The Clapton Conference – 2011 Review

Rather belatedly, we present a review of The Clapton Conference Activities in 2011. Dates for Clapton Conference meetings in Spring 2012 will be announced in the next week or two.

Further to the two initial meetings of the Clapton Conference in 2010, it was decided to, in future, run 3 different types of meetings for the Clapton Conference. These were defined as follows:

a)      The Stakeholder Representative Meeting

This is mainly for representatives of different groups (Park, Youth, Resident, Faith, School, Business etc) and also anyone who is interested in building a partnership with Hackney Council and working together to develop some cohesion around planning matters for the area

b)      Networking and Project Meeting

This meeting will be very hands on and is for those people who are interested in playing an active part in furthering and linking up the information networks of Clapton, information and experience swapping etc, as well as developing collaborative projects with other individuals and groups. 

c)       General Meeting.

This meeting is the one for everyone; for all people living and working in Clapton to find out what is happening across the area and possibly raise issues of concern. There are officers and councillors present to help sort out matters, or to direct people to those who can assist.

One of each of these types of meetings has subsequently been held, in April, May and July 2011, described as follows. In addition, two meetings were held in September as a response to the August riots/disturbances (delete as appropriate).

a)       The first, in April 2011, was the Stakeholder Representative Meeting and about a dozen people attended this. Randall Macdonald, Head of Spatial Planning for London Borough of Hackney, gave a presentation about the Local Development Framework and how this would work and, hopefully, satisfy most of what people wanted when they had previously been asking for an Area Action Plan. Randall has kindly provided some notes summarising the different documents that he talked about and these are attached hre as a PDF. Stakeholder Representative Meeting – Apr 2011 (PDF). A lively discussion ensued and a good sense of a partnership certainly emerged.

In addition, a conversation was started regarding initiating an Upper Clapton Group, particularly to address issues with Upper Clapton Road. The formation of this group has experienced some hold ups and is currently still on hold.

b)       The second meeting, the Networking and Project Meeting, occurred in May 2011. Whilst a number of people were in contact, expressing an interest for the future, only seven attended. Although the numbers were disappointingly low, all who attended found the experience positive. Also, the organisers felt there were some valuable lessons to be learned regarding ‘marketing’ this type of project in the future.

c)       Finally, a General Meeting, was held in July. Between 35 and 40 people attended this, with various council officers also in attendance to respond to questions. It was reported that the evening went well, minutes were taken which detail the nature of the various conversations (available on request) and Jean Cantrell, (Team Leader of Traffic Management for Streetscene (Traffic and Transportation), Health & Community Services LBH) undertook to ask some questions of her colleagues in parking services and answer other questions and provide information if possible. The points that were raised are also attached here as a PDF and where possible have been answered. General Meeting – Jul 2011 – Parking questions & responses (PDF). Where it has not been possible, the details of the relevant contact point in the council who is anticipated to be the right person to respond on the issue has been included.

d)       On September 16 & 17, two meetings were held in response to the riots (or disturbances, depending on who is speaking). One of these was in partnership with the Pembury Estate TRA and held in their community hall. The other was hosted by St John’s Church. People who attended had an opportunity to express how they felt about what had happened and some conversations were had about possible ways forward. Councillor Ian Rathbone, amongst other things that he is doing, has continued to work with the TRA.