saw it fly-tipped in the domestic bin area.

To rub salt in their wounds - the vandals seem to make their destruction even crueler by throwing the destroyed noticeboard in our own refuse area!! Perhaps they are trying to make some kind of point?

Anyhow - once the spring comes along again we'll do an even better one for the garden.

Hummingbird Hawk Moth visits Leabank Square

The Daily Mail - predictably calls it an immigrant - the rest of us marvel at this incredibly beautiful visitor to Leabank Square.

A couple of these Hummingbird Hawk Moths were sucking nectar from the Verbena in the Purple Garden on the riverbank this morning. Please do yourself a favour and go up to have a look. They are absolutely stunning!!

You can see why they are named after the Hummingbird - they hover above each tiny flower sucking as much nectar from them as possible. The long proboscis even resembles the Hummingbirds beak!

According to the Butterfly Conservation website (http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/Moth/440/Moth.html?MothId=100) they come over from North Africa - and sometimes hibernate here over the winter. Thanks to the kids in the Gardening Club - there are plenty of hidy-holes for them do that this winter - here's hoping!!

I'm not too sure how long they're going to hang about - so get up to the Purple Garden as soon as you can to check them out!!

New Olympic Shops Open!!

There was great excitement today when the brand spanking new Olympic Chicken shack opened in Hackney Wick!!

For months now - every Hackney Wicker has been storing their pennies just for this very day. The extra security laid on was definitely needed to control the crowd as the doors finally opened - and what incredible treats awaited the patient!

Brand new chrome decorations and superbly finished interiors welcomed the throng. Say what you want about the products on sale - but no expense has been spared by the Olympic Chicken people. They really know how to spoil us.

Oh - and some other shops also opened around the corner in Stratford today as well.

Welcome to Leabank Square Iwona & Zibby

A big and warm welcome to our newest neighbours Iwona and Zibby. Not only are they keen gardeners, but as you can see, they are also very keen kayakers! They love the Purple Garden here in Leabank Square and can’t believe how lucky they are to have the canal right on their doorstep!

We’d like to thank them both for choosing our community to make their new home and thank them for helping to spruce up their side of the riverbank.

BBCs Adrian Warner visits Leabank Square

The Olympics today announced that Arena Fields is to change its name to East Wick after the Olympics.

This is another part of the grand plan to make locals feel very disconnected to the playing fields, orchards, nutteries & allotments that used to be here for us all to enjoy. 'Hey - ask the whole of the UK what we should call Arena Fields - without telling them anything about its past - and call it democracy'

Anyhow - the BBC's Adrian Warner paid a visit to Leabank Squares Purple Garden this evening to do his piece. Nice guy - even if his TV voice is a little dull - and he loves Leabank Square.

Thanks to all the kids who made his visit entertaining.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14364485

Leabank Square Swans - The Latest!

Just look at the last remaining cygnet now!! It's almost as big as Mum & Dad!

The swans have left the nest here in Leabank Square - and sleep further downstream - next to Omega Works each night. This was inevitable - as unfortunately - they were getting a load of harassment from a few of the kids. So Mum & Dad packed up & took Junior off to safer pastures.

But they make at least two stop-overs during the day as they sail past going upstream every day. More or less about 8am - and again at about 3pm. As you can see - Dad has gotten a load more chilled now that Junior is getting larger - and is taking food from Nadira's hand now - but Mum & Junior are still a bit too nervous to try this. They do - however - get very close.

It's so sweet to see the parents not rushing in for the food - but allowing Junior to have his fill first. Once they think he's had enough - they then start taking for themselves.

As far as food goes - they seem to prefer wholemeal bread - and ignore white of pitta bread. I've been doing some research - and it seems okay to give them bread - as swans get most of their food from the bottom of the river anyway - and top it up with some of our bread. So feel free to take a few slices up to the riverbank.

Juniors feathers are still a mix of downy & teen shoots - so it will be a few more months before he can fly - but occasionally Mum or Dad flexes their wings and goes for a bit of a flight. Junior gets a bit excited at watching this - stretching his wings and flapping about a bit.

Anyhow - please go up to the riverbank and enjoy our stunning new neighbours - before winter makes them think of maybe heading somewhere warmer.

Olympic Legacy - Leabank Square's Concerns.

A few days ago - Caroline Davies came to Hackney Wick to do a story about our concerns for the future of the Wick a year before the games. She spoke to many people - but concentrated on James in the fabulous Hackney Pearl, the ever entertaining Al in White Post Lane - and me here in Leabank Square.

Of course - no journalist can ever capture the sheer cliff-like monstrosity of the Olympic site that faces us - but I tried to put across what most of us feel about the architecture.

More than anything - I spoke about what we all want after the games. Leabank Square has always had the short straw as far as the construction work is concerned. We were the first to have buildings constructed - pulled down - re-constructed, pulled down again - and now rebuilding yet more temporary buildings directly opposite us - again for them to be demolished.

then - we have about 5 more years of be-designing & building whoever takes over the media centre as well.

