Memorandum submitted by Goole Action Group
Goole (population c 18,000) is a port town on
the Yorkshire Ouse, 50 miles up the Humber estuary from Spurn
Point. Established in 1826, late in the canal age, by Trustees
of the Aire & Calder Navigation for shipping coal, it now
freights container traffic via the M62.
REGENERATION THRU' RENOVATION
The main aims of the Goole Action Group are:
— To halt the demolition process on
Richard Cooper Street and Phoenix Street, Goole.
— To maintain and preserve the unique,
historic character and heritage of Goole.
— To encourage the population of the
Advance Goole Renewal Area to take an active part in the regeneration
of their homes and communities.
— To encourage the population of the
Advance Goole Renewal Area to take responsibility for the maintenance
of their own communities and environment.
— To change the perception in the rest
of Goole of the Richard Cooper Street and Phoenix Street area
from a "run-down, disaffected" area into an up and coming
desirable place to either buy your first home or to rent.
— To create a community and an atmosphere
where everyone gives freely of their time to help their fellow
neighbours.
— To ensure that the older members
of the community can enjoy their life in a safe, secure and familiar
environment surrounded by people they know they can rely on.
— To create an environment where children
can play safely knowing that the community is watching over them.
SUMMARY
In the experience of Goole residents, the ODPM
Five Year Plan tackles neither the impact of increased house building
on the environment nor addresses the environmental implications
of the geographical distribution of demolition versus new build.
Ref Env Audit para 48.
[. . .] The Government needs to recognise that
a good environment is as vital to national prosperity as a sound
economy or a cohesive society.
Ref Env Audit para 50.
[. . .] We are concerned that the driving force
behind the SustainableCommunities Plan is to meet economic and
social demands and there is little understanding within ODPM of
how the environment interacts with these.
Ref Env Audit para 51.
The need for all Government departments properly
to incorporate sustainability into policy implementation is becoming
pressing. The Government Chief Scientist, Sir David King, is warning
with increasing urgency about the need to address issues related
to climate change.
(Goole Action Group emphasises flooding)
1. ECONOMIC AND
SOCIAL DEMANDS
Goole's 19-20th century terraced housing was
built to a high density. East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC)
calculated Goole's streets at 48/ha (Housing Land Position Statement
1 April 2004) but outline approval was given recently for 50/ha
brownfield development (Adelphi Warehouse). Yet demolition of
117 adjacent homes in two of Goole's Victorian terraced streets,
to create a viable development area, scarcely enhances the environment?
2. ENVIRONMENTAL
WASTAGE
English Heritage has shown that the waste of
energy and materials when existing housing is replaced by supposedly
sustainable buildings is a myth. CABE audit found 94% northern
housing developments of poor standard. (Ben Willis, Regeneration
& Renewal—18 November 2005.) Are developers cutting
corners, leading to future demolition and resource wastage?
3. ENVIRONMENTAL
BLIGHT
How does cramming regenerate "run down"
communities? With no plan available for consultation, homes awaiting
demolition in "non-sustainable" terraced streets are
boarded up, entered by squatters, pose a danger to neighbourhood.
4. AFFORDABLE
HOUSING
ERYC planners stated there was sufficient affordable
housing in Goole: new developments did not need to allocate more.
ERYC also proposes to demolish Pasture Road primary school, because
pupil numbers are falling, so why is more housing needed?
5. GREENFIELD
RELEASED
ERYC currently plans to meet Regional Spatial
targets by releasing greenfield sites on the town's outskirts
at a density of 35/ha to provide a shortfall of some 1,200 new
houses in Western area over the next five years.
6. CLIMATE CHANGE
What importance is paid to the fact that these
greenfield sites are on low-lying land, and/or close to the River
Ouse? What does the Environment Agency say about additional run-offs
on flood plains?
