Home » £25 MILLION

It’s a pity the zeal and vigour in the daily barrage of abuse aimed at opponents of the CPO hasn’t been put to a better purpose, like campaigning against StubHub or dare I even suggest it, cheering at matches, opposed to sitting there telling everyone how long you’ve been coming and how much it has cost you.

I probably spend more on socks.

This whole business has degenerated into a rather nasty slanging match; from the very moment one private business had the audacity to stand in the way of another private business, seeking to expand.

For those that need telling, I’m 100% in favour in the principle of Spurs expanding. The modern game dictates that cash is king. Whoever has the most folding stuff is best placed to win all.

All the archaic words you’ve ever associated with Spurs or football in general are now mostly dead. Consigned to the literary dustbin, the odd t shirt slogan, forum signature or that feeling we still carry in our occasionally heavy hearts.

The players are now avaricious whores, club chairman the every hungry madams, ushering a never ending stream of punters through their cat house turnstiles.

So it’s expand or die. Fulham are a decent example. Decent old style club with a decent old style stadium. As a direct result, they’ve been relegated, and it is wishful to believe that they’ll be back any time soon.

As far as the business model goes, their face doesn’t fit.

But Spurs aren’t Fulham, of course. Spurs don’t need to expand in order to survive. If THFC wasn’t owned by an investment company, they could probably exist quite comfortably as Premier League team, in perpetuity. While it is highly unlikely they would ever win the league again; if they did get relegated, it would be down to bad buying and bad squad management.

So expanding is a good thing.

Would the expansion of THFC benefit more than its own investment company owned coffers? Some are so blinkered by the assumption that it would, they have refused to approach the idea rationally. Much of it has been quite unbecoming.

I’ll be corrected if wrong, but Spurs have been operating earnestly from White Hart Lane since the turn of the last century. I use this approximate date as it was 1905 that the first fixed stands were constructed.

Since then, the club has experienced ups and downs and bouts of occasional flatulence, but generally speaking, it has mapped an overall path of improvement.

Since then, N17 has proved to be an economic black hole. Yes, I am sure some wonderful anecdotal evidence exists to remind us all that it still has its charms, but I don’t need to provide readers with a potted history of Haringey’s troubles.

As per this week’s podcast, the money, the good, the potential life blood for the area, leaves The Lane electronically into the bank accounts of ENIC, and those who exit the West Stand car park in limited edition luxury sports cars.

The fact is, that even pubs near the stadium haven’t been able to survive. The Bell & Hare converted its upstairs into a hostel which is more reminiscent of an East Berlin doss house, than the overnight accommodation one might imagine to be available adjacent to a multimillion pound business. A business that would have you believe is at the heart of the community.

So words such as good, and progress need to be quantified. Good and progressive, but for for whom? Decades of Spurs trading at 748 High Road, Tottenham, London, N17 0AP has had a negligible impact on our neighbours.

A cynic would say, just enough impact not to make any difference at all.

The agitators for the removal of Archway have been crying from the rooftops that the redevelopment would significantly aid the much needed regeneration of an area, they admit is in decline.

ENIC themselves stated that the scheme would make…

…public realm improvements which will contribute to the achievement of the promotion or improvement of the economic, social or environmental well-being of the North Tottenham Area”

…which sounds enticing enough. But it just be …spin …or worse yet, a fib?

Let’s keep this simple. Most people on a match day spend a lot of money. But where is it spent?

Your ticket money goes to ENIC (sometimes more than once if you use StubHub!) and then there’s your travel costs. Dependent upon how you get there, this cash gets scattered across trains, planes, automobiles, buses, rickshaws and mobility scooters.

Then there are your souvenirs. To the best of my knowledge, not a single item for sale in the club’s many retail outlets is sourced locally. If I’m wrong, let me know.

Not many pennies from the average fan’s spend lands in a local trader’s pocket. They get the scraps.

Match day costs are severe enough for the transcient visitor Tottenham, and most do not treat themselves to a sit down meal with all the trimmings.

Only a few take the opportunity to get lashed up in a local pub. And those pubs cannot survive on just two days of excited trade a month; beer is almost as cheap as a good bottled water these days and in impoverished communities, a night in the pub is no longer the familiar routine it was.

Perhaps I am overlooking all of you who use the opportunity to avail of the myriad nail bars to purchase your hair extensions, use the Western Union desks to wire money, or buy exotic fruit, vegetables and cans of pop optimistically marked ‘part of a multi-pack, not to be sold separately.’

Even if the good people of Haringey didn’t get a guinea from the games, which is effectively the case now, they would benefit from the development from the requirement for affordable housing to be included. Wouldn’t they?

So guess what?

Yup, the one element that would’ve had a direct benefit on the locals – was halved. Here’s how the Haringey Council approached the matter.

It was proposed that the requirement for 50% affordable homes in the development be deleted. As a result of funding regime changes for affordable housing, the provision of affordable housing would have a negative impact on the viability of the scheme.

