Sacred Ground, and a Savage Beauty: a return to West Hendon

Mrs Angry has written a lot about the West Hendon 'regeneration', over the last year or so. 

In the last week she was obliged to update an earlier post:

 http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/the-last-word-shall-not-be-with.html

.... about the massive bomb that fell in this area, in February 1941, courtesy of the Luftwaffe, causing many deaths, and widespread destruction: an issue that is central to the controversial Barratt's development that is now being imposed on this area, right on the fringes of the beautiful Welsh Harp. 

This development had been originally intended as a genuine act of regeneration, for the benefit of the residents of the council estate, but under the direction of the Tory council, here in Broken Barnet, has become something utterly different, a travesty of the idea of regeneration:  a profit driven luxury development on public land given away, in secret, to the developers for the token sum of £3. And those residents duped into agreeing the regeneration on the basis of being given new homes, and a better quality of life? They are being driven out of West Hendon: in some cases out of the borough.

The issue of the wartime bombing is central to the story of the new development because at the planning stage, and even at the time of the Inquiry into the compulsory purchase of properties in the way of the next phase of the development, the council, Capita and Barratts have tried to deny the historical significance of the site. 

That significance is as a place of memorial to those who lost their lives in the incident - and those missing victims who still remain, in what lies beneath the monstrous buildings now reaching into the skies above West Hendon. 

And Barnet, Barratts, and Capita do not really want people to remember this, or acknowledge that they are building on what a relative of one of the victims reminded us in the last few days was always considered to be 'sacred ground'. 

Last week Mrs Angry received an email from Barnet Council rather belatedly objecting to the use of the only photograph of the bomb damage, and, rather impertinently, even the use of her own photos of certain documentation in the local archives, documentation curiously ignored by planning officers in their haste to write a report recommending approval of the building plans. Mrs Angry, of course, told them to feck off, and prove copyright, but has had no response, as yet.

Jasmin Parsons and West Hendon councillor Devra Kay, marking the location of the bombing. (Please do not look at the image shown of the destruction, until copyright has been established).

Time to take some more photographs perhaps, thought Mrs Angry, so yesterday she went for a lovely walk (or rather hobble, due to her bad back, don't you know) around the estate, and the Welsh Harp, in the company of the redoutable Jasmin Parsons, who has lived there for thirty five years, and campaigned so fiercely for the community she is seeing torn apart, and razed to the ground.

Mrs Angry has nothing but the greatest respect - and affection - for Jasmin: a truly admirable champion of that community: courageous, determined - and a good hearted woman, whose strength of character belies her own vulnerability, and the sometimes unimaginably challenging experiences of her own life.

Arriving at Perryfields, and the entrance to Tyrrel Way, there was a chaotic scene - the noise was incredible: lorries and cement mixers with engines running, moving and reversing in a madly unchoreographed sequence, blocking the road: noisy, dirty, and dangerous.

Unbearable for only a few minutes: what it is like to live in this night and day, for years on end, is impossible to comprehend. As Mr Reasonable pointed out this week: the terms of the contract would appear to being openly flouted. Except now residents are being told the work that is driving them to despair after hours, and at weekends is necessary because it is 'urgent'. So shut up, and put up.

And it is the final insult, for the tenants and leaseholders forced to endure this torment, knowing that in absolute denial of all promises made to them by the Tory councillors who so cleverly delivered the hugely profitable 'regeneration' of West Hendon into the hands of Barratts - they have no chance of living in the new housing. They have no right to live there. They cannot afford to live there. Their homes are being knocked down, tenants 'decanted' to other 'regeneration' sites, 'temporary people', already living the reality of a nation soon to be freed from the tyranny of human rights legislation. 

The right to respect for your home, and private life? You have no right to a home, in Broken Barnet, for sure, and if you live in a 'regeneration' area: your right to respect for that home, and your private life is not applicable, of course.

For the last few weeks residents have claimed they have had to put up with this continual noise, dirt and traffic at times when the contract clearly specifies work should not be taking place at all, ie in the evening, Saturday and Sunday. Constant complaints have been made, to no avail. It would appear that the developers are in something of a hurry, for whatever reason there might be. Urgency in the sense of time being money, no doubt.

