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SAVE LITTLE LONDON NEWS
Issue 5, 1 December 2006
PFI gets green light - estate on red alert to save our homes
So it’s finally happened.
After nearly 6 years of delays, dishonesty and downright deception, this week the government ignored our opposition to the PFI and approved the Council’s plan to ‘regenerate’ Little London.
The decision was made after a legal challenge by a tenant to the ‘Comprehensive Regeneration’ scheme in Little London was rejected by the courts last week. The tenant lives in one of the Lovell flats and will lose her home under the council’s plans.
What clinched it, however, was the council’s promise to the government that it would foot the bill as the cost of the PFI scheme continues to spiral out of control.
That’s right, Little Londoners, YOU will pay for the demolition of your home, the fat cat salaries of consultants, accountants and lawyers, the profits for the banks, developers and architects who will now feast on our community like vultures.
It’s not just the people in the Carltons and Lovells who will be affected. Those of us who get to stay and have our council homes refurbished will also be in for a shock - see our Swarcliffe story inside.
Leaked documents in our possession reveal that the council has agreed to sell more land and reduce the promised improvements if the cost of the regeneration increases again.
Save Little London refuses to accept defeat. We won’t allow the council to demolish and sell off public housing- our homes - just so that corporations can profit.
The estate is now on a ‘red alert’ - we have to fight to save our homes and our community from the bulldozers.
What PFI will mean for Little London
DEMOLITIONS
Carlton Towers, Carlton Carr and Garth will be bulldozed
Community centre and shops to be flattened
All to clear land for private developers to build new housing that we won’t be able to afford
EVICTIONS
Tenants and lease-holders living in Carlton Carr, Garth, Towers and the Lovells will be forced to leave their homes and community
All to allow wealthier city workers to move in and yuppify the area
A LIVING NIGHTMARE
Builders trampling through people’s homes for months, baths that don’t fit, kitchens left unusable, floorboards through ceilings, roofs not properly sealed, dust and dirt everywhere
Just ask Swarcliffe!
How the council has lied to us all
Porky pie 1: ‘We’ll honour the vote’
Back in 2001, Leeds City Council promised to respect the vote on PFI. However, when we voted ‘no’ to PFI the council suddenly had a bout of amnesia and refused to accept the result. So it held another vote, this time cutting out some of the ‘no’ voting streets from the PFI.
Porky pie 2: ‘We won’t demolish Carlton Towers’
One of the council’s promises that swung the second vote was that Carlton Towers would be saved from demolition. Now the council wants to flatten them again.
Porky pie 3: ‘The PFI will benefit all of the community’
How will the regeneration benefit the 300-400 homes that will be evicted from their own community? The truth is this scheme is an attack on working class people. The council has said publicly that it wants to ‘change the mix of people’ living here - that’s social engineering.
Porky pie 4: ‘PFI isn’t privatisation’
PFI involves selling off public services and assets to private companies. It is privatisation.
Porky pie 5: ‘PFI is the only game in town’
A lie. The council chose to use PFI—it did not have to.
Porky pie 6: ‘The estate will be constantly maintained and invested in for 30 years’
Untrue. Now we learn it’s only 20 years - that’s 10 years less investment than we were promised.
The Swarcliffe PFI disaster coming to our estate
Back in 1999, the council made exactly the same kind of promises to the people of Swarcliffe. Here’s what has actually happened:
Massive delays: 3 year wait for work to begin caused by contract wrangling
New private homes built first... PFI companies only motive is profit – so up went the new private housing for the wealthy arrivals.
...after 18 months, not a single council home finished: there are 1600 houses to renovate on the estate. At this rate, it will take them 31 ½ years to finish all the refurbishments – that’s 2037.
Appalling standards: the council has fined the contractor for shocking work, including:
· Walls and ceilings smashed in
· Cracked walls and chronic damp ignored
· Baths and doors that don’t fit
· Bathrooms and kitchen left in chaos for months
Insulting compensation: after your home has been destroyed, you will get just £110 of B&Q vouchers to redecorate your whole house. You can’t even get this money in cash to pay someone to help you. What good is this to a pensioner, a pregnant woman, a disabled person?
Parking privatisation: half the garages have been knocked down in one area, while the rents have increased for those remaining. Cars are forced to park on the streets, increasing insurance rates.
The Rumour Mill
· The council is emptying Lovell and Carlton Towers, Carlton Garth and Carr - each time a tenant moves on, their home is being shut up. There are mice infestations growing in the Lovells · Carlton Barracks and Blenheim School could be sold off and demolished to make way for more student flats
· It’s being said that a new community centre is no longer in the PFI plans
What on earth is ‘PFI’ and why do we oppose it?
