Dalston Futures meeting tomorrow night (Thurs)

Dalston Futures
In Dalston developers are circling, hoping to transform the current shopping mall (Sainsbury, Matalan and the car park behind) into a massive new shopping complex, with seven tower blocks on top. The development has the potential to bring benefits to the local community, but, it could also simply create an island of privilege squatting in the centre of Dalston. The Eastern Curve Garden is already under threat, so the big question is: what benefit can this development bring to the community and how do we ensure that it potential benefit is realised? Hackney Unites, with funding form the National Lottery,  is working to bring the community together and establishing a strong, inclusive, local voice over redevelopment and other issues.

We have a Dalston futures meeting this coming Thursday at:  6.30pm at the Trinity Centre Beechwood Road E8 3DY (the centre is at the Forest Road end of Beechwood Road.   http://www.thetrinitycentredalston.org.uk/)

The planning meeting will discuss results of our on-line survey, how we can begin to bring the community together and agree some practical steps (such as leaflet distribution, and organising meetings with existing community leaders across the area).

You can help in two ways: come along to the meeting (even if you are not from Dalston, you can still help)
Help promote the event on facebook, twitter, or by displaying a poster in a local shop, bar or community space, a poster is available for download here: http://tinyurl.com/p4udmn3

If you are from Dalston then please take our survey:https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DalstonFuturesProject

Interested in our Community Organising programme?

Next Wednesday, 9 October, Hackney Unites is holding an informal meeting 
for people interested in our community organising training programme.
 
The training is aimed at people who are socially committed, and who want 
to bring our communities together to effect positive change. Whether 
your objective is getting a safer school crossing, or tackling bad 
landlords, the training will equip you with skills and knowledge that 
can increase the potential for your hard work to reap positive results.
 
We don't have a blueprint, and we won't tell you how to run your 
campaigns, but we will explore concepts that have helped other 
campaigners, many of them developed during the American Civil Rights 
movement.
 
The meeting which starts at 6.30pm and will be over by 8pm, will be in 
the basement of Cafe Olive, 18 Stoke Newington High Street, London N16 
7PL (opposite the police station)
 
The course is modular and can be delivered in multiple ways: either as a 
series of workshops over a few weeks, or a couple of full days.
 
Topics that we can cover include:
 
* 'power mapping' (who has power in our community, are they for
us/against us/neutral and how do we shift the power),
* building power through building trust,
* developing a public narrative (the story of who we are, and what we
believe in)
* strategy and tactics (and why the difference is important)
* running a successful meeting,
* developing a communications strategy,
* organising for diversity
* 'growing our own leaders'
 
 
What we would like to do next Wednesday is agree between those people 
who are interested in attending what format they would like. We would 
also like to establish what the key areas are that you would like us to 
cover.
 
Finally, we need to explore where and when to deliver the courses.
 
It is our hope that we can then begin the course delivery within two weeks.
 
If you are planning to join us, please reply to this email and let us 
know you will be joining us next Wednesday.
 
Please feel free to invite others who you think would be interested.
 
Looking forward to working with you.
 
Regards
 
John Page

FREE digital learning for Hackney people.

Ever wanted to learn how to produce a digital newsletter or a simple website in Wordpress? Well, here is your chance > TSSA Learning is running three training sessions on newsletter production using Mailchimp and website production using Wordpress. Following the training further support will be available on producing, editing  and posting content. 

