Post by Mark on Apr 19, 2015 8:42:37 GMT
Below is the report written by Dalston Square resident Kim after his attendance at the meeting of the Dalston Ward Forum on March 25th. Thanks to Kim for taking the time to share this info.
There were maybe thirty people at the meeting, most of whom seemed to know an awful lot about something so it was quite interactive. Minutes were taken and will be sent out to everyone who was there once complete.
While we're waiting….:
Buildings
1. A smuggled copy of the proposed new central Dalston Conservation Area was circulated, which not only omits Dalston Square but also the once mooted Dalston Square extension, which is Ashwin Street, most of which belongs to the Council, which is assumed to be dreaming of development loot. It was resolved to demand Ashwin Street’s inclusion during the Consultation Phase.
2. It was further resolved to demand the Council reveal its development intentions with each and every one of its properties in the area.
3. Dalston Terrace, which was already in a Conservation Area for all the good it did it, continues with its demolition and Peter Snell told us he’s feeling a bit out of the loop on what’s going on with it but he has been told that Murphy the builders’ four submitted choices of bricks have been rejected as inadequately neo-historic.
Roads
The under-used bus station behind Phase 3 was apparently planned in at a time when TfL had more money to anticipate more buses. They’re now saying they’ll be using it more though it’s unclear what for.
There’s a document being prepared by the Council on highways around Dalston Junction. It will be proposing to deal with the northbound tailback on Kingsland Road south of Balls Pond Rd / Dalston Lane by closing off Bentley Road and Tottenham Road and abolishing the traffic island in the middle of the road opposite Tesco. This will especially relieve things, it’s hoped, when there’s a Tesco delivery.
There’s also consideration of the westbound tailback on Dalston Lane outside the station. There was a plan once to widen the road for a bus layby at the northern end of Dalston Square but there are lots of subsurface services there and TfL has maintained that it would be too expensive to bury them deeper as you’d need to allow construction of a proper roadway and nobody remembered to invite Barratts to contribute. Also, if the bus stop were outside Dalston Square, there’s apparently a fear of lines of buses blocking Beechwood Road. Nevertheless, it looks like the stop will be moved even if the road isn’t widened.
(No mention sadly of my own pet fantasy of a Shibuya/Oxford Circus-style pedestrian crossing for the road junction.)
Dalston’s future
The Forum talked about whether there should be a Dalston Summer Festival but every other participant present seemed to be organizing their own festival so it was agreed that Dalston should celebrate its plethora of festivals, not least screenings in Dalston Square, and they should be noted and advertised on the Dalston Forum website.
Dalston’s evening economy: There was much scepticism about the usefulness of Dalston’s Special Policy Area status, which will probably not be extended, and of the present policy, supported by Peter Snell, of working with rather than clamping down on trouble venues and one participant muttered that his ex-military mates could soon sort out the ever-noisy Dalston Superstore and Dance Tunnel, whose owner, Dan Beaumont, chairs the Dalston Night Time Economy Forum.
The Eastern Curve Garden / Dalston’s Community, Cultural and Creative Quarter: It was agreed that neither developers nor the Council had any appreciation of richness and complexity of Dalston’s culture, their support of Gillette Square and Dalston Square as hubs and their ignorant attitude to Ashwin Street and the Curve Garden being instanced. The Curve was safe, people reckoned, until the Shopping Centre’s redeveloped and Crossrail 2’s dispositions are clarified. It was agreed that waiting until the Council’s and Developers intentions are clarified beyond a very tight inner circle, which excludes, inter alia, most councilors, was to attend a fait accompli.
A Dalston Neighbourhood Plan.
So that the community not be forced into reacting only to what is revealed and usually then imposed from above, Peter Snell thought it might help that a Neighbourhood Plan be developed. To this end, he introduced to the Forum Euan Mills, Chair of the Chatsworth Road Traders and Residents Association and prime mover of the Chatsworth Road Neighbourhood Plan. Euan Mills was quite interesting on the subject of bringing all stakeholders together to agree on what could be agreed on as unanimity was, he said, very powerful but there seemed to be some consensus that Chatsworth Road faced very different and far less pressing problems from Dalston and that this sort of thing had been done before and ignored and everyone was too tired to try again. It was suggested that new blood and new ideas might be brought in by organizing a charrette, whereby 5 or 6 architectural teams would be invited to brainstorm for a few days and come up with alternative master plans for the area.