7. LACK OF
SKILLS
Lack of skills is reducing potential for social
and environmental regeneration of Goole. Existing "economic"
strength of port and freight—limits jobs, skills development/opportunities
set out by ERYC. Training is geared to pre-planned outcome to
meet local needs and is social engineering.
Regional development agencies—funding
Pathways to Work—none of these plans address higher-paid
skills required by aspiring people and places—so Goole's
future is being set in stone.
Who can afford new housing in a low wage economy?
Why would young people who do gain higher education wish to work
and live here? Not even ERYC officers choose Goole over East Yorkshire
addresses.
8. PARTNERSHIP
ODPM Five Year Plan states local authorities
should have the lead responsibility for working in partnership
with others to deliver the common goal. Local government officials
access advisory briefings from public sector associations (eg
APSE—web-browsing reveals), but do not follow it. Communication
and consultation with the people of Goole is rudimentary.
Political leadership at local and unitary level
has completely failed. Giving any community a choice, when it
has no voice, and any voices that are raised in protest are over-ridden
or ignored, is worthless. Ian Cawsey MP (Lab.) has been our only
support.
There is evidence that ERYC officers and Market/Neighbourhood
Renewal appointees simply do not understand or are manipulating
ODPM directives. What is going on when residents have to study
online documentation in order to protect themselves against suspected
mismanagement and wasted public expenditure imposed without community
consultation?
The Goole Times (17 November 2005) is
a classic example of ERYC housing directorate at work—instead
of addressing real issues, it seems set on bloodying the noses
of local people who dare to stand up and question imposed decisions,
publicly impugning confidential complaints to Ombudsman by wrongly
associating one individual with action group. And press does not
check facts with all parties before printing misleading propaganda.
Government is belatedly setting up an Academy
to train officials who cannot deal with its directives, admitting
the widespread lack of sustainability skills (eg Egan Review and
RICS) but already the damage has been and is continuing to be
inflicted upon our communities—we are the guinea pigs!
Choice and opportunity are not feasible options
in Goole while the environment is soiled and tainted by social
factors and official obstruction. Offering people "choices"
when the local populace is unable to determine its own future—due
to the obstructive attitude of ERYC and lack of realistic opportunity
to participate in community matters, never mind expressing our
aspirations, or building up assets, is nothing more than indigestible
"pie in the sky".
9. ANNEX A
Members of Goole Action Group discussed the
ODPM "sustainable" template, as an aid to understanding
the Environmental Audit criticisms.
For a neighbourhood to be:
(2) WELL RUN—with effective and inclusive
participation, representation and leadership.
Sustainable communities should enjoy:
— representative, accountable governance
systems which both facilitate strategic, visionary leadership
and enable inclusive, active and effective participation by individuals
and organisations.
It is essential that:
Elected representatives' role—Councillors'
responsibilities—should include:
(2) looking after residents' interests;
(3) not sitting on the fence, especially when
homes are threatened; and
(4) major decisions should be councillor-led,
not officer-led.
Community involvement with all major decisions—require
consultation from the beginning and not fitted round decisions
already made at County Hall.
Effective engagement with the community at neighbourhood
level, including capacity building to develop the community's
skills, knowledge and confidence requires:
— adequate representation at all
levels. Lack of capacity-building dispossesses any community that
does not already possess experience of skill-building, confidence-boosting,
knowledge-based abilities, from standing up and voicing its disquiet.
UNTIL NOW!
— strong, informed and effective
partnerships that lead by example (eg government, business, community);
— a strong, inclusive, community
and voluntary sector; and
— a sense of civic values, responsibility
and pride.
It is believed that the community takes second-place
to business sector at Goole.
Goole Development Trust (GDT) works closely with
economic concerns but has ignored civic aspects. When GDT and
local businessmen (and it is usually men) publicly accuse the
townspeople of being their own worst enemies, and apathetic, these
placemen should ask themselves why the residents disdain engagement
in communal affairs. Does this apathy not arise from failure to
communicate, to consider people in their own right, instead of
means to the economic ends of regional funding decision-makers,
per the ODPM farming-out taxpayers' money to quangos like Yorkshire
Forward?
