Residents of Aspland estate and Marcon Court have forced Hackney Council to back down from its plan to privatise their estates.
The Council's Cabinet will discuss the issue on 25 July, and was going to vote on a recommendation to transfer the estates to a new landlord, and to demolish Marcon Court and rebuild it with a majority of private flats for sale.
Now, the recommendation will instead be to note residents' opposition, pull the estates out of the 'Review', and put them into the Decent Homes programme with the rest of Hackney's estates.
The Tenants' & Residents' Association (TRA) has vowed to fight on, to ensure that the Council properly refurbishes the crumbling estate.
Hackney Solidarity's Janine Booth - who is TRA Chairperson - said: "This is a victory for community solidarity. We stopped the privatisation plan because we were not fooled by Council propaganda, and were not prepared to see a working-class community swept aside to make way for yet more expensive flats for City commuters."
More details and comments in the next issue of Hackney Solidarity.
Marcon Court
Dear Worker's Liberty,
I was interested to read the reports that Marcon Court is to be demolished. I moved there as a 10 year old boy in 1958. Our family had lived in a small two bedroomed pre-fab just by the Dog Stadium in Lower Clapton. Moving to Marcon Court - except for the lack of a garden - was like moving into a palace. There was a real sense of optimism among those moving in. At that point many of our schoolfriends lived in subdivided privately rented accomodation. The housing programme of the 1950s and 1960s in working class areas like Hackney is often rediculed by the middle class today, but the severe shortage meant that Socialist Councils had to build rapidly to house our people. We were fortunate that the council needed the land where our prefabs stood to build what is now Nye Bevan Estate, so we were given priority. My Mum was really pleased that we were put into number 50 and insisted that we slept with the window open (except in the coldest nights of winter) to take advantage of the fresh air produced from the tree outside our window!
I cannot understand why these flats are seen as being no longer fit for purpose. I passed them a few weeks ago and the estate does look run down, but that is probably due to poor maintenance. At present I live a long way from Hackney but my house is nearly 100 years old and absolutely no one would think of demolition!
Looking back I can see how the then Labour Council worked had to provide for working class people. Marcon Court was built to the Parker Morris staandards, ten or twelve garages were provided, there was a resident caretaker (I didn't always see eye to eye with him),there were two "cages" for ball games, a laundry and a communal hall. We had a football team called Marcon United that had a modest success in some friendly matches against other local teams. There were lots of young families on the estate and we grew up together. I shall watch the progress of this issue with interest.
David Hallam