Training will take place on Tues evenings: 6, 13 and 20 Aug. Schedule: 6.30-8.30

To book your place please contact Andrea: enisuoha@tssa.org.uk

Want to make a difference in your community but don't know how?  Then UpRising is for you!  UpRising is a leadership programme for 19-25 year olds. Our mission is to open pathways to power for talented young adults from diverse backgrounds. By developing the knowledge, skills, networks and confidence you need, UpRising will help you to become a leader who can transform your community for the better. UpRising is looking for talented 19-25 year olds who have an interest in making change happen in their community. We are recruiting in East London in the areas of Tower Hamlets, Newham, Hackney and Barking and Dagenham. Deadline: Friday the 13th of September  The programme We’ll put you through a nine month (part-time) skills and knowledge programme, which will include the design and delivery of social action campaign where you work with fellow UpRisers to tackle a real social issue in your area. The programme is intensive but it is also designed around you. Our sessions take place in the evening so you can fit UpRising around your work, study or other commitments. Learn more about our programme at http://www.uprising.org.uk/programme Olatunji Atunrase, Bedford UpRiser 2011-2012 “When I joined UpRising, I didn’t feel I had a say about what went on in my local community. Through UpRising I visited local projects and learnt about how they work. I am now a Trustee at the Bedford Open Door service, I am working as a self-employed mentor at a school, and I aim to stand as a local Councillor at the local elections.” Want to know more? Visit our FAQs page Apply now at http://www.uprising.org.uk/apply/uprising-application-form-201314

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Dalston People's Festival - July 13th -20th - be a part of it!

If you want a stall at our launch event on Dalston Squarte on Saturday 13th July or if you want to perform/host an event during the week then please get in touch. Email: andrea@hackneyunites.org.uk 

We are planning the Dalston People’s Festival - a week-long celebration in Dalston the heart of Hackney. At a time with so much to cause us concern, we want to celebrate the strength of the multi-cultural community that is Dalston. Already major venues such as the Vortex, Gillett Square, the Arcola, and the Eastern Curve Garden have voiced their support. The Dalston Square residents want in, and dozens of community groups, bars, and performers are exploring what they can do to make this event a resounding success.

The festival will utilise existing community venues, spaces and networks and will be sufficiently flexible in its format to include arts, literature, spoken word, cultural, history and community events.

This is a festival for the diverse people and communities of Dalston. We want every section of the community to bring a little of their culture and tradition to the party. While the festival will be limited in its geography to the Dalston area, we will be inviting the whole of Hackney to join in, and many community groups have already expressed their intention to get involved and showcase what they are doing for the community.

One of our aims is to bring our communities together, build trust and overcome divisions at a time when, due to the economic climate, the future for many of our communities is getting darker. We want to celebrate and showcase Dalston, but we believe that in the process we will also contribute towards building stronger community links that will survive and prosper long after the festival itself.

What will the festival comprise of?
Well we don’t know for sure, but if you have an idea, then let us know. Among the many ideas being explores are: live jazz in Gillette Square, folk music in the Eastern Curve Garden, outdoor cinema, a food fair, a community fair at Dalston Square, a stage with a variety of young and up and coming performers, an inter-faith forum, a community conference, showcasing a hip hop arts education project, a street parade (part carnival, part mardi-gras) a ‘street feast’, a spoken word event, film making sessions, a celebration of dance, an on-line TV channel for the duration of the festival (as well as a project to support the digitally excluded), we are also in discussion with the Hackney Brewery who are planning an open day to coincide with the festival.

If you want to know more then please register your interest: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FFYKB56

Community Learning in Hackney - Come and have your say - Info/Open evening - Tomorrow- Weds 15th May, 6.30pm @WEA

Below information about an important meeting in Hackney to discuss life-long long learning and professional and personal development. The meeting is taking place on Wednesday 15th May (6.30pm)  and we are looking to have a frank discussion about community learning in Venue: WEA London Region

96-100 Clifton Street, London EC2A 4TP. For info/directions call 07956 546110 - or email: enisuoha@tssa.org.uk 

Hackney’s CPZs unstoppable!

Hackney Council continue to implement Controlled Parking Zones (CPZ) into the borough despite huge opposition.  On Monday 22 April 2013, the Labour Cabinet and Mayor Jules Pipe signed a new Parking and Enforcement Plan (PEP) without the usual public consultation.  This plan effectively allows the Council to continue implementing CPZs – even when the majority of residents vote against them.