Without leadership at civic level, what more
can be expected of a largely working-class town where employees
traditionally work shifts (some working men, in heavy jobs, nearing
retirement age, begin at 4.30 am and are in bed by 9 pm in readiness
for the next day).
Long hours leaves little energy to devote to
community affairs and community involvement is badly dented by
the patronising, put-upon, we know better than you do, responses
of officialdom and representatives who prefer the status quo and
defeatist attitudes to being challenged by the public.
We offer the following comments on whether our
neighbourhood is:
(4) WELL DESIGNED AND BUILT—featuring
a quality built and natural environment
Sustainable communities offer:
— a sense of place (eg a place
with a positive "feeling" for people and local distinctiveness);
— Goole has a sense of history—"soul"
to the houses people have lived, are living and will live;
— Better built (older houses)—went
through WW2;
— user-friendly public and green
spaces with facilities for everyone including children and older
people;
— locality in Goole—near
town centre and green space of Ouse riverside (a feature and park
where the natural landscape could be better managed for public
recreation); and
— sufficient range, diversity,
affordability and accessibility of housing within a balanced housing
market.
Agreed—range of different house prices
necessary—demolition (instead of renovation)means a reduction
of affordable lower-priced homes. Some retirees would enjoy a
two bed bungalow.
— appropriate size, scale, density,
design and layout, including mixed-use development, that complement
the distinctive local character of the community.
Goole is a town built since 1826—already
undergone "slum clearance" of original buildings—20th
century terraced streets, on tight-knit grid pattern, form central
residential core, define "Goole".
Estates around northern and western edges of
town have no individual nor local character and are built "cheek
by jowl" for developers' maximum capital return.
— high quality, mixed-use, durable,
flexible and adaptable buildings, using sustainable construction
materials.
The Courtyard—renovation of a Victorian
elementary school—should be the shining example of what
regeneration can achieve. The building is a worthy architectural
conversion and a busy venue and community space. A testament to
the Trustees who managed to save the building from demolition.
Much original 19-20th century retail and public
buildings currently undergoing sympathetic renovation by Howard
Duckworth, including mixed residential/commercial use.
Dock Gallery (privately owned) could be an impressive
renovation project, but public funding required to undertake substantial
works required, without ruining the ambience of the former (1870s)
Goole Steam Shipping offices.
— buildings and public spaces which
promote health and are designed to reduce crime and make people
feel safe.
What this is supposed to mean, who knows?
Demolished houses = trouble = dangerous construction
site.
— accessibility of jobs, key services
and facilities by public transport, walking and cycling.
Goole very accessible place—flat terrain—walk
anywhere—but no cycle paths.
People with aspirations will not stay/move into
towns like Goole while there is nothing but blight around them.
Few officials who determine our future live in Goole. But the
DPM private residence is a Victorian villa in Hull.
How is it that residents (many generations have
grown up in Goole, worked here all their lives, brought up decent
law-abiding children) now find themselves fighting to survive
in "mixed communities", where their environment is ruined
by anti-social types—blight defined by Sir Iain Blair the
Metropolitan police commissioner quoted in The Guardian (17
November 2005) as "the degradation of communal life"—nuisance
neighbours, vandalism, public aggression and the rest. Trying
to change our environment, to gain some quality of life in today's
society, market-oriented and consumer-driven, is wrecking our
health and tempers.
The terraced town of Goole is run down not because
homes are "indecent" or unmodernised, but because the
environment has been ruined by undesirable neighbours—who
often wrecked such properties—tenants of housing associations,
eg Headrow and Church Housing. Funds were always available to
housing associations and private landlords to constantly refurbish
ruined letting properties. Yet RSLs, agents acting for private
landlords and public authorities declined to act on residents'
complaints—amongst them rubbish piling up, non-conforming
and non-permitted backyard businesses in residential areas, vandalism
and drugs.
