Bowes and Bounds Connected
A Community Network for Bowes Park and Bounds Green
Myddleton Road... A Street Worth Fighting For
We’ve spent the last 18 months focusing on making The Step the best it can be but we are now thinking more about the future of Myddleton Road and how we can all work to make it a better place. We don’t want to look backwards, we are where we are, but we need everyone including the relevant people at Haringey Council to share our enthusiasm for this street and, more importantly, the Bowes Park area to be bullish and belligerent about our future.
The potential for regeneration in this curious little “Bowes Park Triangle” of ours is immense. We have the excellent transport links, the availability of relatively well-priced housing and the enthusiastic spirit of a creative community. Look at the massive success of the Myddleton Road Market and how it brought our own community together and drew scores of new people to the area. This was a reason to be proud and must be capitalised on.
So we must ask ourselves why the heart of Bowes Park is a rundown, ramshackle street crippled with high density, low quality housing and the multitude of anti-social problems this brings? We must ask why illegal and ugly shutters out number open shop fronts at a ratio of five to one? Because this Myddleton Road does not reflect the vast majority of people who live in streets and roads that surround it so difficult questions must be asked of Haringey as to quite how the street has been left to rot and decay like this. We know of several people who have wanted to set up a business in the area but couldn’t find a retail space to let so we must ask why in less than 100 metres we have ten “property” companies whose activities contribute absolutely nothing to the local community?
We are not kidding ourselves that the solutions are easy and we know the historical reasons that led to the decline of Myddleton Road as a shopping street. There are probably many issues that we don’t fully understand but we founded The Step because we believe in Bowes Park and want to put back something in to the community as well as trying to make a living here. Without being too big headed we are bloody proud of what we have achieved so far but we want to make it very clear that if Haringey Council is not serious in backing the future of Bowes Park then we will move elsewhere and we will do this soon.
We didn’t open our business because we looked at the area and saw pound signs to get rich quick. We opened The Step because we saw a huge potential for long term regeneration and improving the quality of life here but nearly two years on, the signs are mixed and confused. On the one hand, the rubbish in the street is getting worse, anti-social behaviour is significantly on the increase and the quality of housing on the street is becoming ever more alarming and absurd. This is spreading to other roads in the area, make no mistake about that.
However…the positive news is that we know there are local people who want to invest in Myddleton Road. We know that there are many local people in Bowes Park both old and new who care deeply about the area. We know from personal experience that there are many people considering moving to the area but the ugly and seemingly unloved High Street is a big drawback for them. We have a brilliant street market, beautiful community garden, the Tin Tabernacle and an outdoor gym. In two years time wouldn’t it be brilliant if that last sentence was a paragraph?
So let’s not use the past as an excuse for passing more and more poor quality, high density housing in the area …let us use the future as a reason for saying no, this will harm the people who live here, your proposals are of no benefit to Bowes Park whatsoever. Let’s all of us work together to get that English Heritage money flowing in to Myddleton Road because if managed correctly it will make a world of difference.
It is also vital we engage with the certain landlords on the street because when we have spoken to them they don’t seem to have any idea of the damage they are doing to the Bowes Park community. They also don’t realise the huge potential of the properties they own…by train, we are twenty minutes from the City of London and the same from Shoreditch, the creative centre of London. Bowes Park could and should be the next big emerging area of our capital but a handful of cynical, short-sighted landlords don’t, or won’t, see this potential and have their foot to the throat of Myddleton Road. This is choking the life out of a whole area.
Do we throw our hands in the air and leave the future of Myddleton Road and, more importantly, the wider community of Bowes Park in the clutches of a handful of landlords who live far away from the boundaries of Haringey. We have put too much into The Step to walk away just yet and over the coming months we will be doing absolutely everything we can to put Myddleton Road and Haringey Council in the media spotlight…its blighted and bungled past and present, as well as its future potential.
Because it is a story worth telling and a street worth fighting for.
Let us know what you think by posting on our discussion on the Bowes and Bounds Forum.
Yours in hope
Nell and Mat
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Nell Riches on
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Hi Lucia
It most definitely did - we'll be putting the minutes together this week and circulating, as well as getting a date for our next meeting in the diary.
We'll be in touch soon.
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Permalink Reply by Leigh on -
Hello Nell - I was unable to attend but would like to catch up via the minutes. Will they be made available on the forum or via email? & hope to make the next meeting.
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Permalink Reply by Caroline Simpson on
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Hurrah!
A win for Myddleton Road and for Haringey Planning.
I have just had a mail from the Planning Inspectorate about no 69 where there was a site meeting 10 days ago.
In the summer Ioannous knocked out the front of no 69 and put metal and glass shopfront and roller shutters.
Enforcement action taken.
They appealed.
And their appeal has been dismissed!
Really good. Read the Decision here.
BUT... what would be really excellent is if Ioannous can be persuaded by the Council to really make an excellent shop front, in keeping with the draft Guidelines of 2 years ago etc, and really be at the forefront of genuine improvement to shopfronts on the road. Instead of being about the worst offenders, they could become the exemplar of what should happen.
Haringey officers and councillors really need to move fast, as I am sure that Ioannous would like to open ASAP and therefore would do the quickest job allowed by the Decision.
Haringey..... action please!
- Attachments:
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69 Appeal Decision.pdf, 76 KB
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Permalink Reply by Kari Koonin on
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This is really good news. The planning inspector's grounds for dismissing the appeal underline the importance of continuity and preservation of original (or near original) features in the road.
I wonder what happened with the Polish Deli opposite The Step? That is also a new, floor-to-ceiling modern glazed shopfront.
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Permalink Reply by Caroline Simpson on
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They put in for planning permission. HGY/2013/1340
As of Oct 31st it has not yet been decided.
If you have not yet commented - do go onto the Haringey website and leave your comment.
Fingers crossed!
And no 83 was the third to knock out their shopfront with a month - enforcement to be taken soon I gather.
That is why no 69's Inspector's decision really was so very important.
BUT.... it is up to Haringey now to make the very best of that situation by working with Ioannous to get a good, not a mediocre, shopfront put in.
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Cowan on
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Some more good news on planning matters...
Caroline and I have chased Haringey about 135A's appeal against enforcement of unauthorised shopfront and shutters. The Planning Inspectorate upheld the enforcement and Harigney have said that they are now going to follow up.
Go to: http://www.pcs.planningportal.gov.uk/pcsportal/casesearch.asp
Ref: 2184124 for details
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Ooops. As Caroline has just pointed out, this was for uPVC windows and not a shopfront/shutters, which is a shame, but a victory nonetheless.
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Just to let everyone know... the next meeting will be at The Step on Monday 18th November at 7.30pm. It will be on the ground floor this time, so there should be a little more space!
We have some great speakers lined up and the meeting is going to be chaired by Bowes & Bounds very own Richard McKeever!
http://www.bowesandbounds.org/events/myddleton-road-public-meeting
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Permalink Reply by Liz Wright on
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Richard does a magnificent job with this site - many many thanks - it is such a powerful contribution to developing community spirit.
Liz
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Permalink Reply by Maggie Doherty on
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Agreed,thanks Richard
Maggie
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Permalink Reply by Richard McKeever on
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Thank Maggie - what makes this forum relevant and useful is the contributions from neighbours who use it to share information and organise to take action together.
Thanks
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Thank you Liz - what makes this forum relevant and useful is the contributions from neighbours who use it to share information and organise to take action together.
Thanks
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