The Council’s planning policy permitted flexibility in respect of affordable housing provision, subject to viability, and also encouraged developing a broad housing mix.

It was noted that Northumberland Park currently had a high proportion of social housing, and that the creation of open market homes in the area would broaden the mix of housing locally.

Did you read that?

The provision of affordable housing would have a negative impact on the viability of the scheme.

So if the scheme is about regenerating the area, how can regenerating the area have a negative impact on the scheme? I’m confused.

It is common knowledge amongst intelligent people, that the way you improve a community, is breaking cycles that are harmful to it. You improve education, you improve housing and welfare. You make people feel inclusive about their community so that they understand and they care and that they then ultimately make it a better place for present and future generations.

Paul Phillips of THFC stood up before Haringey Council on the very issue. People are shaped by their environment. If someone from the Club said it, it’s gotta be true.

..in recent years there had been very little evidence of damage caused by football crowds and it was anticipated that the provision of high quality facilities would encourage people to respect their surroundings even more.”

So, the biggest knock on effect of the redevelopment, affordable housing, has been halved.

Instead, “open market housing would broaden the mix.”

A cynic would suggest that instead of seeking to do some genuine good here for the less well heeled of Haringey, it’s easier to hope they either all bunch up, or better still simply naff off.

Oiks out, client reference numbers in!

It gets better. If you scrap 50% of the affordable housing which is entirely likely to be occupied by families, then you solve another niggle which saves even more money.

Haringey Council continued :

In respect of school place funding, it was recommended that the requirement for this funding be deleted in the revised s106 agreement.

On the basis that the homes to be provided under the new outline planning application would all be open market, and the likelihood that the majority of these would be 1 and 2 bedroom units, it was anticipated that the number of children occupying the development would be reduced.

I have to say, that is actually inspired.

To hell with existing families, whose kids are probably the ones that are probably bunking off school to shoplift, or indulging in a little knife crime as they kill time before the next riot. Instead, let’s flog off some first time buyer apartments to people without kids!

And then there’s the Health Centre.

Some have attempted to pass this off as our benevolent Investment Company putting a bit back. Aid for the ailing, well being for the weak. However, ENIC only ever gives away that which is of little or no value to them. Or what will return unto them tenfold.

‘Stick a £200 cap on StubHub sales? Sure, why the hell not, we can still screw the other 95% who are stupid enough to pay over face value!

The truth is …’less than healthy.’

In respect of the health centre, it was advised that it was not anticipated that this would be ready for occupation for 5-6 years, in which time it was hoped that the opportunity to fund health services at this location would be possible, but would depend on circumstances at that time.

Again, it was reported that this would be a very flexible space able to accommodate a range of potential uses, were a health provider not forthcoming.

In the period before this aspect of the scheme was delivered, work would take place to identify appropriate occupiers of the site.

Er… so there is no Health Centre.

Rather, there’s an option on a premises, should a health provider wish to step forward. And that given the estimated timeline of 5 to 6 years, this obviously isn’t a priority. At all.

Anyway, people from the social underclass with scurvy and rickets don’t really go to football matches these days, so they?

Another item that fails to support the suggestion that the locals are being taken all that seriously, is the Spurs Walkway. This is what has been called the High Road West scheme. Essentially a new approach path up to the stadium.

The planning consultancy firm Arup drew up an alternative plan to the one that has been arbitrarily decided upon; one that would save businesses, High Road shops and the GP surgery from demolition.

Here’s Haringey blogger, Patricia Pearcy:

It places the new “community” building (which is in fact shops incorporating a new library) on the corner of Whitehall Street. That, we heard from an Arup design consultant, could have been combined with a mews-style development around the Peacock Industrial Estate.

So in fact there always has been an alternative to demolition, but it was not presented to the community in the High Road West consultation. That community was not given all the possible options.

From the start the High Road West community had clearly expressed, through a local petition of 4,000-plus signatures, that it was against demolition of local business. In November, Cllr Alan Strickland, the cabinet member for regeneration and housing, agreed to explore options to look at the retention of the shops and businesses.

In February, the Tottenham Business Group finally met with the council’s regeneration team, but compromise was not on that agenda. We were there to just listen to the rationale behind the council’s planning decisions. But it was during this process that the alternative option came to light.

The desire to demolish Coombes Croft Library is another building marked for the bulldozers.The plan from Arup, some goodwill and some common sense could sort this out, but the alternatives are being ignored. Information is not being shared. Transparency denied.

Here’s Haringey blogger, Martin Ball:

My local park and others have benefited from activities provided by the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation. Though, that doesn’t mean we have to be silent when a fans’ walkway will demolish homes, shops, and Coombes Croft Library – part of the High Road West scheme.

There’s a pattern emerging here. ENIC aren’t a friend to the community, they are in fact, quite harmful to it.

But we ought not be distracted, we must not lose sight of the real trouble makers here. Archway Sheet Metal!

Why are Archway holding up progress? After all, 71 (yes, seventy one) other businesses have been relocated, bought out/paid off.

