Have your say - Kingsland Wharves

Have you Say! Kings Wharves-Redevelopment Planning Application
 
The council have received the planning application from London and Quadrant Housing Trust for the redevelopment of the major Kingsland Wharves site (12-32 Hertford Rd, 27-31 Downham Rd & 305 Kingsland Rd), the site around Kingsland Basin. The plans allow for the redevelopment with buildings that may be from 2-8 storeys high with some mixed use, but including 207 new homes. The plans also allow for a boardwalk along the west side of the basin linking with the canal towpath.
 
Details can be found on  www.hackney.gov.uk/planning-kingslandwharves
 
There will be a formal consultation between 4pm and 8pm on Wednesday 18th March at the Haggerston Community Centre,179 Haggerston Road Hackney London E8 4JA
 
Have your say by emailing the council on at planning@hackney.gov.uk <mailto:planning@hackney.gov.uk>  The consultation period closes at 4.30pm on Monday 23rd March.

Even more new trees for De Beauvoir

Hackney are planting even more new street trees in De Beauvoir as part of Hackney Labour's manifesto pledge to plant 1000 new trees (a pledge met in February this year).

The latest streets scheduled for planting are:
Ardleigh Road - 10 new trees
Buckingham Road - 27 new trees
Culford Road/Lawford Road - 9 new trees
De Beauvoir Road - 30 new trees
Downham Road - 13 new trees
Southgate Road - 2 new trees
Southgate Grove - 9 new trees
St Peters Way - 3 new trees
Bridport Place - 2 new trees *

If you'd like a new tree on your street, let us know.


* On Bridport Place, Hackney have also resurfaced the pavement with the installation of new roadside seating

Audit Commission: Hackney Council "improving strongly"

The Audit Commission has announced that Hackney has achieved a 3 star (out of a possible 4 star) rating for a second year in a row. Several priority areas for the council were singled out for praise – community safety, children and young people and adult social care.

The assessment says:

What progress has the authority made in the last year?
Hackney Council is improving strongly. Hackney is delivering significant improvement in priority areas such as community safety, children and young people and adult social care. The pace of improvement is higher than the national average with three quarters of performance indicators improving in 2007/08. Overall resident satisfaction has improved with 60 percent of residents feeling their views are taken into account. This is supported by the Service First programme. Challenges remain in the planning service and tackling childhood obesity The Council works well with partners to deliver wider community outcomes such as health inequalities, addressing worklessness and tackling crime. Infant mortality and teenage pregnancy rates have decreased. Apprenticeships are used to deliver more local job opportunities. Crime overall has decreased. The Council provides improved value for money and financial standing is good. Leadership, planning and prioritisation are strong. Consultation is used well to shape services to meet the needs of diverse communities. The Council continues to improve performance management and is making good use of joint appointments to increase capacity. The Council is well placed to sustain and deliver future improvements."

Road safety works at New North Road / Eagle Wharf Road / Poole Street

Following 9 injuries over a 3 year period at the junction of Eagle Wharf Road and New North Road, Hackney Council is planning to add entry treatment with buildout in Poole Street. The single yellow line around the junction will become double yellow.

If you need further info, contact the Hackney Service Centre on 0208 356 2897 or by email on info@hackney.gov.uk

Gulay meets Gordon

Gulay Icoz met with the Prime Minister this week at an east London event organised by the Labour Party.

She took up the opportunity to talk about some of the issues facing local people in our area, including affordable housing, policing and the improvement in schools.

If you've got any local issues you'd like to take up with your councillors, make sure you get in touch.

Hackney's Budget 2009/10

Last night, Labour’s budget for 2009/10 was agreed by the Council. For the fourth year in the row, the Labour administration on Hackney Council was able to freeze council tax. Four years of council tax freezes means that on average local residents will have saved £256. Council tax in Hackney is now lower than the London average. The Budget set out how we are planning to invest in a number of key services. Many other councils have been cutting frontline services, but in Hackney through our better use of resources, we are in a position to:

* Invest £0.5m in keeping Hackney clean – increasing street sweeping, graffiti and fly-poster removal, and weekend litter picking
* Invest £0.576m in recycling – particularly expanding it on estates
* Increase schools spending by 3.9% per pupil
* Expand the Youth Service
* Open one new library (Dalston) with 20,000 new books and refurbish and extend another (Clapton)
* Provide free swimming for all under 18s and over 60s at local pools
* Re-open the Stoke Newington Assembly Halls and offices
* Recruit more environmental health officers – particularly specialising in noise pollution and food standards
* Invest in local cycling scheme
* Launch a Climate Change Strategy for the Borough
* Allocate over a £1m more to adult social services.

See full details of the Budget by clicking this link:

The annual survey of resident satisfaction with council services also showed that there has been a 12% increase in the last year – and is now at 72%.

24 hour Freedon Pass

Hackney has secured a deal to allow older residents free travel on most buses, tubes and trains 24 hours a day – a deal guaranteed until 2015.

The extension to the council-funded Freedom Pass scheme was agreed as part of a five year deal negotiated between London’s councils and Transport for London.

Each year Hackney pays Transport for London and rail operators in the capital to allow older and disabled residents to use their services free of charge. For 2009/10 Hackney will pay over £4.75 million to give more than 25,000 elderly and disabled Hackney residents free travel.

At a meeting of London Councils Transport and Environment Committee Hackney along with their fellow Labour boroughs, voted to extend the free travel scheme for elderly people

Jules Pipe welcomed the deal saying: "We are pleased to have voted to support this deal, which will continue to benefit thousands of older and disabled residents in the borough.

Although the Mayor of London is keen to claim credit for this scheme, the Freedom Pass is almost entirely funded by London councils like ours and by extra grants from the government.”