What happened in June? We were told that our estate had been allocated £670,000 to spend on improvements . We took part on a 'walkabout' to identify the work we wanted to be done and how we wanted the money spent. The areas we covered were: The TRA Committee has gone through this list and believes that most of the above items ought to be paid for out of existing budgets like the District Repairs Budget and the Community Safety Budget - after all, what do we pay our rent for! What happened in August? The Council's Challenge News confirmed £670,000 had been agreed for Wendling.But it then went on to announce that the Council was delaying the 'go ahead' and instead embarking on an 'Options Appraisal' - including the bombshell that they wanted to consider a new option involving demolishing the estate and bringing in private finance to rebuild. Where did this idea come from? The Council and government now recognise Gospel Oak as a deprived area - the new catch phrase is ‘social exclusion’. What they mean is the area is rundown and improvements needed to our flats have been neglected for years, there are lots of people without permanent jobs, paying decent wages with proper conditions of employment or on poverty levels of benefits and pensions. Of course the obvious solution is to provide proper jobs and decent wages, benefits and pensions that people can live on and carry out a programme of major improvements to our estates. The alternative, which is where bulldozing our estates and privatisation comes in, is to 'improve the balance in the area' by getting us out and bringing in people who could afford to pay the higher rents in a new development. Sept 21st meeting - what happened? The majority at the meeting called on Councillors to withdraw the 'privatisation' option but it is clear that we will have to put more pressure on them to achieve this. People felt that the council has its own agenda, was going through the motions of 'consultation' but neither the elected Councillors or Officers were listening! Is there enough money? For 20 years our homes have been starved of investment which is why there is so much work outstanding on our estate (thedrainage and lighting problems, etc). Councillors told us that the only solution was to get a Labour government - well we've got one and we're entitled to demand that they find the money we need. Rather than proposing 'privatisation' options our ward councillors should be joining with us to put demands on the government to release money to pay for the work we want done on our estates (it's called public investment). What do we do now! It’s important that everyone on the estate has their say and the final decision is taken democratically. All proposals must be raised at our meetings, properly discussed and considered and then everyone has a chance to vote on the final package. A 'Steering Group' was set up to move things forward. We need to sort out the details of the work we want done - what we don't want is yet another committee in Gospel Oak that is manipulated by Officers. Wendling and Bacton are in the same boat. We must support each and refuse to accept there is only enough money for one estate but not the other. The three Associations are demanding the Council withdraw the privatisation option and get on the with the work. Sign the petition, put a poster in your window to support the campaign.