Access All Areas EC1 Echo How Our Area Could Be Better Equipped to Improve Disabled People’S Lives
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EC1 ECHO JUNE/JULY 2021 N 10 FREE NEWS FEATURES HISTORY EC1Echo.co.uk A Clerkenwell resident A new school of drawing Colin O’Brien’s @EC1Echo has started London’s first is set to open on photographs show EC1 outdoor chess club Exmouth Market as it once was EC1Echo@ /EC1Echo P 5 P 5 P 10–11 peelinstitute.org.uk Clerkenwell resident and junior doctor Grace Spence Green tells Access all areas EC1 Echo how our area could be better equipped to improve disabled people’s lives BY OLIVER BENNETT advocate Katie Pennick posted a video on Twitter showing there was ince she became a wheel- no room for her to move in Soho chair user after a spinal because of pavement tables. You injury following an incident either get forced onto the road or in 2018, Grace Spence you’re constantly waiting for people Green has been thrust to move.” Sinto the forefront of disablement Does Grace find people talk over activism. For many years a Clerken- her head? “All the time,” she says, well resident, her experience has adding that when she’s with her obviously changed – but at the same boyfriend some people ask him time, Grace has continued to pursue questions about her. “But I think her life as before, working as a junior that comes from a real discomfort, doctor in a central London hospital. as well as lack of knowledge and a In doing so, Grace has a clear fear about saying the wrong thing.” vantage point on how areas such as Clerkenwell could be improved – sometimes in small ways – and how “We are all businesses should go beyond box ticking for the disabled, and how we could all adjust our mindsets. disabled at “With buildings and venues that are supposedly accessible, it often some point appears as if they didn’t actually ask a disabled person,” says Grace. in our lives” “It can be as basic as foot pedals in the wheelchair-accessible toi- In an area with historic architec- let – or stopping that toilet from ture like Clerkenwell, it’s inevitable becoming a storeroom.” Entrances that some buildings are not dis- – even of just one step – can be abled friendly. “For example, my confounding, and a mere wooden parents’ old house is completely ramp can make all the difference. inaccessible to me,” says Grace. “It’s usually the little fixes that are “But when I came out of hospital the best, and it shows that someone I looked for a flat here and found has obviously understood.” that few were accessible, even As social distancing has changed modern places.” Even when she the way we socialise, with outdoor did find one, the sole lift stopped chairs and tables, we might expect working. “For months, I had either there to be more room for wheelchair be carried up three flights of stairs, access to cafes and restaurants. “For or drag myself up with the wheel- me there are pros and cons,” says chair.” She now lives in a place with Grace. “It’s true that being outside two lifts but finds it frustrating Junior doctor Grace Spence Green has become a disabled advocate is a kind of bonus. But there are that the onus was on her to move. difficulties – for example, disability Continued on Page-9 EC1 ECHO NO.10 N 10 NEWS 2 JUNE / JULY Raise repair issues 2021 Residents in properties managed by Islington Council’s PFI partner have been invited to raise repair concerns before homes handed back to council 1st June 31st July BY ED SHERIDAN, the time the council takes over Window-related works are the their help in this.” The Council’s LOCAL DEMOCRACY REPORTER Third Third will stay in the fund. most common problem and will independent surveying consul- Quarter Quarter Programme manager Saf Khan cost £70,535 in total, with 398 tants Ridge recently reported that 58% / 0.52 51% / 0.49 slington Council is urging said: “We wanted to get into as individual works required at 270 the properties are being handed tenants of homes managed many basement flats as we pos- homes, with windows missing back to the Council in better than by its PFI partner Partners sibly could as we know there are restrictors, stays, locks, catches, average condition, with among EC1 Echo is the for Improvement in Isling- concerns around damp particu- handles and draught seals. the lowest proportion of catch-up area's free community Iton to raise damp or disrepair larly in street properties.” Damp was discovered in 265 repairs they have ever seen. newspaper. We issues before the handback of Islington homes, with “We have worked in partner- publish bi-monthly thousands of properties to the holds two “In the Council’s Islington plan- ship with the Council throughout and distribute 7,500 Town Hall in April next year. contracts