Certainly since Mrs Angry last visited the site, some parts are almost unrecognisable. Where once the car park was, the site of the now lost memorial to the victims of the bombing: there stands a grim building, reminiscent of a state penitentiary, overlooking the squalid backyards of former shops on the Edgware Road, now closed, dying slowly over the years in ironic, treacherous denial of the very concept of regeneration. Or perhaps more of an assisted death, through the tender mercies of Barnet Council, and Barratts.

This is where the few tenants who have managed to retain secure tenancies are to be housed. The lucky ones: kept in check, safely outside the footprint of the private development, and of course not allowed any sight of the Welsh Harp, as that must be a privilege reserved for those who can afford to buy a view. How else to teach aspiration, either Tory or New Labour version, without such corrective discipline?

Looming horribly over the site, as you can see from Mrs Angry's photos, is the lift shaft of one of the two monstrous tower blocks that Barnet approved as suitable architecture right slap bang next to the oasis of beauty, and Site of Special Scientific Interest, that is the Welsh Harp. Twenty four storeys were marked out. There are two more to go. And the twin tower due to accompany this blot on the landscape is going to be even taller: thirty two floors.

*Updated: Jasmin has reminded Mrs Angry that there will eventually be no less than FOUR tower blocks - the other two supposed to be 19 and 21 storeys respectively - although some fear the heights may be extended beyond this.

And if you think this is not a blot on the landscape, look at the photo at the beginning of this post, and see how tower number one blights the skyline, thrusting defiantly at the clouds, at even such a distance from the site.

Off we went, Jasmin and Mrs Angry, keeping well clear of the lorries and mess, and skirting round the side of the estate, onto the remaining part of York Memorial Park, which is marked for further expansion of the development, and the further encroachment on the site of the bombing. 

The land here is still uneven, in an interesting and suggestive way: and the discovery of some sort of old drainage cover hidden in the grass, not far from the trees still remaining from the old boundary by the water's edge, led one to wonder just what else an archaeological survey of the area might find.

Round the fringe of the Harp, trying to follow the former pathway, now neglected and reclaimed by nature, lost under a carpet of grass and a temporary rebellion of wildflowers, visited by darting, electric blue damsel flies, and the happy droning of busy bees, barely audible as the noise of work on the buildings, the hammering of corporate profit, carried on relentlessly above us. 

Jasmin pointed out where there had once been housing accommodation for the elderly - just as there was once a nursery. All the stages of life supported on site, as she said: the foundations of a community. All taken away, shut down, all to be developed. Community has no place in West Hendon now.

We passed under the shadow of the Barratt billboards, boasting of the benefits of their annexation of West Hendon: yes, the 'regeneration', the 'enhanced' town centre: the 'preservation' of the Welsh Harp. No mention of the ruthless destruction of, yes, that word again - a community, of course.

As we walked on towards Cool Oak Bridge, the view across the Harp was intensely beautiful: dozens of swans kept their distance, guardedly, gliding slowly towards us, in the relative peace of the further side of the water.

But what have we here, on this side of the bridge, squatting on the waterside, or rather the Waterside, proudly protecting a nest of potentially rather ugly ducklings, unlikely to make the transformation into beautiful swans? Yes: a Barratt showroom.

And no, Mrs Angry and Jasmin could not resist the temptation.

In past the smiling receptionists, and round the corner straight into the aspirational heaven that is Barratt's Hendon Waterside. Oh boy. Certainly heaven for Mrs Angry, who as a child was always getting into trouble when visiting friends and family with her mother, wandering off and looking in all the cupboards. Still inclined to take a peek inside bathroom cabinets, and goodness me, how revealing that can be. (Some people seem to be unaware of sell by dates, and their effect on the efficiency of certain products ...) But we digress.

Immediately facing potential buyers is an display, in lovely silver gilt framing, of a collection of rather obscure classic Roman images. Puzzling, at first: but then it occurs that someone with a gcse in history might just have thought about being on the Edgware Road, ie Watling Street, and the Roman allusions a suitable sort of history to impress the punters, rather than the social history of the working class community of West Hendon, and the soon to be forgotten story of the Welsh Harp. Or perhaps images of colonialism and empire are more sympathetic to the eye of a corporate sales team.

