Letter Sent.

We have written and sent the letter below (by post) to the following people:

List of recipients below:

• Charlotte Graves, Chief Executive, Hackney Homes
• Michael Garvey, Planning Officer, Hackney Homes
• Graham Loveland, Interim Assistant Director, Hackney Homes
• Jules Pipe, Mayor of Hackney
• Cllr Rob Chapman  

Dear XXX,

We were surprised and disappointed to see that Hackney Homes have submitted a planning application to gate and fence-in our estate without any consultation or notification of the Residents’ Association or residents in general. As a Residents’ Association, we strongly object to this scheme, for the following principal reasons:

1. 
   
   They create a sense of being ‘caged in’ and will look ugly and out of place. Because our estate was originally designed as a set of blocks with open space between, any gate scheme has to be a ‘cage’ around all open walkways and staircases. This will have a significant negative impact on the look and feel of our surroundings, as well as being inappropriate for the conservation area where we are located.
2. 
   
   They will create access problems for us and our neighbours.

• 
  
  General access: Lockner was designed with a very open layout, with multiple routes between the blocks and across the open spaces of the estate. Putting locked gates around the estate will prevent free movement around the estate and break up our community.
• 
  
  Disabled access: Many residents here are registered disabled and have mobility problems, for example using mobility scooters or using sticks to get around. The estate’s current open layout makes it easy for them; any introduction of gates will make it much more difficult for them to come and go. The exact accessibility details of the proposal are unclear in the drawings, but we know from previous attempts by Hackney Council to design gate schemes for the estate that there is no possible scheme which is fully accessible within a reasonable cost.

3. 
   
   They are unlikely to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour. Lockner is not a high-crime estate; it is an estate full of young families and has a thriving local community. We work hard to create a sense of community cohesion. We know from police crime statistics that the most common crime type on the estate is domestic, which would not be prevented by gates; we also know from other Hackney estate residents that they have not in general found gates to be effective in reducing crime/ASB, since gates are easily bypassed by ‘tailgating’ or by being let in by residents.

To summarise: we believe that this proposed scheme would be very bad for us both as individuals and as a community. We are told by Hackney Homes that there is no budget available to make the estate a nicer place through painting, landscaping, etc; we would get far more benefit as a community from spending on making the estate a nicer environment than from spending on this scheme which provides no positive benefit to us.

We have put together a petition against this scheme, which is enclosed.

Kind Regards,