R Zone campaigners in Hackney’s Stoke Newington opposed their CPZ and successfully challenged the Council on the consultation.  This resulted in the process being stopped in January 2013.  Negotiations with the Ombudsman finally determined how Hackney could lawfully continue and how the Council must avoid having nine years of CPZs torn up.  Basically, Hackney had to rewrite the Parking Enforcement Plan and sign this off before April 2013.  

Given how highly contentious the issue is and for the need for Hackney to address parking capacity needs, it is time to lift the lid on the specific detail that allows the introduction of a CPZ – despite the majority of residents voting against them.

The consultation process has to identify an area and it usually does so by using ‘logical boundaries’ to establish the roads that would be inside the zone.  The votes are then collected and the residents are told, ‘the majority vote of the whole area will be the deciding factor’.

Some years ago the Council decided to undertake a ‘street by street’ analysis of the votes - to identify pockets of CPZ support.  It then joined these pockets together to make new CP Zones.  However, the Parking Enforcement Plan did not permit this and the public were never consulted.  When challenged, the Council removed the Parking and Enforcement Plan 2010-2015 from the website and continued joining pockets of voters together to introduce CPZs. 

The consequence of this behaviour is illustrated in the two maps of the R Zone.  The top map shows the residents’ votes and as a consequence there is no CPZ.  The bottom Map is of the same area but using the ‘street by street’ analysis.  As illustrated, the Council ignored the middle majority and simply joined the four corners together to make a CPZ. 

This essentially means a tiny minority can now determine the whole outcome of a CPZ area.  Had these pockets on either end been classified as Black Minority Ethnic (BME) or Gay or Disables or Women etc – then such actions would have been impossible.  But because those who can afford to pay for parking also support CPZs and generally live closer together, this effectively means our public roads are becoming the private property of those with high disposable incomes.

The legislation that permits the Council to charge a CPZ is quite clear, it must do so to alleviate congestion and must use the funds to develop, support and improve parking facilities. 

Since the introduction of CPZ in Hackney some nine years ago, we have seen the Council remove public garages from residents in estates and roads, brick up public garages to remove them from our everyday thinking and allow multiple occupancy of residential dwellings, all of which have created parking problems. 

Furthermore, the funds already raised from Hackney’s CPZ have not been spent on improving car parking capacity in the borough - one need only read the balance sheets to see most of the funds are going to private contractors.

This unofficial tax will see thousands of low earning families and those with multiple jobs being forced to buy a residential permit or move to cycling or public transport.  As a cyclist I am painfully aware that cycling is not suitable for everyone and that having two jobs and children means that public transport is simply too long.  Ten minutes between buses adds up and can be the differences between arriving at work on time or late or being fired. 

Likewise, a yearly residential permit of some £200 that rises not in line with salaries but by some other obscure measure, is likely to see families on low incomes with multiple jobs and children falling economically closer to poverty measures.

London is 610 square meters so the idea that personal transport can simply be priced away from the general public is ridiculous, divisive and poor economics.  The public highways are ours and it is us – the public - that should determine how we use them.  Although that decision was taken away from the whole of Hackney on Monday, in eight months time there will be another opportunity to feedback on the Parking Enforcement Plan. 

This is the time to ask why are Hackney residents paying for their CPZ when LB Newham allow the first car to park for free?  Why are we allowing our public roads and parking to become the privilege of the wealthy? And why should our pensioners or early retirees being entombed by unaffordable parking costs?

Rectory Rollers understand many of these issues and has suggested a range of alternatives.  They aim to join the community together (rectoryrollers@gmail.com), and by using open consultations - re-write Hackney’s Parking Enforcement Plan to reflect the majority's needs.

As CPZs continue to sweep over Hackney, we are sleep walking into a world where cars and public roads are for the wealthy.  Rectory Rollers believe that by actively engaging with the PEP in 2013, we may stop that trend and change our environment for the better.