But move on, into the first, tiny bedroom. Oh: this is the master bedroom, looking onto the water.

Now, see: this is what property developers think will entice buyers desperate to secure a Barratt home in West Hendon. No, not the proximity of kebab shops, and greasy spoon cafes, and tyre fitters. Leave behind the grubby reality of the Edgware Road, and come with Mrs Angry, if you please ... to this bucolic idyll, where you will live in rooms that are filled with light, cream coloured luxury, and lovely new things. 

They are selling a dream: the wet dream of some senior sales director, who thinks there will be plenty of buyers desperate for the sort of lifestyle suggested by this fantasy, as demonstrated by what Mrs Angry is reliably informed is an example of 'showhouse narrative'. Hmm. 

Shiny and new, this dream, smooth as ... silk: milky white, and translucent, an ejaculation of money, all over the carpets, the walls, the preposterously becushioned beds, behind which a fragemented mirror offers a glimpse of pleasures that might just be yours, if you can afford it. 

If you want the full picture, and an all in one mirror, of course, you would have to pay extra, and upgrade to a penthouse flat.

Or, alternatively, if you really enjoy seeing someone being well and truly f*cked, you could nip round to what remains of the council estate, and see what Barnet and their partners have done to the residents of West Hendon. Free of charge. 

Quite what has been going on, in this showhome, in the mind of the in house set dressers is something of a mystery. On one of the beds there is a discarded dress, sunglasses and a designer knock off handbag that might have come from Primark: on the bedside table a man's watch - and his wallet. The watch didn't look the sort to have anything engraved on it. We are always interested in that sort of detail, aren't we, readers? And the wallet ...  was empty. Maybe she helped herself, when he was in the ensuite bathroom.

A reasonable conclusion was that whatever had just happened in the room was a commercial transaction. Well - why not? Everything has a price, these days. 

This is not a place for love, or desire, or family life: at the Housing Inquiry we heard the Barnet/Capita planning officer tell the Inspector that 'child yield' in this development - as in all local regeneration schemes, funnily enough - would be insignificant. The school we were told was part of the deal may never be necessary, as a result. How convenient.

No doubt any sexually active couples living in Hendon Waterside will subject to a cultural revolution style discouragement from our Tory masters in regard to procreation, and become obliged to sell up, and move on, should too many unsanctioned children issue forth from their unions.

Still - look: some nice things on the dressing table. Mrs Angry helped herself to a squirt of the Jo Malone cologne, on the way out. And took her fountain pen, and notebook, to write a little note, to leave, in the absence of a visitors' book. 

Wonder if they've found it yet?

In the kitchen-living room there were more pointers for those who might be feeling aspirationally inclined to buying one of the flats. 

Ralph Lauren tableware. Earl Grey tea in the cupboards.

In the fridge, champagne, bottles of Italian mineral water, olives, hazelnut infused honey. Haagen Daz in the freezer.

And on the table, most comical of all, a familiar looking book, with a holographic cover. Mrs Angry was beside herself with laughter, by now. 

A copy of 'Savage Beauty', homage to the designer genius of Alexander McQueen, currently the subject of a stunningly good exhibition at the V&A:

Miss Angry was also beside herself with amusement, and exhibiting a certain degree of fury, when she saw the photos, being a student at Central Saint Martins, which produced Mc Queen, and where she is taught by some of his former tutors, one or two of which have published their own books about him. 

Miss A pointed out that not only was McQueen brought up in social housing, the removal of which, in the act of social cleansing which has taken place in West Hendon, has made way for this development, his subversive, brilliant mind would have despised everything represented by this unspeakably vulgar showhouse. 

Give me time and I'll give you a revolution - Alexander McQueen.

The breathless aspirational aesthetic of a Barratt showhome may disappoint the educated eye, but step back outside into the natural world, the part that has not yet been conquered by corporate ambition, and still you find a savage beauty that defies the grasping hand of profit.

Jasmin and Mrs Angry scarpered from the showhome, leaving a trail of muddy footprints on the milky white carpets, and wandered across the bridge onto the sandy paths and the rural backwaters of the Harp's open spaces and wooded areas, populated by willow, and ash, and oak. 

