Author Archives: Greg

WPCT Consultation Thursday 29th April

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Battersea Power Station

Primary Care Trust Consultation

at

DRCA Community Centre

Behind TESCO Metro in Battersea Park Road

Charlotte Despard Avenue SW11 5HD

Thursday 29th April 2010 – 12 noon to 2.00pm

There will be 3,700, luxury flats, riverside park, hotel, tube station surrounding the Grade II* listed Power Station which will become a retail centre.

Real Estates Opportunities Socio Economic Survey shows there will be “negligible” impact on health provision in Wandsworth from the redevelopment (also “negligible” impact on education and open space)

Tell Us What You Want So See Provided on the Power Station site

Wandsworth Primary Care Trust/ National Health Service

elaine.curley@wpct.nhs.uk

WRUG – Wandsworth Rights Umbrella Group

Hosted by DRCA – Doddington & Rollo Community Association

You can also download a pdf of the ‘No Pain Guide to Gain’ booklet which gives information on how to become actively involved in planning developments here at Spectacle’s planning and commissions blog.

Planned Red Bull X Fighters event at Battersea Power Station is illegal

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Steven Goldsmith of the Wandsworth Green Party and Battersea Power Station Community Group has formally submitted an objection about the Red Bull X Fighters Event (Application No 2010/0925) to Wandsworth Council on the grounds that it is illegal. The event, a petrolhead’s dream of the best FMX riders in the world and unlikely to be frugal in parading its use of energy resources (see Red Bull’s official artist’s impression below and an article about the event here) , is scheduled to take place in and around the station for the second successive year but its noise and light pollution breaches legislation that that was passed to safeguard the protected species of black redstarts and peregrine falcons which have now colonised the station. The objection has since interestingly been placed as a ‘support comment’ on Wandsworth Council’s planning applications site. This is another example of money spinning private hire of the station following David Cameron’s mainfesto launch here last week (which you can read more about here at Spectacle’s Battersea Power Station blog), and a further contradiction to assertions by owners REO that the chimneys could be unsafe and may need to be pulled down.

Restoration of Ellis Island an example for Battersea Power Station Owners

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The rejuvenation of Ellis Island provides a concrete and successful testament to the possibility of community led re-development for Battersea Power Station, and evidence that existing derelict structures need not be pulled down in their entirety to proceed with restoration.

12 million immigrants were processed at Ellis Island by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration between 1892 and 1954, but the island since fell into disrepair. Although attempts at restoring the site were initially unsuccessful, the island was proclaimed a part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, and its listed status led to proposals to refurbish the buildings and adapt them into a museum. Run by the National Park Service, the museum hosts exhibitions, houses additional community film theatres and also a library thanks mainly to the fundraising of the not-for-profit organisation Save Ellis Island.

Battersea Power Station Community Group have been championing similar ideas of a public heritage and programme space in and around the old pumping station for years that could serve the local area without the necessity of tearing down the chimneys, which seems to be the desire of the current developers REO despite public declarations to the contrary. Click here to read more about the latest developments at Battersea Power Station, its significance and Spectacle’s Battersea project.

Cameron Braves ‘Dangerous’ Battersea Power Station for Manifesto Launch

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David Cameron’s decision to invite little old you and me to run the country at the big boys’ table at Battersea Power Station was no accident, because you see, he wants to FIRE UP the nation. Y’know, like the station. Because it’s stopped working. FIRE UP the power because the country is derelict and…ok he wants to REGENERATE the station, no wait, I got that wrong, regenerate the NATION, because England is like a dilapidated…oh I don’t know why I bother.

Anyway, if he was going to recklessly bounce loaded metaphors around the inside of the power station he should have been wearing a hard hat – that structure is dangerously unsafe according to REO. At least that’s what was told to Battersea Power Station Community Group, unless they were to have the required clout which presumably comes with a ‘no topple’ guarantee.

The key point of all this is that Cameron’s ability to bypass this regulation demonstrates that REO’s persistent claims that the chimneys must be pulled down due to their perceived danger is most definitely a falsehood, and it highlights the superficiality of their concerns over safety at the station which very clearly are being raised as an excuse for their desired re-development. Once the chimneys are down they will never be put back. You can read more about it here in Spectacle’s Battersea Power Station blog.

Olympic ArcelorMittal Sculpture

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‘So we’ve got £19m to throw around, any ideas?’

‘What about an 115m helter-skelter steel sculpture?’

So went the conversation about the conception of the planned Orbit sculpture to be completed in time for the London Olympics. You would assume then that there must be enough of a kitty for the post-Olympic regeneration project in East London, available for creating affordable housing to combat the rising house prices and for creating job opportunities in response to the high local unemployment levels. Refreshing to know the Olympics definitely won’t go over budget.

The main hypocrisy of the structure, highlighted in Felicity Carus’ blog for The Guardian which you can read here, is that the carbon emissions of the tower’s sponsors ArcelorMittal are roughly the equivalent of the Czech Republic’s carbon emissions for an entire year, an interesting move for the world’s first sustainable Olympic Games. But the main thing is that the red steel framework would be ‘our Eiffel Tower’, says Boris Johnson, so faith is restored.

More about London 2012 can be found on our London 2012 Olympics blog or the Spectacle London 2012 Olympics project page)

South Africa 2010 and Ambush Marketing

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It’s not long now before the World Cup fanfare begins but for local independent tradesman it’s the long, boring drone of contradiction that’s ringing around what is supposedly intended to be their most lucrative opportunity for years. The mantra that’s pumped out before major nomadic sports events is that smaller businesses will benefit from the influx of tourists, but in reality they can’t pay up the prerequisite sponsor fees demanded by the sports governing bodies, so they’re unable to compete with the event’s major sponsors and unceremoniously kicked 25893144299999 miles away from the stadium in question.

When independent tradesmen and entrepreneurs do try to get amongst the action, they’re quickly attacked with flimsy legislation like ‘ambush marketing’, like the recent case of Grant Abrahamse. He registered his football key ring back in 2004 but is now being taken to court by FIFA (who’s account has already ballooned by more than R23 billion). The ruling, if upheld, essentially means that any independent traders wishing to use words like ‘soccer’ or even the year ‘2010’ could also risk being sued. In comparison to the 3,700 cases during the previous event in Germany in 2006, there have been over 50,000 in South Africa. We have already begun to see the same shoots of this story growing in the preparation for London 2012. (more about London 2012 can be found on our London 2012 Olympics blog or the Spectacle London 2012 Olympics project page)

Despite promises to the contrary, Abrahamse’s case, which you can watch in more detail below (source, 2010 World Cup FIFA sue Grant Abrahamse), demonstrates that FIFA and co are the exclusive beneficiaries for South Africa 2010.