There is not one part of the Olympic site that will have had noise, dust & mayhem - only to be left with the most underwhelming architecture for us to stare at for many decades to come!!

I told Caroline all this - and I think she did a very good article on balance. She got over what most of us feel about all the decade of disruption the Olympics have brought to Leabank Square.

For link to the article - see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jul/25/2012-olympics-hackney

Art for Leabank Square Green

Have you seen the very clever art exhibition on our green?

At 1st glance it might just seem to be an orange plank - until you take a walk around the rest of Hackney Wick & Fish Island.

You will notice a few more orange pieces dotted all around the streets.

They are the work of the brilliant new artist Rowan Durrant. He has identified a few places where something has just been neglected - and has put them right - but in orange.

We all know that PMMS have completely neglected Leabank Square for years - and have left some parts to rot away and decay. For this privilege - we have paid them shedloads of 'service' charge. The bench on the green has been broken for 3 years - and despite several attempts to get them to fix it - it takes an artist who doesn't even live here - to get it done.

He's done the same in a few other spots around our streets. Signs the councils have just left broken - 'street furniture' the authorities have just never bothered to replace, rails etc.
So whether you see our new installation as art, a message to some one in so called authority that they have failed, an audit of how western 'civilisation' is just not bothered - whatever your take is - just get out there and do it!!

Make your own art!


Please see: http://rowandurrant.com/

Olympic Noise & Dust - Part 2012

Hi Robert

I hope that Hackney is being sufficiently environmentally well behaved of late – and not causing you & your team any extra work. I tried to contact you many times today - but the phone just rang & rang.

I’m writing on behalf of several residents concerned about recent noise & dust levels over the canal.
Noise.

As a resident neighbour of the Olympic park – I am finding it increasingly difficult to hear myself think during the day – and have to blow my nose of disgusting gunk many times a day.

I’m aware that both the ODA & Thames Water are sharing Arena Fields for the foreseeable future – and we as lay neighbours have no way of distinguishing who is doing what. But that is slightly irrelevant – as all work is being carried out in the Olympic park – and as such – needs to be seen to by you.

The mission-creep I have spoken to you of many times - has returned in the now 7.30am trucks running along Arena Fields. The agreement was for an 8am start for heavy machinery to fire up their engines.

During the day – the noise levels are extremely high – and we urgently need your mobile noise monitoring team to come down & check their levels. (On that – please contact me for a key for the new lock – as somebody vandalised & stole the old lock & chain).

Dust.

Of course no-one can predict the weather – least of all us gardeners. But a major construction site should have all manner of mitigating measures in place for any eventuality.

The ODA have a few bowsers trundling along the ring road every now & then – which I suppose is for their own drivers dust free journeys. All the dust lifting off and landing in our lungs is coming straight off the huge mounds of sand on Arena Fields.

Occasionally we have seen some kind of sprayer trying to dampen down the mounds – but not anywhere near enough! When you stand up on the riverbank – you can actually see the sand being blown across into Leabank Square. There is absolutely no attempt by the teams working right up against the electric fence to water any of their earth-works down at all.

All the neighbours I have spoken to have said that there has been a marked increase in dust inside our homes.

Robert – I really try to keep our correspondence down to reasonable levels – but things are building up to a peak again.

We all received the Thames Water flyer this morning about extended working hours on this & next weekend. I thought the agreement was for any extended working hours inside the Olympic park to be flagged up at least 2 weeks in advance – so that we can make some alternative arrangements for our noise & dust free evening meals? How did this arrangement slip through your normally tight net?

Leabank Square has always had the worst of all the Olympic construction by-products:

They chopped down our orchard & nuttery in Arena Fields.
The horrible soil washing plant was set up directly opposite us (initially planned to operate till 8pm!)
The intimidating electric fence was put up with intrusive CCTV cameras.
The temporary ring-road took more green space away.
The massive grey drab media centre was constructed directly in front of us.
The temporary welfare centre was plonked in front of us.
The temporary welfare centre was demolished.
The last trees were felled.
The water main is being dug up & replaced.
The massive temporary journo’s catering compound is being constructed directly in front of us.

Robert – there isn’t another part of the Olympic park that has had so many different activities happen in such a concentrated area. And as far as we can tell – this was all done with the bare minimum noise & dust mitigation.

No matter what readings their gadgets have given – we can hear the noise – and feel the dust – and both are way higher than any of our friends who do not live in Leabank Square quality of life.

I trust you will look into the concerns we have – and get back to me as soon as possible.
Peace
Sóna

Dear Geoff Bailey

My name is Sóna Abantu-Choudhury and I live in Leabank Square in Hackney Wick.
This is directly opposite the new water mains you are busy laying along the Lea River Navigational Canal in the Olympic Park.

This morning we all received a flyer from you stating that you have received Hackney Council permission to work all the way through this & next weekend. Several of us residents have spent all day calling the number on your flyer - but had to listen to your music instead.


We all object to these new construction times in the strongest terms!!

The work you have been carrying out along the canal has been exceedingly difficult for us to bear for the past few months – and we’ve bared & grinned it – in the hope that you would just get on with it and finish the work as soon as possible.

