Memorandum by the London Borough of Newham
and Home 2 Home (Newham) Ltd (LGC 32)
BACKGROUND
1. This submission relates to the Masterplanning
process on the Carpenters Estate, Stratford, London, E15 undertaken
between February 2003 and the present and is expected to be complete
in early 2005.
2. The Carpenters Estate is situated just
west of Stratford Station and is a well defined area having railway
lines and a major road (A115). To the north of the estate on the
other side of the mainline railway lines to and from Liverpool
Street station is the planned site for the Olympic Games. The
estate comprises three high rise blocks of flats, a number of
low rise flats and also a number of houses many of which have
been purchased as part of the Government's right to buy policy.
The estate comprises 750 dwellings in all.
3. As with most of Newham, the estate has
a large number of ethnic groups with more than 20 languages spoken
and is within one of the 5% most deprived wards in England with
over 70% of residents being from ethnic minority groups. Management
of the estate is undertaken by the Tenants Management Organisation
(TMO) who played a leading role is getting a learndirect training
centre run by Newham College established on the estate and the
award of funding from DfES under the Wired up Communities initiative.
4. A partnership of the TMO, Newham Council
and Newham.net a local social enterprise was successful in winning
funds to wire up the estate and for the establishment of Carpenters
Connect service accessible via residents' TVs. This service gave
residents access to a wide range of services including email,
the internet and video on demand via their TVs. A description
of the service including the activities currently being undertaken
partly funded by the ODPM e Innovations programme to turn the
current prototype service into one that could be deployed by local
authorities and registered social landlords may be found in appendix
1, an article published in Public Sector Review magazine in September
2004. Appendix 2 is a picture of the service TV interface and
Appendix 3 (not printed) a picture of the estate's investigative
reporters. In total over 60 locally based videos were produced
by a team led initially by the Media Trust and from October 2004
by Home 2 Home (Newham) Ltd a newly established social enterprise
based on the estate.
5. Following complaints by residents about
the state of the three high rise blocks with for example water
ingress, insect infestation, the lack of child locks on windows
etc, Newham Council invited tenders from architects to undertake
the Masterplanning process of the estate. As part of the evaluation
of tenders representatives from the TMO attended presentations
from prospective architectural practices and were involved in
the selection of Broadway Malyan as the lead for the Masterplanning
process.
6. Each stage of the process was filmed
and made available to residents via the Carpenters Connect video
on demand system. This meant that residents who missed any meetings,
site visits etc could see an edited film of the key points.
7. The range of videos include:
— Selection of Masterplanners.
— Meet the Masterplanners—an
introduction from the team.
— Video Diaries—what residents
think.
— Architects Walkabout—looking
at the estate.
— Structural Surveyors Site Visit—inspecting
the flats.
— Counting The Cost—how much
are the works likely to cost.
— Advice For Residents—how to
be heard in consultations.
— Listening to Residents Views—consultation
and the Council.
— Final Masterplanning Report—Masterplanners
explain the recommendations they have made to the council.
— Summary of Masterplanning exercise—compilation
of the entire Masterplanning process to date.
— Masterplanning Update—the latest
news from Newham Council.
A full list of the videos produced and their
length may be found in Appendix 4. Copies of these videos are
available on request.
8. A web site was set up for questions to
the Masterplanners and the Council to be answered and options
considered to be considered by residents.
RESULTS
9. As a result of the consultation which
involved many meetings and visits, all available to residents
on demand and a web site for an exchange of ideas, views and comments,
it is felt that the Masterplanning process has been significantly
improved and the level of involvement increased.
10. In particular:
— the architectural team felt better
informed at all stages of the process of residents' views;
— there was a greater level of community
consultation and involvement;
— residents were kept informed even
when unable to attend meetings; and
— fewer options were proposed than
in previous processes;
11. Whilst it is recognised that the Carpenters
Connect system with its availability of videos of every stage
of the process enhanced the level of community consultation and
involvement, many of these methods of community consultation could
be employed in similar situations. It would for example still
be possible to utilise the use of video filming to keep residents
informed of progress by showing these in community halls as the
process progresses.
The following appendix has not been printed
due to printing costs, however, it is available on request from
the Committee Office.
Appendix 3—A photo of Carpenters Estate
Investigative Reporters in action.
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