Well, that one was my suggestion and, sure enough, it broke up the meeting
While we're waiting….:
Buildings
1. A smuggled copy of the proposed new central Dalston Conservation Area was circulated, which not only omits Dalston Square but also the once mooted Dalston Square extension, which is Ashwin Street, most of which belongs to the Council, which is assumed to be dreaming of development loot. It was resolved to demand Ashwin Street’s inclusion during the Consultation Phase.
2. It was further resolved to demand the Council reveal its development intentions with each and every one of its properties in the area.
3. Dalston Terrace, which was already in a Conservation Area for all the good it did it, continues with its demolition and Peter Snell told us he’s feeling a bit out of the loop on what’s going on with it but he has been told that Murphy the builders’ four submitted choices of bricks have been rejected as inadequately neo-historic.
Roads
The under-used bus station behind Phase 3 was apparently planned in at a time when TfL had more money to anticipate more buses. They’re now saying they’ll be using it more though it’s unclear what for.
There’s a document being prepared by the Council on highways around Dalston Junction. It will be proposing to deal with the northbound tailback on Kingsland Road south of Balls Pond Rd / Dalston Lane by closing off Bentley Road and Tottenham Road and abolishing the traffic island in the middle of the road opposite Tesco. This will especially relieve things, it’s hoped, when there’s a Tesco delivery.
There’s also consideration of the westbound tailback on Dalston Lane outside the station. There was a plan once to widen the road for a bus layby at the northern end of Dalston Square but there are lots of subsurface services there and TfL has maintained that it would be too expensive to bury them deeper as you’d need to allow construction of a proper roadway and nobody remembered to invite Barratts to contribute. Also, if the bus stop were outside Dalston Square, there’s apparently a fear of lines of buses blocking Beechwood Road. Nevertheless, it looks like the stop will be moved even if the road isn’t widened.
(No mention sadly of my own pet fantasy of a Shibuya/Oxford Circus-style pedestrian crossing for the road junction.)
Dalston’s future
The Forum talked about whether there should be a Dalston Summer Festival but every other participant present seemed to be organizing their own festival so it was agreed that Dalston should celebrate its plethora of festivals, not least screenings in Dalston Square, and they should be noted and advertised on the Dalston Forum website.
Dalston’s evening economy: There was much scepticism about the usefulness of Dalston’s Special Policy Area status, which will probably not be extended, and of the present policy, supported by Peter Snell, of working with rather than clamping down on trouble venues and one participant muttered that his ex-military mates could soon sort out the ever-noisy Dalston Superstore and Dance Tunnel, whose owner, Dan Beaumont, chairs the Dalston Night Time Economy Forum.
The Eastern Curve Garden / Dalston’s Community, Cultural and Creative Quarter: It was agreed that neither developers nor the Council had any appreciation of richness and complexity of Dalston’s culture, their support of Gillette Square and Dalston Square as hubs and their ignorant attitude to Ashwin Street and the Curve Garden being instanced. The Curve was safe, people reckoned, until the Shopping Centre’s redeveloped and Crossrail 2’s dispositions are clarified. It was agreed that waiting until the Council’s and Developers intentions are clarified beyond a very tight inner circle, which excludes, inter alia, most councilors, was to attend a fait accompli.
A Dalston Neighbourhood Plan.
So that the community not be forced into reacting only to what is revealed and usually then imposed from above, Peter Snell thought it might help that a Neighbourhood Plan be developed. To this end, he introduced to the Forum Euan Mills, Chair of the Chatsworth Road Traders and Residents Association and prime mover of the Chatsworth Road Neighbourhood Plan. Euan Mills was quite interesting on the subject of bringing all stakeholders together to agree on what could be agreed on as unanimity was, he said, very powerful but there seemed to be some consensus that Chatsworth Road faced very different and far less pressing problems from Dalston and that this sort of thing had been done before and ignored and everyone was too tired to try again. It was suggested that new blood and new ideas might be brought in by organizing a charrette, whereby 5 or 6 architectural teams would be invited to brainstorm for a few days and come up with alternative master plans for the area.
Well, that one was my suggestion and, sure enough, it broke up the meeting