The Private Finance Initiative is a really bad way of paying for public services. Instead of government or council using our taxes or borrowing money to build and run new schools, hospitals, or council homes, a private consortium of banks, developers, accountants and firms does so instead…for up to 35 years!
The problem is that not only do these companies make huge profits, it also costs them far more to borrow than a government or council. These profits and extra costs are then paid for by us through government subsidies. PFI thus transfers wealth from poor tenants to rich shareholders!
The fraud doesn’t stop there. Because PFI schemes are so expensive (about 30% more than normal) government won’t give local councils all the money they need to pay the private company. So councils are often forced to sell off land or property to raise the money themselves – this is exactly what’s happening in Little London.
The Carltons are being demolished to clear a huge development site for a private developer to come in and build private homes that it will sell on for a huge profit. The Lovells are being sold off to raise money that will then be paid to the private company running Little London estate for 20 years!
As costs rise, the council must keep finding the money from somewhere—more land sales, more public service cuts.
How can we stop this PFI madness?
- Legal challenge
There are strong grounds for taking the council to court for its misleading consultation and its disregard for people’s basic human rights.
If you are interested in taking Leeds City Council to court, get in touch.
Lobby the government, your councillors and MP
Send 100s of emails and letters to your so-called elected representatives demanding they investigate what is going on.
Make an appointment with Hilary Benn MP to explain why the PFI is wrong for the community.
- Write to the media
The British press loves a scandal, especially involving politicians and corrupt local councils. Hostile media coverage often forces decision-makers to change their minds. Write letters to the local and national press, ring radio phone-ins, invite journalists to investigate Leeds City Council’s behaviour.
- Get campaigning
Join the Save Little London Campaign. We can achieve far more working with each other than we can by ourselves. Our regular meetings are a source of solidarity and support. Over the next few months, we plan to hold public meetings with other tenants’ groups, lobbies, demonstrations, community events and film nights as part of a high-profile campaign. Joining the Save Little London Campaign is FREE
- Link up with others
Hook up with other anti-privatisation campaigns in Health, Education, Local Government, and other public services.
Get involved in the new grassroots City Wide Defend Public Housing Network.
Do your homework
Start investigating the companies that might takeover the estate, look at their record on standards, employment, their profits etc.
KEEP FIGHTING
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1 comment:
well after recieving this newsletter to my home this afternoon i feel compelled to come here to this site and add a comment! in fact i would love to turn up at the meeting and say my piece personally but getting 'stoned' or worse by crack whores and drug takers is not my thing. i am glad that the pfi scheme is underway and feel very angered at parasites like yourselves trying to stop such a positive improvement to the little london area, the pfi is the best thing that can happen to a shithole dump like this! are you all insane?
i was walking past the massionettes near the rifleman pub the other day and almost walked into a lamp post as i was so appalled at the site of the place! what an absolute eyesore, absolutely filthy and disgusting, in my opinion anyone who would live there has no pride, no self respect and moving them away from here is possibly the best thing, the further the better!
everyday i see people around here who dont comb their hair, or brush their filthy decaying teeth, wear digusting clothes, i dont know how they can afford to wear timberland boots but i oftem see people wearing them with tracksuits! they do not have a clue how to look decent.
most of the women here look like crack whores, maybe the towers should be demolished with the cretins still inside! they should want to move out to better housing!
and i also noticed how you are trying to put people off of regeneration to their homes? shame on you, that is what we deserve, council homes are a right state, they need fixing up, of corse there will be mess you idiots! that's what you have to go through to have better in life, you dont just stay and sit in a dump and call it your home.
your leaflet describes working city folk as yuppies? i find this offensive, that is why i am not sparing anyones feelings in this comment/essay/statement. your calling people who have class and work and have fashion sense yuppies, because you and all the tenants involved in your scheme dont have decent jobs, are un-qualified, live off the dole, i have even heard some scum in the streets bragging about how they can sit at home all day on they fat asses not having to work because they claim benefits! as for single mums, that is just an excuse, i have 2 small children and have always worked to support them, there are nurserys, creches, schools, "get off your fat lazy ugly butts and set an example for your children, be a good role model!" they should quit smoking as it just adds to their dirty scruffy image and use the money to get their hair done and go look for a fucking job! if they have no education then go back to college!
more student flats? GOOD. students over TRASH anyday! why do people lash out against students when they are doing the hardest thing ever? it is harder than work, they are studying hard and struggling financially to become assets to society and better themselves and their family, not dealing drugs on corners and throwing stones at cars because you'll never own one, joy riding too! i've seen all this shit with my own eyes! useless low life scum is what they are.
now i can't say that everyone in little london are dregs in society, but i struggle to see decent neat looking hard working people on the streets, all i see is what i have mentioned. if any of you have any decency you will grab the opportunity to move out and start a fresh in a nice home, not a filthy piss stinking high rise flat! yuk.
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