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Nimbys failed to stop social housing construction

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Posh residents of North London failed to derail Islington council’s attempts to provide homes to the deprived. A local campaign to prevent the construction of “affordable” housing at the abandoned Ashmount site has been turned down by a judge in early December.

Ashmount Site Action Group (ASAG) had applied for a judicial review of the Department of Education decision to halve the 0.85-hectare land between a housing project and a newly opened free school. More than 30 displeased residents had committed to back the campaign with £500 each.

ASAG named the council an “interested party” and argued the entire land should be given to White Hall Primary School which opened this September.

Head of ASAG Francis Wilkinson said: “We believe children need a large playground for outdoor activities which crammed homes on the estates do not permit.”

Joe Caluori, Islington’s executive member for children and families, said: “What can be worse than living in overcrowded houses? This is the problem we have in the nearby blocks. We need to look for a balance.”

The court agreed with Mr Caluori’s explanation that the current solution both provides enough space for the school playground and helps to meet a high demand on affordable housing in North Islington.

Plan by Islington Council. The council will have affordable houses built on its land edged blue. The department of education who owns the red-bordered area will dispose its half to the Whitehall Park free school.

Planning ahead: The council will have affordable houses built on its land marked blue. The department of education, which owns the red-bordered area, will grant its half to the Whitehall Park free school

Terms set for affordable housing construction

Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association (ISHA) is preparing to buy half of the land from the council at a price no more than £2m below the market value. ISHA plans to build 51 flats on the land, at least 80 per cent of which will be affordable, including social rent.

James Murray, Islington’s executive member for housing and development, said: “We desperately need more housing in Islington, particularly, genuinely affordable housing. The Ashmount site development will make a valuable contribution to meeting the housing need.”

The funds from the sale will be invested into high-priority council projects for 2015.

Fate of the second half

The Government scrapped initial plans to host two free schools at the Ashmount site, instead agreeing with Islington council to keep only Whitehall Park School and move Bridge Integrated Learning Space School (BILS) to the shared premises at Dowrey Street. Construction cannot start until the BILS is granted a 125 year lease at the new location.

When the Ashmount site was abandoned two years ago, the council planned to use the surplus land in a way that solved two problems. According to Dave Poyser, a Hillrise councillor, if the land had been sold immediately, Islington would have met high demand on additional housing and invested the profits into improving local schools.

Neglected: The abandoned Ashmount site

Neglected: The abandoned Ashmount site

The Whitehall Park free school is temporarily encamped on the council’s part of the land leased to the department for education. Its fate depends on its ability to do the impossible ­­– to repair the Ashmount building, which is now in a devastated condition, by the start of the next academic year.

The site became neglected after Ashmount Primary School moved into a new building at Crouch End in 2012. The school, designed by a modernist architect Jim Cadbury-Brown, was built 58 years ago.

An early planning brief for the Ashmount site said that “the existing school building was not capable of being refurbished to meet current educational requirements.”


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