Campaigners step up Little London anti-PFI fight
Hare Hiller | 20.01.2006 20:09 | Free Spaces | Social Struggles
Tenants and residents of Little London estate in Leeds are stepping up their fight to stop the council turning their run-down community into a PFI-gentrified no-go zone for the poor. And they are asking for the support of as many as possible in Leeds
On Monday 23 January at 11.30am, tenants, residents, workers and supporters of Little London estate will gather in Millennium Square outside the Civic Hall to demonstrate their united opposition to the council's attempts to railroad through a PFI 'demolish and rebuild' project they have opposed for the past 5 years.
MONDAY 23 JANUARY - MASS SHOW OF PUBLIC SUPPORT AGAINST PRIVATISATION
11.30AM
OUTSIDE THE CIVIC HALL, (parrallel to the 'stakeholder' meeting inside)
MILLENNIUM SQUARE
BRING BANNERS, PLACARDS, WHISTLES, SUPPORT....
Many moons ago, Little London and Woodhouse voted NO to having their council houses put into an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) - the first step to creeping privatisation. So, the council redraw the boundaries and
managed to get a YES vote in Little London. Five years later, the council is now trying to introduce a PFI regeneration scheme to the area called The Comprehensive Regeneration Option. This, they say, will:
- 'do up' Little London using £75million from a PFI project
- build 125 new council homes
- plus at least 100 new private homes
THE TRUTH
- 450 homes will be demolished or sold to a private company to rebuild asprivate flats
- Carlton Towers, Gare & Carr maisonettes, and possible the bedsits will beDEMOLISHED
- Lovell Park Towers, Heights & Grange will be SOLD OFF
- improvements won't start until at least 2008
- the council will not guarantee to rehouse ANYONE in Little London
- the plan is openly about reducing the number of council tenants and council housing, kicking the poorest out of the area and moving richer people in
- the PFI companies will then own and manage the new estate for at least 30 years
The existing ALMO that runs Little London - Leeds North West Homes - is putting forward another option called THE DECENT HOMES OPTION:
- far less money spent but houses brought up to better standards
- no one should lose their home
- work starts more or less straightaway
Neither are satisfactory. The council's multi-million pound propaganda campaign is now in full swing to convince the people of Little London that they really do want to gentrify their own area and price many of them out of it. A so called 'consultation' is under way - if not enough noise is made
against the process, the PFI disaster will inevitably get through.
MONDAY 23 JANUARY - MASS SHOW OF PUBLIC SUPPORT AGAINST PRIVATISATION
11.30AM
OUTSIDE THE CIVIC HALL, (parrallel to the 'stakeholder' meeting inside)
MILLENNIUM SQUARE
BRING BANNERS, PLACARDS, WHISTLES, SUPPORT....
Many moons ago, Little London and Woodhouse voted NO to having their council houses put into an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) - the first step to creeping privatisation. So, the council redraw the boundaries and
managed to get a YES vote in Little London. Five years later, the council is now trying to introduce a PFI regeneration scheme to the area called The Comprehensive Regeneration Option. This, they say, will:
- 'do up' Little London using £75million from a PFI project
- build 125 new council homes
- plus at least 100 new private homes
THE TRUTH
- 450 homes will be demolished or sold to a private company to rebuild asprivate flats
- Carlton Towers, Gare & Carr maisonettes, and possible the bedsits will beDEMOLISHED
- Lovell Park Towers, Heights & Grange will be SOLD OFF
- improvements won't start until at least 2008
- the council will not guarantee to rehouse ANYONE in Little London
- the plan is openly about reducing the number of council tenants and council housing, kicking the poorest out of the area and moving richer people in
- the PFI companies will then own and manage the new estate for at least 30 years
The existing ALMO that runs Little London - Leeds North West Homes - is putting forward another option called THE DECENT HOMES OPTION:
- far less money spent but houses brought up to better standards
- no one should lose their home
- work starts more or less straightaway
Neither are satisfactory. The council's multi-million pound propaganda campaign is now in full swing to convince the people of Little London that they really do want to gentrify their own area and price many of them out of it. A so called 'consultation' is under way - if not enough noise is made
against the process, the PFI disaster will inevitably get through.
Hare Hiller
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