Fresh Start

What is Fresh Start?
Fresh Start is a scheme for residents wanting a transfer outside of London. The scheme will enable residents to move into council housing, housing associations or private properties.

Who can join the scheme?
Residents on the Council housing register or council and Housing Association tenants can join the scheme.

How do I find out more information?
Contact the Fresh Start team to arrangement and appointment by calling 020 835 5751.

Hackney Mediation Services

One of the many issues that local residents come to see councillors about is disputes with neighbours and we are pleased to announce that there will be three more training sessions on mediating neighbour disputes planned for early 2008. We would encourage TRAs and TMOs to register people to attend.

The dates are:

• 31 January
• 28 February
• 20 March

For further information and to book onto one of the courses please contact the Hackney Mediation Service on 020 8356 4794 or email mediation@hackney.gov.uk

Recent Tranport Announcements

Here is a breakdown of recent transport announcements:

• Since 11 November 2007 passengers have been able to use Oyster and Travelcards on Transport for London's new London Overground service, North London Railway.
• Door-to-door fares for older and disabled Londoners will be abolished making rides free from 1 January 2008 and will benefit around 50,000 Londoners.
• Another six environmentally friendly hybrid buses are being added to Transport for London's (TfL's) bus fleet. By 2012 every new bus entering the fleet will be a hybrid and will help to cut pollutant emissions in London and contribute to the drive to tackle climate change.
• Londoners on income support can get access to reduced bus and tram fares by sending proof of income support to TfL and enclosing a copy of a passport, drivers licence bank card or Post Office Card Account card, birth or marriage certificate, NHS Medical Card and recent utility bill. Forms are available on the TfL website (www.tfl.gov.uk/discountcard ) or from a local post office. The helpline number is 0800 731 4564
• There will be a price freeze on all single Oyster and cash fares for bus and tube Journeys next year. Single cash fares will remain at £2 ; bus journeys paid for using the cashless Oyster cared will remain at 90p; single cash fares for zone 1-4 journey’s will be £4 and Oyster pay-as-you-go passengers will pay £2.50 7am-7pm. Full details of charges are listed on the TfL website.
  
  

Decent Homes Programme Phase 2 - Marie Lloyd House

Works on roof renewal, concrete repairs and window replacement will commence on Marie Lloyd House on 26 November 2007 and will be completed by the end of May 2008.

Any residents with questions can go along to a weekly drop in session which will be held every Wednesday morning between 9.00am and 12.00pm at the Shoreditch Neighbourhood Office, Bletchley Court, 1 Cropley Street, N1.

£4m for transport improvements in Hackney

Tfl has announced a £4m of funding package for transport in Hackney.

Here is a breakdown of the funding for Hackney:

• Principal road renewals - £198,000
• Local safety schemes - £425,00020mph zones - £300,000
• Education, training and publicity - £44,000
• Walking - £160,000
• Cycling - £250,000
• London Cycle Network+ - £867,000
• Bus stop accessibility - £147,000
• Bus priority - £510,000
• School Travel Plans - £806,000
• Work travel plans - £17,000
• Travel awareness - £32,000
• Regeneration area schemes - £80,000
• Environment - £50,000
• Controlled parking zones - £50,000
• Local area accessibility - £60,000
• Total £3,996,000

Plans to Re-vamp Windsor Terrace

Windsor Terrace is in need of a facelift and the council is working with Shoreditch Trust to find a solution and local residents have been consulted on layout, lighting replacement, seating and planting. The trees on this City Road landmark will be retained but the trip hazards caused by the pertruding roots will be recitifed.


Comments can still be submitted to joost.berger@hackney.gov.uk

East London Line Extension

The East London Line Extension, running to Highbury and Islington, New Cross, Crystal Palace and West Croydon, is well underway. Stations at Dalston, Haggerston, Hoxton and Shoreditch High Street are all included in phase 1 of the project.

Phase 2 of the project is still awaiting approval for the funding that will create a direct link between East and South London.

Over the coming months, the government will make announcements which will determine which major transport projects will be delivered.

More Door Entry Systems

Residents on East Road and in Halstead Court, Hoxton, will be benefiting from more door entry system being installed on their estates.

Wach this space for more details!

Fall in Crime

There has been an overall fall in crime across Hackney. The s of the light increase in robberies and theft in Hoxton is thougth to be as a result of events taking place in the night time economy area.

Deatailed figures for Hoxton can be found on the Met website.

How to Avoid a Fridge Mountain in Hoxton

Have you ever wondered how to get dispose of those things you have hanging around but don't know what to do with them? So did I until a colleague sent me a link to a website called Fridge Mountain. It's a UK-wide website set up to swop all kinds of unwanted stuff including old furniture, books, wheelbarrows and almost anything else.