At the water's edge another damsel fly hovered in mid air, mating with a female. The swans came over to us, a pair proudly guarding a dozen fluffy babies. It was a blissful scene, in the sultry late afternoon sun, glinting on the shallow depths of the Harp's borders.

On closer inspection, however, it was apparent that both adult swans had fishing wire - and presumably a hook - caught in their beaks. 

A suitable metaphor on which to end the day.

Once the Victorian working man and woman came here, in droves, on a day trip, to take a walk in the country air, and enjoy the pleasures of the Welsh Harp Music Hall, maybe to listen to Annie Adams sing of 'the Jolliest Place that's Out', or Albert Chevalier offering the 'Coster's Serenade': 

Eight months ago and things is still the same,

You're known about 'ere by your maiden name,

I'm getting chivied by my pals cos why?

Nightly I warbles for your reply.

Summer 'as gone, and its a freezin' now, 

Still love's a burnin' in my 'eart I vow;

Just as it did that 'appy night in May

Down at the Welsh 'Arp, which is 'Endon Way

Summer is gone, before it has ever arrived, this year, in West Hendon. The pleasure grounds of the working man are now co-opted into the corporate fantasies of private enterprise, and the love that burned in the honest heart of the nineteenth century costermonger has been abandoned in favour of a beautifully coordinated act of meaningless copulation between the sheets of a Barratt's showhouse bed.

This is Broken Barnet. That was West Hendon. 

That is all there is to say.

How the West was Won: the forgotten story of Hendon Waterside

The western boundaries of this borough have always represented a problem for the Tory councillors of Broken Barnet. 

Hostile territory, populated by an indigenous people: working class communities - Labour voters. 

The very existence of such areas of unconquered land is of course an affront to the founding fathers of our easycouncil empire, and a challenge to their dwindling electoral dominance: but it is also an opportunity that attracts the pioneering political ideologues of the Tory administration - assisted by the attentions of private developers, who are adept at persuading those that need to be persuaded of the benefits of large scale development schemes, dressed in the guise of 'regeneration'.

This part of our borough, mostly on the western side, has been heavily targeted for 'regeneration', with massive development plans for Brent Cross- Cricklewood, Colindale, Grahame Park - and West Hendon. 

Nothing must stand in their way: any objections are brushed aside, or carefully managed.

Only this week it emerged that the new Colindale development by Fairview New Homes, approved by Barnet Tory councillors in July, will involve the demolition of the recently closed British Library newspaper archive. 

That this irreplaceable historic building, a brilliant example of thirties architecture, a curious hybrid of art deco meets functionalist brick modernism, stuffed full of original internal features, should be facing destruction, is unthinkable. 

Opened in 1932, by Gilbert Murray, eminent classic scholar - and great grandfather of Polly Toynbee. Due to be destroyed by Barnet Tory councillors, who see the word library, and reach for their guns.

That these developments are not regeneration, and will not provide a better quality of life for the residents of these areas, is demonstrated by the nature of the new schemes: the absence of social housing, the indifference shown for any reasonable definition of 'affordable' housing, and worse still - the eradication of entire communities within their boundaries, and a policy that really is nothing less than the living demonstration of a term, an accusation, that was once an exaggeration, but here in Broken Barnet has become reality: that is to say, the act of social cleansing.

Barnet Tories blunder about the landscape of this borough blindly, impulsively, eschewing the aid of any sort of moral compass, or principle, other than a sense of divine right to do exactly what they want; neo Thatcherites, as distant from, and as close to, what passes for modern Conservative ideals as any UKIP candidate, languishing in the past that never was, the glorious era when Margaret was in Number 10, and all was well with the world. 

Like docile puppies, they are led by the leash by their own senior management, cohorts of parasitical consultants and their masters, the private sector outsourcing companies, and by the would be developers of Broken Barnet. 

Commercial proposals are presented in an easycouncil ideological package, encouraging our councillors to believe that the mass outsourcing of public services is a necessary move, that the development of vast tracts of former areas of social housing is for the greater benefit of the borough.