Such complaints—whether labelled environmental,
social or economic issues—degrade the wider area and certain
streets have been "run down"" because of the failure
of authorities to act and refusal to work with the community.
Now these officials believe the problems will be overcome by pulling
down the homes of hard-working people, whose lives have been most
affected, due to no fault of their own. The problems will still
exist, after decent folks have gone.
Goole is being planned as a "ghetto"—see
architect Renzo Piano (The Guardian November 21 2005).
RP was the son of a builder and grew up in the port of Genoa,
where he got his ideas of movement from shipping. He questions:
"How you can transform peripheries into
a town. What is happening today in Paris is happening everywhere.
It is mad, mad, and the insensitivity of people and politicians
. . . They create ghettos."
Goole is not Paris, but ERYC sees the town as
a periphery, the freight centre of East Yorkshire, and plans to
keep it that way.
Group members also considered whether the community
was
(1) ACTIVE, INCLUSIVE AND SAFE—Fair,
tolerant and cohesive with a strong local culture and other shared
community activities
— social inclusion and good life
chances for all
— meant more than "lip service"
— sustainable communities should
offer:
— a sense of community identity
and belonging
Neighbourhood Watch—helping vulnerable
elderly neighbours
— tolerance, respect and engagement
with people from different cultures, background and beliefs
— friendly, co-operative and helpful
behaviour in neighbourhoods
Encourage a pride in own area—keeping it
tidy (two residents voluntarily clean their street each week and
log refuse)
— opportunities for cultural, leisure,
community, sport and other activities, including for children
and young people
Involve young people—ask them what they
want
— low levels of crime, drugs and
anti-social behaviour with visible, effective and
community-friendly policing
Permanent community officer—Bobbies on
the beat—two-way respect—good interactive relationship
with police—police must listen
(3) ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE—providing
places for people to live that are considerate of the environment
— actively seek to minimise climate
change, including through energy efficiency and the use of renewables
How does pulling down bricks and mortar equate
with renewables?
— protect the environment, by minimising
pollution on land, in water and in the air
We still have threat of incinerator planned for
ERYC.
— minimise waste and dispose of
it in accordance with current good practice
It has taken far too long for ERYC to even get
recycling of household waste into practice.
— make efficient use of natural
resources, encouraging sustainable production and consumption
Too many windfarms in prospect across ERYC.
— protect and improve bio-diversity
(eg wildlife habitats)
Our only opportunity to preserve wildlife at
Oakhill has been determined by Railway/ERYC selling off adjacent
land to farmer who felled all the trees!
A Friends organisation now working to preserve
for residents of Goole but proximity of new rail line to Glass
Works has restricted opportunity that originally existed for green
space in Boothferry Local Plan.
— enable a lifestyle that minimises
negative environmental impact and enhances
— positive impacts (eg by creating
opportunities for walking and cycling, and
— reducing noise pollution and
dependence on cars)
Victorian town streets are no place for parking
when households with more than one vehicle, and/or commercial
vans and trucks, and to concrete front/back yards for parking
space does no favours for environmental run-off in a "Marshland"
community.
Cycle paths are non-existent beyond one pavement
track that ends at a road junction. None planned for future.
— create cleaner, safer and greener
neighbourhoods (eg by reducing litter and graffiti, and maintaining
pleasant public spaces)
Prevailing Westerly winds funnel town's rubbish,
litter dropped by lazy, to the Riverside fringe.
(6) THRIVING—with a flourishing and
diverse local economy
Sustainable communities feature:
— a wide range of jobs and training
opportunities
Employees for profit—low-wage economy and
containerised dockland with low labour requirements.
Training courses beyond basic skills not held
in Goole.
Few opportunities for advancement, for aspiring.
— sufficient suitable land and
buildings to support economic prosperity and change
Goole is a container port. Its dockland constrained,
historically and geographically, except westwards.
