Following on from his last letter describing the attempts to knock down the Cremorne estate in London, we publish here a report by Nico Baldion, a Socialist Appeal supporter on the estate, who describes the mood at a recent meeting of the Cremorne residents association, at which the class hatred of the Tories towards the working class was laid bare.
Following on from his last letter describing the attempts to knock down the Cremorne estate in London, we publish here a report by Nico Baldion, a Socialist Appeal supporter on the estate, who describes the mood at a recent meeting of the Cremorne residents association, at which the class hatred of the Tories towards the working class was laid bare.
On the 7th of July, for the first time in my life I attended my local residents association AGM. Not normally the fun filled plan I have for a Monday evening, but today was different. The room was packed with my neighbours; I counted over 70 in the room with more crowding the corridor outside.
The reason we had all come with same day notice was that the council had secret plans to knock down our estate, using the proposed building of a Crossrail 2 station on the estate as an excuse to ‘regenerate’ and make way for private property developers. These plans came out when a letter was leaked by a council worker to the chair of the resident’s association a day before the TFL consultation.
The cover letter explains that Tory council leader Nick Paget-Brown had written to TFL and Boris Johnson over a year ago suggesting a Crossrail 2 station on the Cremorne estate. The suggestion was for two entrances, one on the Kings Road, the other next to the river. The cover letter states, “Due to the surface work necessary this could only come about as part of a larger regeneration of the estate.”
The TfL ‘consultation’ is not honest or transparent. It does not indicate that “Chelsea West” is in fact the Cremorne estate. The council had been taking down posters of the residents association that urged residents to vote No to the Chelsea West option, preferring us to be completely ignorant of the consultation.
Local Tory MP Greg Hands attended in order to answer questions. In a typically weasel-like fashion, his answers consisted of, and I paraphrase:
“I don’t know anything about Crossrail; I just heard they were going to build a station last month; it’s awfully naughty of those councillors not to tell me; it’s early stages yet to the TFL consultation; the council is different to the MP; I don’t have too much to do with the council, but I’m here to listen to your concerns; I’ll listen to what you have to say, but not commit to anything at all.”
Great…Thankfully he was not given an easy time by the residents and there were many angry voices from the floor.
“Let’s call it what it is. It’s social cleansing”…”They just don’t care about us!”…”How much is council leader Nick Paget-Brown going to get from Sloane-Stanley for selling off our homes?”…”We like living here we have a good estate and are proud of it”…”Where will we go…Manchester?”…”Many of us work in the area; should we lose our jobs as well as our homes?”…
As well as residents, the small shop keepers whose shops on are on the estate were also present. Local barber Antonio explained how three years ago Sloane Stanley’s agents (Sloane Stanley is an old aristocratic family that owns most of the shops on the Kings Road amongst other interests) were out and about pricing the value of the land as there was already rumours the estate was to be sold to developers.
“Many of you here are my clients and have been for many years, I also serve the other half, who live on the other side of the road.” On having his clientele sign the petition to save the Cremorne, one lady from the other half said to him, “They don’t belong in Chelsea.”
“How can she be like that,” Antonio said. These are good people; they are families; they don’t deserve it.”
Others reported the class hatred the rich feel towards working class people. One wealthy woman, who voted to knock down our estate in the consultation, justified it to Antonio by saying “But it’s ok, they will move you”, as if we were only old bits of furniture.
The worst insult to our plight reported was from Councillor Nick Paget-Brown. When asked where/how they were going to move the many old residents who lived on the Cremorne estate since it was built, Brown replied: “They will mostly be dead in six years time.”
That is the face of Tory hatred laid bare. The face of capitalism, which cares not for people, only profit. In the same borough mansions lie empty – their millionaire owners don’t fill them. Whole streets lie quiet and no one ever stirs. Parasitic overseas buyers purchase homes as an investment and never set foot in them. Yet we on the Cremorne face losing our homes. Such is the logic of capitalism.
Interview with Andrew Barshall resident of the Sutton estate
Also present at the AGM were members from other housing associations from nearby estates who offered their solidarity and informed us of similar redevelopment projects without the excuse of a Crossrail station. After the meeting I caught up with Andrew Barshall, resident of the Sutton estate in Chelsea, who informed me of the ‘regeneration’ happening on his estate.
The Sutton estate was owned by Affinity Sutton, built for the poor of Chelsea. The Affinity Trust had joined with William Sutton, the huge housing provider who purposefully let the estate decline, in order to declare it unfit for habitation, and make more money with market rate housing.
Now they are taking down the Victorian buildings to be replaced with apartments half of which will be rented at market rates, with no regarded for the current residents.
Affinity Sutton is set to make half a billion profit from the venture.