The lack of leadership in the Barnet Tory group, and absence of any organised political strategy has led to major policy areas left in the hands of inadequate and inexperienced lead members, with huge budgets and responsibilities for decisions which have had terrible impact on the daily lives of residents. 

One example is the case of the environment expenditure overseen by Dean Cohen, which diverted highways money to Tory wards, and his own ward, while we now see a crisis in funding for essential maintenance. 

Another example is the ill judged appointment of  Tom Davey  as lead member for housing.

It would be unfair to lay the blame for Barnet Tories' monstrous housing record entirely on Davey, of course: the antipathy borne by this administration towards any sort of social housing, and a natural inclination to regard the duty to encourage the provision of affordable housing as entirely optional, is deeply embedded in their culture, and he is only the ranting mouthpiece of their collective subconscience, and their total lack of understanding, or compassion, for those in need.

Our Tory councillors have made it plain that market forces should dictate who lives in this borough. If you cannot afford to do so; clear off, and if you are here already, and you are facing homelessness, or struggling to find accommodation:  be afraid. Be very afraid. You will be moved on, and out, as soon as they can legally do so. 

Even if you pass the test of their moral judgement, and can prove you are not one of the undeserving poor, you may only aspire to the temporary dispensation of a five year tenancy.

For those residents who are council tenants in certain parts of our borough, especially in West Hendon, the last frontier of Broken Barnet, your tenancy is even less secure. 

You may have lived there for ten years, but Barnet Council keeps you there on a temporary basis, so as to minimise your housing rights, to dispose of you as they wish, when they knock down your home to make way for the better sort of resident: the kind Tom Davey wants to see living here.

You may be a leaseholder, who did the very thing our Thatcherite councillors urged you to do, to aspire to better yourselves, and become property owners, by buying your council flat. Hard luck. Your home will be demolished too, and just before that happens, Barnet Homes will land you with a massive bill for thousands of pounds of 'maintenance ' work on the condemned properties.

These are the people whom local resident and activist Jasmin Parsons recently described as being kept there in a 'reservation' - the analogy is apt: a gathering of indigenous people, the last of their tribe: social tenants - rounded up, detained, and fed with false promises, their own land taken from them, and handed over to land grabbing speculators.

http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/this-is-our-land-tales-from-cricklewood.html

And yes: the land was taken, and given away, to all intents and purposes. We don't know the full details, because they are shrouded under a blanket of counter transparency, in the guise of 'commercial sensitivity'. Were the developers charged anything like market rates for the land? We are not allowed to know, even years later.

Read on, and let us remind ourselves of the way this development has slowly, stealthily evolved, as so many things do, in Broken Barnet, from what was once an innocent sounding idea, a proposal to improve the standard of living of tenants living in West Hendon, and a genuine commitment to regeneration, shape-shifting by degrees, carefully managed, to an entirely different outcome.

Because in the end, we saw nothing more than a long good bye to the regeneration of the area, and a warm welcome by our Tory councillors to a luxury housing development that will bring huge profits to Barratts, but deprive the borough of much needed units of social housing, and, let us not forget, a substantial amount of publicly owned land: see a community destroyed, and the area scoured of the presence of the working class, Labour voting residents whose home it has been for so long. Social cleansing, social engineering: gerrymandering.

Well, then. Who cares? Who even knows about all this? Not many, until recently.

Mrs Angry, it must be said, is not a fan of celebrity political gobshites, or ex boy band multi millionaires making sad films for charity fundraising events, on behalf of causes that would not need to fundraise, if ex boy band multi millionaires paid their f*cking taxes; or of soap actors making sad films of dolphins who are probably thinking: please go away, and stop patronising a superior life form; or fading reality star celebs, who can't sing, demonstrating their humanitarian prowess by warbling tunelessly in a studio in Hampstead, because Bob Geldof says they must. 

Mrs Angry has never been a particular fan of Russell Brand, either, even though he appears to avoid dolphins, singing, and sad eyed charity appearances. But still: she might be warming to him, a. for being as rude as possible to the insufferable Mr Ferridge on BBCQT, and b. taking an interest in the New Era story and now, c. goodness me, most gratifyingly, turning his attention to the shameful, little known story of West Hendon. 