The first problem with that number is that it isn’t what we call in the trade, an honest figure. It implies that 71 business owners sat down with ENIC and decided that the offer was a fair one, and duly signed.

But that simply isn’t the case. The bulk of the 71 were actually owned by 4 or 5 major landlords. So what transpired was in effect, a block vote that may or may not have represented the individual interests of the actual traders.

Somewhat of a common noun, the word “businesses.” I mean Microsoft is a business, and so is the bloke who lives up the road from me who is a plasterer and decorator. He’s a business. They come in different shapes and sizes.

How many of these businesses in N17 might have been closer in size to that of a plasterer and decorator than they were to Microsoft? It’s probable that many of them had very little going for them.

It’s also not unfair to say that given the state of that area, landlords may have historically had more than the occasional ‘issue’ with tenants.  Almost any offer in a run down area, to simply end it all, take away the struggle, might have been a welcome one.

Archway aren’t struggling. They have a successful enough business that they’ve built up over 5o years. They aren’t time wasters, they’re just an ordinary, decent hard working family.

Archway are also the people who daily, receive the most appalling, violently worded threats. I can’t repeat much on here. Think of the hatemongers who champion ethnic cleansing, it’s that sort of stuff. Talk of petrol bombing appears to be the ‘jibe’ of choice. The ones generating this hate are signing themselves off as Spurs fans. Why are some people so howl at the moon angry?

Well, Archway want £25million.

My God. I know we took a hit on David Bentley, but £25million?!

Greedy jokers!

Cypriot chancers!

But they haven’t asked for £25millon.

The £25million came from David Lammy MP. It was on his guest appearance on the Spurs Show at the end of last season. Mr Lammy said:

I think they want £25million or something…ho ho ho.”

So are we naive to think that the local member of parliament, might have stepped in, tried to poor oil on the troubled waters that divide a two local, privately owned businesses in his constituency?

Naive indeed. He’s far too busy putting out duff information, so it can be used as a stick to beat one of his constituents with. Oh, and note this, Mr Lammy has never spoken to Archway.

Haringey blogger Martin Ball again:

I don’t believe David Lammy can be an impartial broker in the decisions being made about the developments along the Tottenham High Road. We know he favours the Spurs plan and is on record as saying he wants the stadium built as soon as possible.

To many of us, he is a cheerleader for the bulldozers set to create that fans’ walkway, and has tweeted a photograph of the new Sainsbury’s store, part of the club’s redevelopment of the area, taken from a Spurs boardroom window.

My local park and others have benefited from activities provided by the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation. Though, that doesn’t mean we have to be silent when a fans’ walkway will demolish homes, shops, and Coombes Croft Library – part of the High Road West scheme.

The problem with Lammy is the same with most politicians. It’s all about them. Less about the poor fools that voted them in. Lammy has some form in this respect.

From the Haringey Advertiser, 27 October 2004:

HARINGEY taxpayers have been forking out for Tottenham MP David Lammy to rent a second home in south London.

Mr Lammy admitted the expense in the first published account of MPs’ spending, and is among 32 outer London MPs claiming the second home allowance, worth up to £20,333 a year…

Mr Lammy said he stayed at the second home for three nights a week when he was working at Westminster, spending the rest of his week at his main home on the Harringay Ladder, 28 minutes from Westminster by tube.

He claimed £12,041 for the home between April 2003 and March 2004.

Again, a cynic might suggest that David Lammy’s partisan support for NDP can be explained more by what it might add to his CV, rather than what effect it might really have on local people. Mr Lammy believes that he is going places. He wants to be mayor.

In this week’s New Statesman, George Eaton’s column cites an observer of the run up to the next Mayor of London campaign as saying:

He’s ditched the glasses, he’s wearing sharper suits and he’s lost some weight.”

If Archway haven’t demanded £25million, what are their actual objections? Well here’s what Archway told the Inspector, David Nicholson RIBA IHBC:

The main grounds of objection are that there are fatal legal defects; state aid would arise; the scheme does not conform to the adopted planning framework; its contribution to regeneration and well-being would be modest; the assessment of alternatives has been inadequate; and there have been no proper negotiations.

Right, I’m not sure about the fatal legal defects. I’m not a lawyer. But that leaves…

“State aid would rise” – check.

“The scheme does not conform to the adopted planning framework” – check.

“Its contribution to regeneration and well-being would be modest” – check.

“The assessment of alternatives has been inadequate.” – check.

But the CPO was granted?

Alas, no. It was actually overruled by the Secretary for State Eric Pickles. The Inspector, David Nicholson RIBA IHBC said:

The Inspector has recommended that, in the absence of a further planning obligation, the Order should not be confirmed.

What the Inspector did encourage, was that ENIC and the Council reviewed their application to see if the issue of affordable housing could readdressed.

Tory MP Eric Pickles has said that they need not bother.

My beef all along, has been doing this the right way. Despite it being about private business; it ought to be done in a morally centered way. And it hasn’t been.

The case continues.

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Click to the button below to hear this week’s show…

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