For those whose childhood viewing was anything like mine, it's a bit like Swop Shop on the internet for adults.

I’m told that it started in Cambridge its popularity across London is growing. It would be good to see its use growing in London and across Hackney.

Roving Surgery

Hoxton Councillors took the opportunity to hold another Roving Sugery with Meg Hillier, Member of Parliament for Hackney South and Shoreditch.

We spent three hours visiting residents in Burtt House, Fairchild House, Aske House and Royal Oak Court to chat about everything from Decent Homes Programme, immigration issues, mould and planning issues.

We hope to be doing more of these over across the ward so look out for a notice telling you the time and location.

Otherwise you can always visit ward Carole, Clayeon or Phil at one of our regular surgeries.

Hackney Home Repair Hit Sqaud Visits Hoxton

The Hackney Homes Responsive Repair Team comprising of plumber, electrician, bricklayer, carpenter and glazier will be at St Leonards Court, and St John’s Estate on Thursday 12 April.

The team have already visit Arden, Pitfield and Provost Estates.

I hope the team will be a permanent feature around the ward.

Redeveloping Jack Beard Pub, Hoxton?

The keen interest in developing Hoxton continues to grow. Tonight residents were asked to comment on more plans. This time site for development is the Jack Beard Pub on Murray Grove.

Telford Homes want to use the site to build a nine story block on the site. They are hoping that their proposal for 10 family sized affordable homes on the first 3½ floors will be acceptable to local residents and that objections won’t be raised when they submit them to Planning.

They want to make four of the affordable until into 1 bedroom flats; 3 of the units into 3 bedroom flats and 3 of the properties will have four bedrooms.

Their plans included 19 properties which will be for private sale.

The usual legal obligations will have to be fulfilled which means that plans will eventually be submitted for viewing on the Planning Authority Website.

The consultant working for Telford Homes will, I’m sure, welcome further comments on the plans. Martin Hughes can be contacted on 07831 869878 and faxed on 020 8181 6234. He can also be emailed at martin@lucis-communications.co.uk

Regenerating Hoxton Estates

Resident representatives from St Johns and Crantson Estate in Hoxton met with consultants this week to tell them their visions for the developement of their estates over the next few years.

Levitt Bernstein Associates and Strategic Urban Futures have been appointed by the council to work on consultation with local residents on regenerating their estates so they have both the look and layout suitable for local needs.

Over the next 10 weeks, there will be extensive consultation Wenlock Barn, St. John’s & Cranston estates and Haberdasher Estate.

The next meeting will be held on 18 April. More details will be posted soon.

London Marathon

Its that time of year when people start sending emails letting you know that they will be running the marathon and aksing for support.

My latest message was from Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights. Mr Phillips will be running in aid of the abolition of the slave trade legacy fund.

Best of luck!

Caught on Camera

I take my mobile phone with me everywhere and as it has a camera on it, I take more pictures now than I have ever taken before.

It is particularly useful when walking around the ward as I can take pictures of dumped rubbish as well graffiti and send it straight to officers. These generally get dealt with very quickly so I was please to hear that Hackney Homes now have a new repairs textline on 0773 854 4872.

To report repairs all you now need to do is take a picture of the problem and with the name of the estate along with the problem.

Any reports made throughout April will be entered into a draw to win a camera phone.

Wenlock Barn to Get Disable Parking Space

Following on from a written complaint regarding the lack of disable parking bays at Wenlock Barn Estate, Hoxton, Hackney Homes have finally agreed to replace one of the bays outside outside Wimbourne Court with a disabled parking bay.

The new bay will not be allocated to an individual property, but it will be an estate disabled parking bay which is for the use of any disabled driver who is living on Wenlock Barn Estate.

Watch this space to find out the location.

Cllr Carole Williams

Cows Seen Grazing in Shoreditch

Hoxton Councillors Clayeon McKenzie, Carole Williams and Phil Glanville, have been receiving information about cows seen grazing across Shoreditch. The latest herd was last spotted by Sheperdess Walk Park on Sunday lunch time.

Ward Councillors were called to the scene and found five hungry cows being fed by local residents. They are asking other residents to continue to do the same on a regular basis to keep the cows from going hungry and prevent the NSPCA being called out.

From appearances it is clear that the herd is going to continue to grow and increase in numbers with the likelihood of more being seen across the borough.

"Please continue to feed the cows," pleads Councillor Clayeon McKenzie. "Without the help of residents, we will be heading for disaster."

Abolition of Slavery

For over four hundred years, from the mid-fifteenth century, millions of Africans were enslaved through the transatlantic slave trade. It is thought that over 12 million Africans were loaded onto slave ships and that over three million died.

Until the 19th century, slavery was considered an acceptable part of the economic system, enabling many countries in Europe and beyond to profit and prosper from the trade of goods produced by enslaved labour.

