Christmas Services

Hackney Council has published times and dates of services during the Christmas and new year period. Click here for more details.

For information on access to medical advice during the holiday season, visit the Hackney CCG website here.

For information on contacting local police, visit the Hackney MPS website.

We wish you all a very 

Merry Christmas 

and a 

Happy New Year

Kingsland Road Fire Station will Close

Hackney Council is one of 7 local councils to lose the High Court battle over Mayor of London Boris Johnson's proposals to close 10 fire stations in the capital, including Kingland Road Fire Station.

We previously wrote about Boris Johnson's plans on this blog here and we are very disappointed to learn of this news today. 

It was only 4 years ago the flames engulfed Thomas Fairchild School. 75 fire fighters and 15 fire engines attended that blaze.

And on 30 November that police, Fire Brigade and Ambulance services attended a blaze on Wenlock Barn Estate, a short distance from the one at Thomas Fairchild School.  

Due to the swift action of the emergency services, the blaze was quickly contained and no one was hurt.  We are concerned, however, that should there be a substantial blaze again in the future, the closure of Kingsland Road Fire Station could put an unnecessary strain on Old Street Fire Station.

Hoxton Ward Forum Meeting - Tuesday 29 October

The next Hoxton Ward Forum meeting will take place on Tuesday 29 October at Carole Young (aka Cranston) Community Hall, Mintern Street, London N1 5EH

We will be discussing play provision on Hoxton and would like your comments on the quality of play provision.  What is good about current provision and what do you think can be improved?

We will also receive a presentation about the development of the Mayor of London's Central London Cycle Grid proposals for the borough that include proposed routes through Hoxton.  If you're a cyclist come along, the Transport Team would lke to hear from  you.

Send and email to sign up for information for future meetings.

Hoxton Ward Forum - 29 October, 7pm

The next Hoxton Ward Forum meeting will take place on Tuesday 29 October at Carole Young (aka Cranston) Community Hall, Mintern Street, London N1 5EH

We will be discussing play provision on Hoxton and would like your comments on the quality of play provision.  What is good about current provision and what do you think can be improved?

We will also receive a presentation about the development of the Mayor of London's Central London Cycle Grid proposals for the borough that include proposed routes through Hoxton.  If you're a cyclist come along, the Transport Team would lke to hear from  you.

Send and email to sign up for information for future meetings.

Hackney to Challenge Boris Johnson Overturning Planning Inspectorate Decision on Affordable Housing

Boris Johnson has made amendments to the London Plan prohibiting London boroughs setting their own affordable rent levels.

Under the Government's affordable rent scheme, social housing tenatns can be charged up to 80% of market rent. London boroughs want to be able to set the cap on affordable rents according to local need. Boris Johnson, however, want to set affordable rent without considering local need.

Labour Assembly Members joined forces with Lib Dem and Green Party Members to vote against the Mayor's damaging amendment, arguing that this would drive up rents and land prices and also make housing increasing unaffordable to those of low or modest incomes.

To read full details of the London Assembly meeting, read Jennette Arnold's website here.

The Mayor of Hackney, Jules Pipe, announced this week that Hackney will be joining 9 other councils to challenge Boris Johnson.

More details will be posted as soon as it is made available.

Hoxton Ward Forum

The Hoxton Ward forum will meet on Wednesay 19 June at 7pm in Provost Community Centre, Murray Grove. 

This will be an opportunity to meet your councillors, raise local issues and explore opportunities to improve Hoxton.

For further information visit www.hackney.gov.uk/hoxton-ward or email us.

Hackney Boundary Changes

Following a ten week consultation the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) announced changes to the ward boundaries in Hackney.  The changes became  necessary to ensure that each Councillor in the Borough represents roughly the same number of voters in each ward.

There will be two new Hoxton wards:

• Hoxton West 
• Hoxton East and Shoreditch

Hoxton West is bounded by New North Road, Rushton Street, Bridport Place and Pitfield Street, Old Street.

Hoxton East and Shoreditch will be bounded by Pitfield Street, Regents Canal to the North and Kingsland Road to the East.  The southern parts of what was the old Haggerston Ward will remain the same.

A map of the new ward boundaries is available on LGBCE website.

The proposed new boundaries will be implemented by a draft order which will go before Parliament and new arrangements will come into force at the council elections 2014.

Consultation submissions and responses are available on the LGBCE website.

Proposed Closure of Kingsland Fire Station

The London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority is consulting on Boris Johnson's plans to close 12 fire stations across London, reduce the number of fire engines by 18 and reduce the number of firefighters by 460.

Under his plans, the number of fire stations in London would go from 151 to 100 and Kingsland Fire Station would close.  Whitechapel, Leyton and Leytonstone Stations would also have their fire engines reduced from two to one.

You can read the full proposal here.

We believe that these reductions pose a danger for hackney as response times for the first appliance will increase by 11 second and by 23 seconds for the second appliance. 

We also believe that these plans will put the safety of our local community at risk and we oppose the measures set out in the consultation document.

We commend the efforts of fire fighters who worked hard to put out the fire that started in Thomas Fairchild School in 2009 but are concerned that, should there be a fire on the same magnitude any where in the borough at some point in the future,  fire fighters' efforts would be hindered by the closure of this crucial station.

As the consultation period comes to an end, we urge you to look at the full proposal for closing fire stations online here and take a few minutes to respond here. The consultation closes in a few days.

If like hundreds of local people, you want to back Hackney's campaign to save Kingsland Fire Station, you can sign the petition here.