Goodbye Westbourne and AHMM

On Monday there was meeting with Taylor Wimpey and Greater London Demolition at the Golden Lane Estate Community Hall to discuss the demolition of Bernard Morgan House with local people. The meeting had been organised by Westbourne Communications two weeks beforehand. On Monday afternoon we called Westbourne to ask about the agenda and were told that they weren't working with Taylor Wimpey any more. Last Thursday evening they were told they were being removed from the project and had been replaced with Cascade Communications. You can read more about Cascade in ReclaimEC1

We were told that the demolition process would begin once planning permission was issued and would continue for 10 weeks. Local Councillor, Mark Bostock asked if Taylor Wimpey could show goodwill toward residents and agree not to work on Saturday mornings. This request was rejected by Taylor Wimpey. 

From the beginning Taylor Wimpey have insisted that they want to listen and work with the local community.  As we have discovered, this has been simply talk, a smoke-screen.  They have not listened to the local community throughout the process and this can be demonstrated with the grotesquely out of scale scheme.

The proposed scheme

The one area in which they could show some goodwill is with Saturday working.  We have talked to many of our neighbours and local residents and agreement is that Saturday working is not wanted.  Many of us are at home during the week and will have to endure 10 weeks of demolition noise and dust and then 2 years of construction noise and dust all week long, in some cases metres from our living room and bedroom windows.

Many young children and vulnerable people live in the area around the site. We need to have Saturdays free of noise and dust, one day a week's respite will not be enough and our physical and mental health will suffer. 

The only local park in the area is right opposite the site and is very busy on a Saturday morning. It’s just unfair for all the children who use the park to suffer the noise and dust while playing there. Especially as they’ve had to put up with it at school all week

The Golden Lane Campus is opposite the site

We also asked Richard Smith, Development Director, Taylor Wimpey Central London if the rumour that the architects AHMM had been taken off the project. He said that they had. That McAleer & Rushe, the construction firm TW are using, didn't want to work with AHMM.

McAleer & Rushe Facebook page. Both the 5 star reviews are from people who work for the company. 

We hope that the change of architect will not mean that the quality of materials will be reduced to the cheapest available as the City will not have the resources to monitor what is actually used, as opposed to approved, in the construction.  Some of the cladding used on Great Arthur House, had to be removed because it was flammable and not the approved material. Why this material was used by Keepmoat is still under investigation.

The strip of cladding down the centre had to be removed, on both sides and on each corner of the whole block.
 It was the only cladding used which was not sent from Germany

We are also waiting to hear whether there are toxic substances in the plastic scaffold sheeting that would be emitted if the sheeting were to burn or melt.