This has obviously not happened!

This weekend we have planned an annual barbecue on our riverbank – for which we are frantically trying to contact as many residents as possible to postpone.

We had always had an agreement with the ODA that any weekend work would be given in writing to us at least 2 weeks in advance – so that this kind of thing simply cannot happen.

In addition to this – your workers have never ever seen fit to provide any kind of mitigation whatsoever while carrying out this pipe laying. There has never been an attempt to erect any sound barriers. There has never been an attempt to water down any of the sand & dust you create.

This is making our lives completely unbearable – and now you want to do it on the only days we have free to enjoy a barbecue.

Please reflect on all this – and get back to me with a suitable reply.

Yours

Sóna Abantu-Choudhury

Movies on The River Lea!!

Tomorrow see the opening of the brilliant new (temporary) movie house in Hackney Wick!! And best of all - it's just downstream from Leabank Square!!!!!

There are going to be amazing activities from - great family movies - to bug-hotel building workshops. From family discos to drawing classes. And much much more!

Please come down to meet these lovely people - some of whom you already know from previous projects - who are making Hackney Wick that little bit extra special for all of us!

To book seats & find out more - please visit http://www.follyforaflyover.co.uk/ and then just have heaps of fun.

Happy Summer Solstice says Robin

Planting Wildflowers for Mabley Meadow

A big ‘thank you’ to everyone who helped to plant up some seeds, for Mabley Meadow today.

Our good friend Chris King has asked us to plant up some wildflowers to add to the beautiful Mabley Meadow this autumn.

It was also great to meet our neighbour and newest Leabank gardeners, Justyna and Andy.
Thanks too to the old hands, Zoulla and Paul. Together we planted up some Betony, Agrimony, Cowslip and Teasel. We’re sure they’ll look stunning in the meadow later this year!

If you haven’t yet discovered Chris’ meadow, you can check out the details at http://mableymeadow.blogspot.com/. And then meander over there in person to see everything in full colour.

Last chance to comment on 'Hackney Wick Hub'

Very many thanks to Ruth for posting this comment - please read it and act on it - it really does affect every single one of us:

The consultation on a major development around Hackney Wick station is to close this weekend and residents have just a couple more days to have their opinions heard.

Plans for more than 150 flats, several shops and retail units around a pedestrian area off Wallis Road, and a "hi-tech" hub of affordable workspaces has been proposed by landowners London Thames Gateway Development Corporation (LTGDC).

At the end of May, the designers and architects behind the project came to the Wick for a couple of days to display and discuss the plans, and now the consultation is drawing to a close.

Any opinions and ideas need to be with them before the end of this weekend (Sunday June 19) because they intend to submit their planning application to Hackney Council on the June 24th, next Friday. Once they have planning application they will find a developer to buy the land.

Outline drawings and descriptions of the proposal are available on the corporation's website, here: (http://ltgdc.org.uk/ltgdc-news/development-news/hackney-wick-hub-proposals/) There is not lots of detail but it gives you an idea of where it will be and says there will retail units, including bars, restaurants, perhaps a bank, shops, and takeaways, 6000sqm of affordable workspaces, and more than 130 studio, one-bed, two-bed and three-bed flats.

Based on chats with the designers it also seems the idea is to have:

Affordable workspaces
The chief executive of the corporation which owns the land has said, in this interview with journalist Paul Norman, that they want to create a "hi-tech" hub for the business and people being priced out of Silicon Roundabout [Old Street] and Shoreditch.

"Something a little bit different"
The chief executive also said they wanted a developer who would do something a "little bit different" with the homes and leisure parts of the development and spoke praisingly of home-grown Wick projects like a recent opera in a warehouse. During the consultation visits, the architects/designers etc were very keen to emphasise their intention to do something a little bit different and make sure it was in keeping with Hackney Wick.
How can the development encourage something a little bit different? What does Hackney Wick want or need in terms of leisure?

No social housing
At the consultation it appeared that there would be no affordable rented accommodation (eg. social housing). This is because of concerns that there is no nearby space for kids/families to play - perhaps they see Vic Park, Hackney Marshes & the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as too far away?
There "may be" shared ownership housing for sale, but it was not definite.
Should there be affordable housing? Or is there enough in Hackney Wick already?

New shopping street
Some of the units for shops, cafes, restaurants and pubs are large - big enough for a chain shops like Tesco. If Hackney Wick didn’t want big chains, one option is to make the units relatively small in order to deter chains and make it affordable for independent traders or provide space for local creatives to sell their goods. However, the landowners point out that bigger units make the project more commercially viable for the developer.
At the moment the planning application does not specify any unit size in order to allow flexibility for the developer. Is that right?

What do you think...?

Email Thames Gateway Corporation (http://ltgdc.org.uk/contact-us/) to give your views on the Hackney Wick Hub before the consultation closes on Sunday June 19th.

And keep on eye on this blog to see what their final plans are and find out when Hackney Council will make a decision on the planning application.