Another fatal collision occurred between a cyclist
and HGV in Bridge Street (serving dockland and the community of
"Old" Goole) because there is no cyclepath and the port
authority is allowed to create many new, wide entrances and exits
for freight purposes, without adequate public safeguards along
this main route across town.
Planning permission is not apparently required
for much dockland "improvement"—believed to be
a historical oversight never since remedied by any government.
— dynamic job and business creation,
with benefits for the local community
Guardian Glass and J.36 Trading Estate (development
decisions in hands of Yorkshire Forward).
Community fighting to gain access/environmental
screen to Oakhill Pond, green space, recreational use.
— a strong business community with
links into the wider economy
Business seems to talk only to other business
(Chamber of Commerce and Goole Development Trust)
— economically viable and attractive
town centres
Require independent and thriving retail traders,
not a Tesco branch that gobbles up everything.
(7) WELL SERVED—with public, private,
community and voluntary services that are appropriate to people's
needs and accessible to all
Sustainable communities have:
— well-performing local schools,
further and higher education institutions, and other opportunities
for life-long learning
Pasture Road primary school to be demolished.
Other Goole primary schools (especially Kingsway
in East Ward) appear to meet parental and community expectations.
Vermuyden School Goole and Howden School offer
comprehensive education.
Goole College (FE) but academic sixth-formers favour
Scunthorpe (John Leggott) for A-levels.
HE not available in Goole.
Continuing Learning (now government funds directed
at skills training) leaves only WEA (fees) and Hull University
(no fees if minimum income below £14,700 p.a.)—outreach
classes for adults: Hull University-affiliated Music in Society
(in its third year) and also very much longer-running Literature
classes are highly-valued, of excellent quality, attracting and
retaining mature students.
Library has people's computers but all heavily
used. Few local people (especially older ones) take the initiative
to learn computing skills and there are few organised instructional
classes (other than occasional sessions run by general library
staff whose own competence may be self-taught).
— high quality local health care
and social services, integrated where possible with other services
Health centres—problems with arranging
appointments.
— high quality services for families
and children (including early years child care)
Working parents customarily rely upon grandparents
for pre-school/after-school child-care,
— unless professional nursery fees
affordable.
Recent introduction school-based club provision for
older children—but many still hang around the streets without
attending clubs/activities/playingfields/skateboarding facilities.
Few opportunities for younger teenagers to socialise
(families escort to neighbouring towns to hear bands etc.).
— a good range of affordable public,
community, voluntary and private services (eg retail, fresh food,
commercial, utilities, information and advice) which are
— accessible to the whole community
Retail services centred on Tesco, Lidl, Netto
and Iceland, dominate independent retailers.
Plentiful bakeries/sandwich outlets, cafes and
fish and chip shops.
One independent greengrocery.
Market hall—run by Town Council.
Many hairdressers/beauty salons
Precinct stores eg Peacock, Argos, Poundstretcher.
Charity shops, banks etc.
Voluntary (trained) services—eg Help the
Aged and CAB.
The Courtyard—community advice services
eg SureStart, MP's local office.
service providers who think and act long term and
beyond their own immediate
— geographical and interest boundaries,
and who involve users and local residents in shaping their policy
and practice
Regretably, poor quality representation, at Goole
Town Council and East Riding of Yorkshire— councillors appear
more interested in political infighting over parochial affairs,
than in understanding impact of government policies on community.
Officers at ERYC (County Hall HQ Beverley) direct
policy—Councillors (Cabinet system) hidebound by awe/codes/lack
of understanding/incorrect understanding—rubber-stamp decisions.
Consequently needs of Goole are not well represented)
Goole given no voice to question governance.
10. GOVERNANCE
The General Secretary of the Labour Party, Matt
Carter, was in print very recently, pointing out how difficult
it is to get voters off the sofa to the front door to discuss
politics. Yet it seems that government is not listening, nor heeding
this negative message—that people are either unable to recognise
its method of communication, or that people have had enough of
party politics.
