LETTER OF RESIGNATION FROM THE NDC BOARD:

Letter to Lorne Hornsford – Chair of NDC board.

Dear Lorne,

………, I had informed the Chief Whip that I did not want to continue as a member of the NDC board in any
capacity; although I consider the position of the ward councillors on the board to be an advisory rather than a
decision making one, (you would have noticed that in the meetings that I had attended I have always tried to
be helpful and let the resident members make the decisions, restricting my contributions to what I felt was
some useful information and basic advice), I did not want to create divisions within the board and therefore I
felt that it would be better for me to withdraw completely..

I had been waiting for a replacement to be identified before I formally resign, and I have not been attending
any meetings since; however since no replacement has been forthcoming (indeed both the other councillors
for the Tottenham Green ward share my views about the NDC’s position on the Wards Corner development
proposals and the overall handling of the residents’ concerns and therefore are unlikely to volunteer), I am
writing to formally place on record that I am not anymore in any way involved in the NDC board.

I have tried to assist the organisation throughout its life to the best of my ability (I was very much involved in
the original conception and in the preparation and promotion of the plans and the bid to set it up and to
secure its funding). I am genuinely appreciative (and in a way proud) of its numerous achievements on so
many other issues. You have achieved a lot for the area and you have had a real impact, probably more than
most other NDCs in the country. I also feel that the NDC has been a catalyst for significant capacity building
within the South Tottenham community; there has been real progress over the years in generating a pool of
able, increasingly experienced and hard-working community activists in the area, which I would normally be
very keen to see continuing playing a useful role in the community for years to come. It is important to place
on record all that.

But it is also necessary for me to place on record my concerns, that have led me to this decision to withdraw.

To start with, I feel very strongly that the organisation has seriously mishandled the particular issue of the
Wards Corner redevelopment and, for an organisation that had begun its life as “resident-led”, it has treated
with indifference, if not outright contempt, the strongly held views of the vast majority of the residents and the
businesses affected by these proposals. The fact that every single one of the numerous and very active
residents associations in the immediate vicinity of the project is 100% against the proposed scheme, should
in my view have resulted in a real discussion at the board, some genuine soul searching and a re-think.

Instead I found a complete lack of willingness to listen and indeed I have been very disheartened by the
rather antagonistic, evasive and at times even disingenuous methods used to undermine the legitimate
efforts of local residents and traders to express their concerns and aspirations, on something that
significantly and directly affects their quality of life and their livelihoods. It hurts me to say it, but I found it
disturbing that the residents and traders in my ward were treated from the very start as enemies of the
organisation, instead of as stakeholders. The whole philosophy underlying the promotion of resident-led
organisations is to counteract such paternalistic behaviour from statutory agencies; but on this issue I am
afraid we have managed to reinforce it instead.

For the record:

(a) The proposed development is demonstrably defective. It would lead to an overall loss and downgrading
of jobs in the area, the loss of unique facilities for local diverse ethnic groups, a continuing blighting of the
area for at least another 4-5 years, with no contribution towards solving the housing/homelessness crisis, no
contribution towards the costs of ameliorating the extra pressures on education, health and other services
that it will generate, and above all, instead of improving the area it will condemn it in perpetuity to a mediocre
status (just look at the drawings and tell me if that is what is meant by good design and prestige
development).

(b) The proposals as they stand have met with universal opposition (more than any other proposals that I
have ever come across in my many years in political and community activism); think about it:

They are opposed by every single residents association in the vicinity, by the West Green Traders and the
Tottenham Traders Association, by every local and national amenity, conservation and design agency,
Planning Aid and so on.

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Amazingly they have been robustly opposed by senior representatives from every single political party
(except the BNP, who thankfully haven’t been involved). eg
 by the 3 ward councillors, the GLA member, the ex-mayor of London and many others from the Labour
Party,
 by Boris Johnson, Matthew Laban (the GLA candidate) and the chair of the local conservative association
from the Tories,
 by Simon Hughes, Brian Paddick and local politicians from the LibDems,
 by Daren Johnson, Sian Berry and local activists from the Green Party,
 by Lindsay German and local activists from the Left and so on.

If you have any doubt about any of these, please visit the Wards Corner Coalition website to see film clips of
the clear statements made by each one of those that I have listed (http://wardscorner.wikispaces.com/)
And even if one had any doubts about what local residents think, please tell me if you have seen any other
local issue that has consistently attracted hundreds of local people to numerous public meetings, often at
extremely short notice (more than 350! at one that I had attended a few months ago).

Indeed the only agencies that are still supporting the proposed development plans, are the very ones that
have produced them, ie the NDC, the Developers and the Urban Regeneration section of the council.

In conclusion, as a local councillor trying to represent the interests of those that have elected me, I am bound
to ask: “Whose interests does it serve to promote these defective plans, if it is clear that local residents,
businesses, amenity societies and the whole political spectrum are against them?”

Finally I want to make it clear that we are not in a position of “either this, or nothing”, as some are
disingenuously hinting. Indeed the reverse may be the case in the current economic climate that would
certainly dictate that a development of this nature would have to be stalled by the developers for at least two
to three years in the hope of an upturn in housing prices, with a real risk of it being eventually abandoned if
either the company goes bust or the market doesn’t improve.

There is a clear, viable alternative, that can:

 build on these plans, (involving Graingers if they wish),
 put Wards Corner on the London map,
 accommodate the concerns and aspirations of local residents,
 ensure swift regeneration of this prominent site,
 maintain continuity of, and enhance, local employment,
 retain and expand the unique, specialist services to our ethnic communities and
 even make a contribution to the provision of desperately needed social housing.

All it requires is for the NDC, the council and the developers to sit around the table with the WCCC and some
of the key agencies that are supporting them (Princess Regeneration Trust, New Economics Foundation,
Planning Aid) in a genuine spirit of partnership and examine it.

If only the NDC would accept, even at this late stage, this invitation, with an open mind, I can assure you that
we could all end up friends, achieving all our objectives, with a real success story to our collective credit, that
would win us prizes and universal accolade.
The alternative is continuing division and bitterness, the destruction of hundreds of families’ livelihoods, the
loss of treasured unique facilities, and blight for years to come, with mediocrity the best possible outcome, if
the development was to eventually go ahead.

How about it?

All the best

Isidoros