ning to hold the contract and we will continue free copies of each Partners, who have long been with Partners. survey, broken on to its reim- to work together to ensure a the topic of debate at Town Hall While PFI2 bursement smooth transition of service for issue – and we will meetings over satisfaction rates is set to end windows, damp and cash for a cou- residents, in April 2022. This continue to do so of its residents, are required to in April, PFI roofing issues account ple of months date was agreed in 2006 as part during the ongoing carry out repairs ahead of the 1 is a 30-year after Partners of the original contract, so the public health crisis. end of the 16-year contract. contract end- for 59 per cent make a repair PFI2 project will end when it was A council survey has identified ing in 2033. of problems” job in this area, always intended to. Publisher £466,000 worth of work to be In the Coun- to make sure “We are pleased that through David Floyd done, but due to the pandemic cil’s survey, broken windows, the problem does not recur. the PFI project the Council has was only able to access 1,254 of damp and roofing issues account A spokesperson from Partners been able to retain ownership Editor the 2,778 properties. for 59 per cent of problems, but said: “We encourage residents of thousands of homes in street Oliver Bennett The value of these repairs will surveyors also found cracked to report repairs as we have properties, which in 2006 were Designer be held by the borough in a ceilings and walls, broken boilers, throughout the first 15 years of the desperately in need of invest- Jonathan Duncan retention fund until all are com- missing wash basins, damaged PFI2 contract including in every ment and are being handed back Head of Operations pleted and signed off. The cost floors and front entrance doors, quarterly residents’ newsletter. in good condition.” of any repairs not completed by and more. We’d like to thank residents for Additional reporting by EC1 Echo Paige Ballmi Engagement Manager Penny Dampier Mount Pleasant Contributors still growing Chris Walker, Ed Sheridan, Life cycle Lara Muller, James he housing developer Richards, Jean, Pierre Taylor Wimpey has put Orban, Philip Tsaras, LTN debate still firing up the borough forward proposals to Anastasia Georgousis, T slington Council is aiming everyone to travel, exercise and “I feel that the LTNs are anti- increase the number of flats Colin O’Brien courtesy Jan to provide an evidence play,” said Cllr Rowena Cham- democratic,” says Martyn Perks, in its Postmark development O’Brien, Mark Aston, Nick base for low-traffic pion, Islington Council’s Exec- who stood as an independent in Mount Pleasant. The rise in Andrew, Juliana Lottmann, networks (LTNs) in the utive Member for Environment against Labour’s Valerie Boss- numbers to 34 additional flats Al Tyers, Elena Vardon, borough – under the banner of and Transport. man-Quarshie in the recent is based on a claim that mar- Johnny Burns, Janet I Dowling, Joe Trotter people-friendly streets. The monitoring report from the Bunhill by-election. “The work ket demand has changed from Clerkenwell Green neighbour- Clerkenwell Green neighbour- at the Old Street roundabout has larger to smaller flats and that hood’s “mid-trial monitoring hood, which was introduced in created masses of congestion.” the earlier flats made “ineffi- CONTACT reports” claim to show that September 2020, shows that Ms Bossman-Quarshie, who cient use of the space.” local people have enjoyed sig- numbers of vehicles speeding won the by-election, said: In angry scenes on a Zoom call Email nificantly reduced traffic and less fell by 73 per cent on internal “Islington Council has been with the developer, Ed Denison, [email protected] speeding in both areas. Traffic roads, but shows that traffic on implementing people-friendly housing campaigner, university Post on local roads in Clerkenwell boundary streets professor and representative of 7–11 Coppermill Lane, Green fell by 34 per cent. roads rose by schemes the Mount Pleasant Association Walthamstow E17 7HA “I feel that the LTNs The monitoring process is 22 per cent, across the claimed that this would “increase part of the council’s intro- an increase are anti-democratic” borough to the transient population” by ADVERTISING duction of people-friendly attributed to make our encouraging smaller living units. streets as 18-month trials to factors such as the work on the streets safer and encourage “You need a broad mix of ten- Contact Klaudia Kiss: help create a healthier borough nearby Old Street roundabout, more active travel, such as ants to sustain make a long-term Call 020 8521 7956 by encouraging walking and Smithfield Market and at Far- walking and cycling”.