Two hundred years ago the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed in Parliament. William Wilberforce has received much of the credit for its abolition, but there are many unsung heroes and heroines whose voices have been lost in the mists of time.

William Wilberforce, born in 1759 into a wealthy family played a central in the abolition of slavery and was galvanised to do something about the trade in human lives.

Wilberforce was not a skilful legislative tactician and despite introducing an abolition bill every year and getting the House of Commons to vote to abolish the slave trade in 1792, he failed to get the support of the House of Lords so the bill was not passed until 1807.

Others who contributed to the abolition of slavery included Thomas Clarkson, who travelled around the country, generating petitions to parliament and Lord Grenville who got the measure through the House of Lords. James Stephen also urged Wilberforce to get parliament to ban British ships carrying slaves to the colonies of France and its allies.

Women also played a vital role despite their own lack of emancipation and political power. Instead, they used moral action as well as indirect action to cajole and influential friends and those in with political clout.

More than 300,000 people, for example, were encouraged to join a boycott of sugar grown on plantations which used slave labour.

The campaign worked and the Act was passed in 1807. It was enforced gradually, however and in 1824, Elizabeth Heyrick, was still working to oppose Wilberforce’s ‘gradual’ approach and published a pamphlet entitled 'Immediate, Not Gradual Abolition'. The call was taken up by women's societies in 1830 putting the Anti-Slavery Society in a position where they had to agree to the change.

Other abolitionists include Quobna Ottobah Cugoano , Anthony Benezet, Joseph Sturge , John Woolman, Mary Prince , James Stephen , James Ramsay , Toussaint L'Ouverture and many more

There were also many other nameless and faceless men women and children who we know nothing about who played a vital role in this movement.
It is by no coincidence that the 200th anniversary is the year which organisations such as Anti Slavery have chosen to mark the phenomenon called modern slavery. They know that, despite the fact that abolition of slavery is an historical event, there are at least 12 million people around the world who live and work in contemporary forms of slavery.

It’s these forms of modern slavery which have galvanised nameless and faceless men, women and children up and down this country 200 years after the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act to fight against the continuing trade in human lives.


More information on the abolition of slavery visit The National Archives, The BBC Website or the Parliamentary Website


What ever you do to mark the anniversary, visit the exhibition at Hackney Museum.

0% local tax rise AND boosts for key services.

Hackney’s part of the council tax is being frozen for the second year in a row - with a 0% rise for 2007/8.

Rising collection rates and efficiency savings at the Town Hall mean Hackney’s ruling Labour group is able to put more money into key services without putting up council tax.

Highlights of the 2007/8 budget were revealed to a meeting of the full council on Wednesday.

For the fifth year running Labour Mayor Jules Pipe will be setting a balanced budget that does not have to deal with overspends in previous years.

This is also the fifth year that there are NO cuts in services in Hackney’s budget – as well as extra money to fund residents’ key priorities.

The council has made almost £4 million in efficiency savings – money which is being ploughed back into key services.

The council tax collection rate is rising and is now at 90% - up 1% on last year – bringing in more money that can be spent on key services for residents.

Hackney’s Labour mayor Jules Pipe said: “Hackney Labour is very pleased we can deliver a 0% rise in local tax for the second year in a row.

“I am committed to keeping council tax down through improving the Council’s efficiency and driving up collection rates.

“Improved council efficiency means we can also put more money into the services that matter to you.”

Labour’s 2007/8 budget means boosts for key services including:

KIDS SWIM FREE: An extra £295K to fund free access to all residents under 18 to swimming lessons during school holidays – starting this Easter.

BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE: An extra £80K to extend the opening hours of the Hackney Service Centre from 8am-6pm Monday-Friday to 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday AND Saturday morning. More translating services for customers without English as a first language.

STREET WARDENS: Investment to secure the future for Hackney’s Street Wardens to help make our borough cleaner and safer. - In Hoxton this means our street wardens continue to be fully funded by the Council.

MORE RECYCLING: An extra £250K to roll out compulsory recycling across the borough including for plastics and to introduce blue bins for kitchen waste to all kerbside collections.

MORE TREES: An extra 500 trees on Hackney’s street this year alone – reducing our carbon footprint and making Hackney greener.

GREENER HACKNEY: An extra £1.3m to improve Hackney’s parks and green spaces

In addition, Hackney’s schools are getting an extra £11 million to continue the improvements in education in Hackney that have seen GCSE results improve from 32% in 2002 to 51% today.

Labour’s 2007/8 budget takes a further step forward and away from the financial mismanagement and instability of a hung council.

Back then, Hackney’s finances were in chaos, services were being cut and properties had to be sold to pay for the services that had to be maintained.

Since Jules Pipe became Mayor in 2002 the Council has finished every year without overspending and has put more investment into new services.