Howls of protest at the manner in which government
runs our lives, via all these regional bodies, unitary/county/local
councils, and the employment of hordes of officials who seem to
believe that what they say goes for us, makes a mockery of offering
"choice" and "opportunity". What Tony Blair
himself has said (and did)about education, is correct—the
middle classes buy what they want or move to where their choices
can be fulfilled. We, in working towns, have to put up with what
is dished out by government at all levels.
Work that is available is generally low-paid,
long-hours and low-level. Our educated sons and daughters do not
stay in town—they seek a better environment elsewhere. Cultural
opportunities, nicer neighbourhoods, more "gung ho"
activities, cafe society. And point out to their parents that
some of us have "outgrown" worn out old neighbourhoods,
which is why we are so dissatisfied with these towns.
Until government began meddling, believing it
could re-model the whole of the north, working people were content
to potter along. Some aspired, some got on, some did good works,
but none of them caused anti-social problems for their neighbours.
Society policed itself.
Now, when ordinary people are having to learn
to think for themselves, to stand up for what they have earned
by their own efforts, they are forced down by jumped-up housing
associations, council officers with glorified titles but no common
sense, nor life experience to call upon in attempting to talk
to those who have earned the right to say what they want for their
families, for their future.
There is an utter lack of skills and imagination
on the part of officials, that prevents any solution being imposed
from outside, without the co-operation of the people who are expected
to submit to radical change in their environment, surroundings,
society, economy, whatever. That "top-down" exercise
of sustainability will never work. But many of us will be dead
before government realises that it has failed to offer any kind
of solution, despite what its consultancy gurus tell the ODPM.
Simon Jenkins in The Guardian (18 October 2005) pointed
out just how many millions has been cosmetic "consultation"
before deciding to demolish our neighbourhood, the public might
be excused from thinking the whole exercise is a complete waste
of time, energy and money.
There is no utopia (*see Emeritus Professor
Zygmunt Bauman, Ralph Miliband LSE lecture series). Professor
Bauman lives in the north, in Leeds. Consider this final paragraph
to his talk:
It would be difficult, nay impossible, to sum
up the story better than it has been already done in the words
put into Marco Polo's lips by the great Italo Calvino:
The inferno of the living is not something that
will be: if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno
where we live every day, that we form by being together, There
are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many:
accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no
longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance
and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in
the midst of the inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure,
give them space.
Life is dynamic, "an inferno", not
a stilted, mechanical, functional, solution to the ills of a peripheral
society, where pathways lead nowhere. If the Deputy Prime Minister
had the forethought to appoint David Miliband as Minister for
the Community, some thought should be given to this academic lecure
in a series that honours his father, the late Ralph Miliband.
Government must realise that civil servants
sitting in Whitehall drafting papers such as these directives
is pure theory, the country does not have the official wherewithal
to implement such "Blue Sky" thinking, neither in professional
bodies, nor at local authority level, where insufficient numbers
of inexperienced officers, who have never ventured outside their
institutional places, do not possess the breadth of life experience
that people in places like Goole have to contend with throughout
their lives, and we can see that when the mess lands, it lies
on our doorsteps.
* Living in Utopia, October 27, 2005
To be born, utopian dream needed two conditions.
First, the overwhelming (even if diffuse and inarticulate) feeling
that the world was not functioning properly and had to be attended
to and overhauled to set it right. Second, the confidence in human
potency to rise to the task, belief that `we, humans, can do it'—being
armed as we are with reason able to spy out what is wrong with
the world and find out with what to replace its diseased parts,
and with the strength to graft such designs on human reality:
in short, the potency to force the world into a shape better fit
to the satisfaction of human needs whatever those needs already
are or yet may become. With the second condition now by and large
missing, utopia shares in the fate of faltering human bind and
increasingly individualized and privatized politics.
November 2005
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