Park View residents say the council is not up to delivering new-builds: ‘Our view is that for these type of projects to be viable, there needs to be a radical change in council culture’

THE Town Hall stands accused of failing to complete any of its much-trumpeted council home building projects – and leaving tenants living in rubble-laden construction sites.

The delays have been drawn into focus by residents on the Park View estate in Highbury, who told councillors that they are fed up of life without any green space and living next to an unfinished scheme.

They claimed they had been sold a dream of bigger homes on a reimagined estate but the council had let them down.

Park View is one of six active new-build sites in the borough, where the council is the developer. While planning permissions were secured for all the schemes between 2017 and 2019, none of them have been finished.

Joel Deason, secretary of Park View’s residents’ association, told a scrutiny committee meeting: “The community view is that the council, and new-build in particular, lack the capacity, skills and leadership to deliver such projects… This concern is rooted in our lived experience of the Park View project and the fraught environment it has created.”

Mr Deason added that the “total absence” of support for residents throughout the project, and continual changes and delays, have left residents questioning the ability of the council to successfully enact new-build projects.

“In our opinion, this project is an abject failure,” he said. “Our view is that for these types of projects to be viable, there needs to be a radical change in council culture.”

Residents claimed there was no action to address their health and safety and access concerns, despite hundreds of emails, complaints, and consultations.

Sarah Brakes, who chairs the Park View residents’ association, said of the council: “They don’t listen. We’re just a number. We’re just a house number. We’re just a block number.”

Ojaih Willow, who has been living on Park View for 21 years, said: “When you bring it up at something like a council meeting, you get these lovely long flowery apologies, and literally the next day access is blocked off again. And they don’t seem to understand we live here, this is our everyday lives.”

Ms Willow has a disability that affects her mobility and said that the restricted access on the site while building is under way has made her life “so stressful”.

She said: “On the one hand, they have this document that says ‘we’re your partners, residents and the council working together,’ and on the other hand, they treat us like absolute dirt.”

While the works are ongoing, a new path has been constructed around the estate, meaning many of the flats take longer to access, with entrances and exits to the site being closed at various and irregular times.

Residents were in support of the project when consent for building work was granted in 2016 and said they welcomed promises of new units that would contain larger flats and improvements made to the existing flats. There were pledges for several back gardens and a community hall.

Mr Deason said: “We’ve got overcrowding. We wanted big flats. That’s what we were sold – big flats.”

After a number of what have been described as “minor amendments”, however, the new-build is set to contain only one- and two-bed properties, and the council has decided that one of the blocks, Block D, will no longer go ahead at all.

“They’re still not clear what they’re going to do with where Block D should have been,” Mr Deason said. “I just want them to do something so it’s not a bombsite in the middle of our home.”

The council now claim that tenants were never promised four-bedroom homes or back gardens.

Ms Willow said: “There’s no accountability, and because there are no minutes, and because there’s no record, we can’t prove anything that’s been said.”

This week the council said it anticipates the project will be completed in June and will offer 31 new homes.

Councillor Diarmaid Ward, executive member for finance, planning and performance, said: “With more than 15,000 people waiting for a council home, we aim to build as many new, high-quality genuinely affordable homes as we can.

“Inflation and higher interest rates make it so much more expensive than it was a few years ago. Our hands are also tied by government red tape around how we can spend receipts from right-to-buy sales to build new council homes.

“On the Park View estate, we are building 31 new homes. I am delighted that these will be 100 per cent council housing for residents who need it most. We expect the scheme to be completed in two months’ time.

“Residents on the estate will also benefit from improvements to the landscaping and communal areas, including new play areas, new planting for increased biodiversity and a new community space.”