HEAD OF HACKNEY'S REGENERATION COMMITTEE GETS RATHER A LOT OF EGG ON HIS FACE (well mayonnaise)


A cold Wednesday evening, 7th November, a packed Hackney Community College canteen. The call out: "How Clapton can benefit from Regeneration". In reality this
was nothing more than a P.R. exercise by Hackney Council with their cameras at the ready.


We have already seen how Clapton, an already deprived area of Hackney, is 'benefitting' from regeneration Atherden Road Nursery being just one example of how the present Clapton community loses out in order for 'gentrification',
oops 'regeneration', to move in.


The nursery was closed earlier this year and went under the hammer last month, being sold to developers after being declared by Hackney council's regeneration
committee as being 'surplus to requirements'. Surplus despite there being over
1,000 local kids on waiting lists for nursery places, despite the parents of
kids in the nursery, who had occupied Atherden, being promised personally by
Jules Pipe, leader of Hackney Council, that it would not close, and despite a
judge in the high court being told by the Council's legal team that the building would not be sold!


The head of the Regeneration Committee, who decide on such sales (and funding cuts see below for more details), is Guy Nicholson, and guess who was on the
panel last Wednesday night trying to feed a sugar coated regeneration pill to
the packed room! At least two women from the local community had soon heard
enough and decided to tell him just what they thought regeneration had 'accomplished' so far. They walked to the front of the room and while one told
the audience that they were about to make a special presentation to Guy
Nichollson, the other searched the complimentary buffet for cream cakes or pies but they had all been scoffed! Realising a vegetable samosa wouldn't have the desired effect, she grabbed an enormous handful of mayonnaise,
walked over to the target and aimed. Bulls Eye! Nicholson sat looking bewildered with egg
mayonnaise dripping down his face and onto his pullover.

Meanwhile the other woman continued to address the audence asking them if they
thought that there was any connection between rising youth crime in the area
and the closure of local youth clubs, adventure playgrounds, and boys clubs.
(Addressing crime had been used quite prominently in the opening speeches from
the panel, with no apparent irony.) She went onto list other places, such as
Atherden Road, that had suffered from Guy Nichollson's and Hackney Council's grand regeneration plans, before both women were pulled from the room by
council employees and pushed in the direction of the college exit. There they
walked happily by the security guards and out into the night, the image of Guy
Nicholson with egg on his face fixed firmly on their minds.


MORE BACKGROUND INFO.


REGENERATION COMMITTEE
Hackney Council's Regeneration Committee, led by Guy Nicholson, has listed
100s of such properties to be sold in the same way as Atherden Road, they include;
adventure playgrounds, youth clubs, elderly peoples centres, Citizens Advice
Bureaux, community and welfare centres, hundreds of houses, and yes, more nurseries. The lists are a shockingly comprehensive and a depressing attack on
the people of Hackney. The Regeneration Committee is also responsible for cutting funding to 100 community groups only two months ago with only five
escaping cuts, and they include commercial ventures such as the multi-million pound, glitzy, expensive Ocean music
venue a regeneration flagship! With only two weeks notice all 100 groups lost a minimum of 38% funding and over 50 suffered unbearable 100% funding cuts.
Some of these groups have already had to close. Starting to get the picture?

OTHER PLANS FOR CLAPTON REGENERATION
The above meeting was advertised in the Hackney Gazette alongside an article
describing a proposal for over 600 homes to be built on a site on the much sought after banks of the River Lee. The problem being that only 150 of
these homes will be 'affordable', and Countryside Properties, great name for a
huge inner city developer by the way, boast that 'it's the biggest single development
Hackney has ever seen.". So what is 'affordable' exactly? Does 'affordable' mean that local people could afford them? And if less than one quarter of these homes are to be affordable, how much and to whom do the others get sold?

FOOD FIGHTS
Flinging food into the face of public figures has become very popular in past few years, undoubtedly due in part to the inspiration of the Biotic Baking Brigade, a global group who dish out just deserts to those who abuse
their power. See: www.asis.com/~agit-prop/bbb/


At the same time as shocking the recipients out of their complacency, it is often seen as an amusingly effective way of deflating the egos of people in power and making them, their actions and their policies more visible and
therefore more accountable to more people.


Recent recipients of food flinging include, Tony Blair, Clare Short, Bill Gates, Nick Brown,

The women who took this action in Clapton, Agent Mayo and Agent Egg Face, are part of a London cell of the BBB.