Residents resisting demolition and environmental destruction in Central Hill

 

After 7 years campaigning to stop Lambeth Council from demolishing their estate, residents on the Central Hill estate are taking direct action to save their homes.

 

Campaigners have set up a 24 hour protection camp to stop the council felling the trees and demolishing Truslove House. Nearly 300 objections were lodged against the plans for a new 7 storey block on the site but they were ignored, so residents are left with no alternative but to take this dramatic action to halt the destructive impact of the council’s plans.

Truslove house, on Roman Rise, SE19 1JG is the first building on the estate earmarked for demolition but eventually all 465 council homes on the estate will be torn down to be replaced by a high density, high rise development of up to 1,200 mostly private apartments. Lambeth Council have set up a new company, Homes for Lambeth, to deliver this speculative property venture and they intend to invest £1.8 billion over the next 20 years to demolish Central Hill and 5 other council estates in the borough, with only the vaguest hope that they might reap a 10% profit from their efforts. But at what cost to these communities, to our environment or to all those in desperate need of this council housing? This destruction will be funded by public money and hundreds of millions will be borrowed as public debt, which puts Lambeth at risk of bankruptcy, as recently happened in Croydon when similar property gambles failed.

Not one of the new builds will be a council home with a secure council tenancy. Most will be sold off privately at full market rate and the rest will be rented or sold at various levels of ‘affordability’ - all will be more expensive than current rent levels.

So the new development will do nothing to address the housing crisis and it will also worsen the climate crisis. Lambeth say they understand the need for drastic and immediate cuts to greenhouse gas emissions but this project completely goes against that aim. We urgently need to find ways to refurbish existing properties to high environmental standards rather than demolish and rebuild which involves wasting all the embodied carbon already in the buildings and produces vast amounts more carbon emissions through the concrete and steel and construction process of the new buildings. Mature trees and green spaces, which support biodiversity and make this such a pleasant place to live, will be lost forever.

Central Hill has been left to deteriorate over many years. Since demolition was first proposed many properties have been left empty, and longstanding residents have been worn down by years of uncertainty and neglect of their homes. Every attempt to put forward alternatives or to have their voices heard have been brushed aside by Lambeth Council. GLA funding has even been withdrawn from Homes For Lambeth because they have failed to abide by the Labour policy of balloting residents before estates are demolished! But in the last week we’ve seen that Lambeth Council cannot simply rely on demoralising residents into submission – people are tired of being ignored and people are angry about the cynicism of politicians who talk about a climate emergency or local democracy while literally bulldozing through their trees and homes.

Come and join residents in Central Hill on the frontline of fighting for a fair future where we protect our environment and provide high quality affordable homes for all.

Sabine Mairey, Chair of the Residents' Association, who has been sleeping at the camp most nights has appealed for other campaigners to come and get involved "We invite anyone to come down to support us, to find out more about the estate and to hear our side of the story."

 

Sign the petition below to stop the demolition of Central Hill estate

 

http://chng.it/7ZyGqPWrQJ

 

Send messages of support to @SaveCentralHill

Email [email protected]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/554220628024609/