Take a look at this short film:



An extraordinary piece, really: featuring some of the truly admirable residents of this estate who are refusing, with great courage and determination, to accept the decisions of the council,  with the developers, to destroy their community, and hand the land they live on over for the big fat profits of a private developer.

Time to go back and look at the genesis of the West Hendon development then, I think.

The story begins in 2001, when the government produced a 'Decent Homes Programme' that the then council administration in Barnet decided was rather a good idea. Yes, I know what you are thinking: sounds unlikely until you know that this was in the halcyon days when there was a Labour-Libdem coalition. 

In response, the authority began to formulate plans to regenerate the West Hendon area, where there was dire need of improving the stock of social housing already in place, and investment in the area as a whole, including not just the estate but around West Hendon Broadway.

Pledges were made to the people living on the estate, who were then balloted for their views on the proposals. Amongst these pledges were the following promises:

You will have a brand new home
All will be housed on the new development
You will have a choice of landlord
You will have a choice of where to move
You have a real say in the regeneration
York Memorial Park will not be touched
Homeowners properties will be bought at current housing prices
No major works will be undertaken while the regeneration is under construction

Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?

But as local Labour councillor Adam Langleben will want to explain to the Inquiry due to be held this month - more on that later - every one of these promises has been broken, as a result of the new development now taking place, sanctioned by the Tory administration, a plan masquerading as the original regeneration but in effect a total inversion of everything the very principle that began the process all those years ago.

The scheme approved in 2002 did not exclude the current residents from the footprint of the area of new housing - they were an integral part, the reason for the regeneration. Now they have been relegated to a minimal consideration, a nuisance, held back behind the black painted wall that surrounds the new building work, and access to the formerly public land. 

Mrs Angry visited the West Hendon estate last year several times, in the course of canvassing for the local elections, and wrote about it more than once, for example here: 

http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/once-upon-time-in-west-hendon-or-mrs.html

That wall: the black painted fence that surrounds the no go area around the new development, and keeps the privileged views of the Welsh Harp away from the residents of the old estate - that was the thing that kept drawing the eye. 

And stirring up thoughts of another wall, in another example of social apartheid, in which the gulf between those with means, and those without, was held back by bricks and mortar: built to keep the residents of social housing away from their middle class, owner-occupier neighbours - the story of the
Cutteslowe Wall, in Oxford.

The difference here is that this story is from eighty years ago, and after early direct action by local people and activists, and obstruction by police and the developers, it was the local council who eventually demolished it, keen to be seen as progressive, moving towards a more decent, more inclusive society. 

Here in Broken Barnet, of course, where housing policy is not about fairness, or decency but more about cramming as much profit as possible into every available piece of land, our socially regressive council is reversing time itself, and forcing us back to the age of segregation, where the demands of private enterprise take precedence over equality, and humanity.

As local AM, and former (and future) Hendon MP Andrew Dismore will no doubt remind the Inquiry, due to the developers' desire to screw as much profit as possible from Hendon Waterside, there will now be a huge increase in the density of housing in this area, far in excess of the GLA's recommended level, with monstrous tower blocks up to 29 storeys in height - yes, 29 - imposed on the beautiful surroundings of the Welsh Harp - a fragile site of Special Scientific Interest - with terrible impact on the location both as a local amenity, and as a precious urban retreat for London's wildlife.

But Barnet Tories care as little for ecological sensitivities as they do for culture, heritage, or indeed, the well being of the residents of the West Hendon estate. If there is no consideration for the rights of social housing tenants, there is no hope at all for the protection of the wildlife and environmental balance of the area. 

Equally repellant, in the new order of development, is the forcible annexation of York Memorial Park, to be included now in the building scheme, despite all promises, and the impact of loss of more open space - and most shamefully of all, in full defiance of this park's historic significance.

York Park was created to commemorate the loss of many lives - and homes - in this part of West Hendon in a single bombing raid, in 1941. It is simply an abhorrant idea that what was intended as a memorial, in perpetuity, for the victims of war, should itself become a victim of speculative greed.

Where did the break happen, between a genuine attempt to improve the lives of residents of this area, and the invitation to property speculators to move in, throw out those residents, and use the publicly owned land they live on for private profit, screwed out of a luxury housing development?

