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You are here: Southwark \ STEP FORWARD FOR AYLESBURY PLANS
STEP FORWARD FOR AYLESBURY PLANS
30 October 2009
John Prendergast
johnp@southwarknews.org
Plans to rebuild the Aylesbury Estate took an important step this week, but concerns still remain about how tenants will be moved off the estate.
The Secretary of State's Planning Inspector gave the go-ahead for the £2.4million project, which the council claims represents a huge hurdle in getting the scheme up and running.
The inspector visited the estate in September and held a two day hearing, in which a number of concerns and opinions were put forward to him. This week his report found the council’s plans to be sound and they will be formally adopted in January.
Councillor Paul Noblet, executive member for regeneration, said: "We've worked really hard to meet the Aylesbury Area Action Plan's demanding rules to get to this stage, helped no end by excellent relationships with Aylesbury residents.
"The Aylesbury programme received a cash boost from the Homes and Communities Agency a few months ago; and Southwark is the only London authority to share £1.7billion PFI funding to help deliver new homes."
The council now has the job of rehousing 500 residents from the first phase of the redevelopment programme, which will take place next year.
While the residents moving off the estate will be offered the right to return, the fact tenants will be relocated using Homesearch, the council's listing of available properties, has raised eyebrows.
The system was used to relocate 1,200 Heygate Estate residents and failed to cope with the influx of people looking for properties at the same time. More than 100 residents still remain on the estate, which is due for demolition next year.
Labour's regeneration spokesperson, Cllr Chris Page, said: "This seems absolutely crazy idea. It's as if the Lib Dems have learnt absolutely nothing from the catastrophic experience on the Heygate, when decanted tenants were forced to compete for a tiny number of empty properties with the 14,000 other people on the waiting list.
"Tenants on the Aylesbury need assurances that they will not be forced through the same nightmare as those on the Heygate last year. I simply can't see how that's going to be possible through Homesearch. It's simply not good enough for the coalition to keep their fingers crossed as they recycle the bad ideas of yesterday. These are people's lives that we're talking about."
A council spokeswoman said: "We are not beginning to actively rehouse residents in phase one until 2010.
"We will be carefully managing the rehousing process, to ensure that the 500 tenants in phase one of the programme will receive band one status in stages, so they will not all be actively bidding at the same time."
The estate is 28.5 hectares in size and 7,500 people live there. As well as demolishing the estate, the programme also includes plans to renovate Burgess Park and improve local schools such as Michael Faraday Primary School, which is situated on Portland Street.
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Comments (1)
1. At 07:36 PM on 28 Feb 2010, linda haggerty wrote:
I Have lived here for over 30years and have loved it for 25 of them but now with being flooded out 10 times no repairs being done no heating it's a nightmare and the council could not care less!
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