Why we’re resigning from the Hackney Central Community Panel

An open letter to the Mayor of Hackney from Morning Lane People’s Space

We’re MOPS (Morning Lane People’s Space), local residents who for five years have been working to get a voice for residents in our Council’s plans to build on the Tesco site at 55 Morning Lane in the heart of Hackney Central. We have listened and consulted widely. We have stood outside Tesco and talked to hundreds of people about what they want to see on the site. Thousands of local people completed surveys, and we shared the results. We have held public meetings, and much more.

We’re sad to be resigning from the Hackney Central Community Panel. We’ve been one of its most active members. In a recent review, we pointed out it’s not representative of the community. It is unclear how new members are involved. The content and logistics of discussions are controlled by the Council. Perhaps the top-down approach is why attendances at the two meetings held this year were in single figures.

Our reason for resigning is Hackney Council’s decision that the community reps who will help choose an architect for 55 Morning Lane will come from this unrepresentative Council-controlled Panel. If we remain, we will be validating this half-baked and corrupt process.

On Thursday 10th October, Hackney Central Community Panel members were invited by Nicola Hudson, the Council officer responsible for the Tesco site, to apply to participate in the evaluation panel, to help select an architect for the site’s redevelopment. The invitation was short notice – giving organisations just four days across the weekend to complete a nomination form. The architect is to be appointed only a week later on the afternoon of Monday 21st October and anyone putting themselves forward has to be free to attend then. Also at late notice, successful applicants will need to attend a training session – though its time on 16th October is not provided, and will need to fit in hours of required reading during the week.

There are about 25 people on the Community Panel – a mix of businesses and community organisations. The businesses include one property development financier, four bars/pubs, three shops, and two networks. The community organisations include a few grassroots groups like us with elected officers and regular meetings, but most aren’t directly accountable to residents. They include the London College of Fashion and Sutton House. None of the many Tenants and Residents Associations in the area are on the Panel. The Council decides who is on the Panel and which of these groups will help them select an architect. MOPS believe in an open process where, as a community, we – not the Council – choose who represents us.

Rather than civic engagement this feels like a last minute, tick-box exercise. It could have been very different.

Less than three weeks before Hackney Central Community Panel members were emailed, MOPS held a public meeting with 50+ people present. The Mayor and Deputy Mayor responsible for regeneration, and Nicola Hudson attended, with a 10-minute platform to share how they planned to engage the public via ‘co-design’! Nicola said she wants to design the site and select the architect with us. She didn’t say that five architects had already been shortlisted and their presentations scheduled. Or that the many interested and informed residents attending the meeting would not be eligible to take part in the selection process. Rather than seize an opportunity to share and get feedback on the process, she ignored all the pleas for transparency.

The current process is not co-design. It’s not even consultation. It is PR. Although promised in the public meeting, the Council is yet to share key information such as timelines and decision-making processes. While the language of community engagement is sprayed about, Hackney councillors and officers are untruthful. One of repeated comments we hear leafleting outside Tesco is: “You can’t trust Hackney council”. We said: “Come to our public meeting and hear what they have to say”. Sadly, the community has been proved right.

55 Morning Lane is hugely important for Hackney. It is not ‘business-as-usual’ – it is a town centre redevelopment, where the interests and concerns of residents must be central. We will continue our work to get residents’ voices heard by Hackney Council in their plans for the site, and to ensure a large Tesco remains, and at least 50% of any housing built there is public housing that can provide homes for families on the waiting list.

While we’re resigning from the Panel, we’ll always be willing to meet with and talk to you and others at the Council if that happens on the basis of openness and honesty. As the people who’ve stood up for the site for five years, we hope you’ll want to do that.