The original agreement was made in 2002, with a consortium comprising Bellhouse Joseph, Lovells, and Metropolitan Housing Trust. In 2005, however, Bellhouse Joseph and Lovells pulled out, and were replaced by Barratts, forming the new 'Barratt Metropolitan LLP'.

According to the 'Statement of Reasons', a document published last June, formalising the council's Compulsory Purchase Orders of leasehold properties, the following explanation is given for the changes made to the 2002 agreement :

Whilst both the Council and the Developer remained committed to delivering the aims of the West Hendon regeneration project, the changing economic climate was starting to impact on the proposals. It was agreed between the Council and the Developer that further development under the 2008 Scheme was not possible taking into account the emerging viability and deliverability issues in the period from 2009 onwards.

Now there will be a net loss of 200 rented properties of affordable or social rent status, and clearly what little provision there is left is grudging, and deliberately marginalised.

So what started as the regeneration of a working class area, a commitment to the delivery of better housing and facilities for a local community, has become something entirely different: the creation of 'Hendon Waterside',  a land grabbing colonisation from which the local community is not only excluded, but is being removed, 'decanted', in order to make way for the sort of residents our Tory councillors prefer: those who can afford the eye wateringly expensive penthouse flats of a luxury development. And those who are more likely to vote Conservative, of course.

http://www.barratthomes.co.uk/new-homes/greater-london/H441801-Hendon-Waterside

And all because of 'viability and deliverability issues' which occurred within twelve months of the new developers taking over. What an awful shame that they were unable to predict the pressures which were to require the transformation of a regeneration scheme for residents, into a hugely lucrative new development for anyone wealthy enough to be able to afford an exclusive view of the Welsh Harp, in one direction, and a panoramic spread of the kebab shops of the Edgware Road, from the other. 

Perhaps the wild geese who visit the Welsh Harp, at least, will remind those exiled Russian oligarchs so yearned for by Cllr Tom Davey, of home. Or perhaps, rather more likely, they will never materialise, and most of these flats, like so many in the other 'regeneration' areas of the borough, will remain empty, bought by overseas investors, and absentee owners.

In the meanwhile, the tenants and leaseholders of the West Hendon estate are being treated abominably: one third of tenants have non secure status, despite some of them having been living there for up to twelve years, and despite others having been moved there, to the reservation, after being 'decanted' from the Stonegrove estate, prior to its development, and gentrification. Some of the West Hendon tenants are being moved to Grahame Park, only to face further uprooting in a couple of years when yet another process of faux regeneration begins. Doesn't matter, to our Tory councillors. Social tenants are expendable: a problem to be resolved: removed.

Leaseholders already facing what many consider to be an undervalued estimate for their homes - assessed by Capita - have been served with bills of thousands of pounds for work the council, via Barnet Homes, insists their properties, due to be demolished, require, even though the authority, as property owners, failed to maintain them.

Tenants have been served with eviction notices, and those who did not turn up to court, allegedly in some cases because the council led them to believe they did not need to attend, have found themselves disadvantaged in the process of where they are reaccommodated, whereas those who did go to court, and challenged the order have had better offers of more secure housing.

Since residents and activists have stirred up a certain amount of media interest, the 'development partners' have made offers to some of those residents, agreements alleged to be subject to 'gagging orders' to those who accept their more favourable terms, and also reportedly requiring a withdrawal from the forthcoming Inquiry.

Ah yes: the Inquiry. 

This will be a formal process, led by an Inspector, Zoe Hill, appointed by Eric Pickles to hear objections to the compulsory purchase orders referred to above. The hearings are open to the public, and are expected to last eight days, opening at 10 am, on the 20th January, for the first day's proceedings at the Holiday Inn, Brent Cross. It will then move to the Town Hall for the rest of the hearing, at which both Barnet, Capita, and Barratts, their legal representatives, and of course a group of local residents, including Jasmin Parsons, will give evidence and present their cases.

Maybe the Inquiry will bring about a better deal for some of the residents of the former West Hendon estate. 

And of course Barratt's black fence around Hendon Waterside will come down, eventually, when the project is complete. 

But the wall will still be there.