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From The Socialist newspaper, 3 February 2021
Save our square: we need social housing and public services
Save Our Square protesters in Walthamstow, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)
Waltham Forest Labour council in East London approved plans to build a block of unaffordable, private housing on Walthamstow town square. The Socialist Party has been campaigning against the proposals as part of the campaign group 'Save our Square'. At the council's planning meeting on 27 January, four Socialist Party members spoke to oppose the plans. We print what Socialist Party member Rachel Lyon had to say to the councillors.
"I'm a local resident and key worker in a primary school and I am opposed to any housing that isn't affordable or social housing that is needed to alleviate the 9,000 people currently waiting on the housing list in our area.
I feel it's a mockery, an eyesore, and a disregard for what Walthamstow is: a community.
We don't just need a reminder of what we can't afford. These plans would be a removal of what we need; communal spaces and affordable housing.
I privately rent a bedroom and can't afford £1,500 - £2,000 a month for a flat, and neither can my peers. You have only allocated 20% to affordable housing, but even that's a joke! 80% of the market rent, I still can't afford that! Do you think that's enough?
Our lives will be disrupted and over crowded, especially at the local station. These flats will tower over all surrounding buildings and dominate the local area. 1,000 more people in the square. You want to optimise the view for these new private residents, who will most likely be from out of the area, at the cost of our square.
One more piece of land in London that makes money for private organisations but doesn't improve lives. I see losses not gains. I thought our council would invest in our square as a place for our young people to come together in a sports hub, a proper children's playground, an outside cinema, but instead we get a loss of our market square, and overcrowding caused by flats we can't afford, and a loss of opportunities. When, as a council, are you going to listen to what we need?"
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In The Socialist 3 February 2021:
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
Launching a political alternative to cuts, poverty and job losses
Why I am attending the TUSC local elections online conference
South Yorks TUSC ready for electoral fight
What we think
Workers' rights and safety: Trade union mobilisation could force more Tory U-turns
News
Socialist Students open letter to Rent Strike network
Children in care: Privatisation is not working
Multimillion-pound rental firm demands thousands from homeless asylum seeker
Covid outbreak at Kent asylum detention centre: Napier is not fit for purpose
New anti-protest law: State forces want more power to crush the protests that are coming
Workplace news
Usdaw conference stripped of democracy by leadership
Usdaw Broad Left rally brings together those campaigning for a fighting union
Strong union lead needed to stop DVLA Covid spread
HMRC: We demand a pay rise without cuts to terms and conditions
Workers fight British Gas 'fire-and-rehire' plans
Vote Steve Hedley for RMT general secretary
The NEU's 'big announcement' - lessons need to be learned
Yorkshire aerospace workers strike against pay disparity
The Communist Manifesto
The Communist Manifesto - A guide to understanding society, and how to change it
Rolls-Royce
Readers' opinion
GameStop: Billionaires hurt at their own game
International news
Covid 'vaccine wars' underline failure of capitalist nation states to deal with the global pandemic
Campaigns news
New members meeting in the South West - preparing for the battles to come
Why I rejoined the Socialist Party
Help us raise the funds to fuel the working-class fightback
Save our square: we need social housing and public services
Stop Labour council's eviction of Stratford Circus arts centre
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2021