By Ian Grant
Monday. D-Day.
Set alarm for 6’o clock. Being interviewed by the BBC on the Arsenal planning applications.
Why me?
Arsenal fan, columnist on Arsenal in the Ham & High and Hi & I for five years, environmental journalist for fourteen years, and this year set up a publishing company http://www.newzeye.com which among other things runs an information service on regeneration and urban renewal http://www.brownfieldbriefing.com
A big reason why this year I haven’t written so much for ANR (which I set up in 1995).
Oh yes. Last year, I was asked via the powers that be at Highbury, to submit my ideas on what sort of environmental impacts the move to Ashburton would create.
I accessed several databases on previous land-use, subsidence risk, geo-physical information, air pollution, water pollution risks etc for the Highbury/Ashburton area. And for good measure Kings Cross as well. It came to around 500 pages in all.
And I wrote a seven page letter with the data, outlining, the various environmental problems based on my previous experience, ranging from transport in relation to the National Air Quality Standards and the land in relation to Section 57 of the Environmental Protection Act and solutions ranging from car share schemes, traffic calming measures to land ownership issues, and hand delivered it, addressed to Danny Fiszman in April 2000.
Never got a reply or acknowledgement.
Danny Fiszman is on the radio after me.
The Islington Council website has been down all weekend, just throwing up javascript on the home page. So the 900 + pages of planning details have been inaccessible, until this morning.
The Beeb has told me the sort of questions they’ll ask: Do you think Arsenal have done enough to solve the problems? Do the figures stack up? Is the project viable? Will it be finished on time? How do you think the vote will go tonight?
With five minutes to go, a Beeb journalist phones and says they want to concentrate on the environmental issues. I’ve been concentrating on regeneration issues – social, physical, economic. He says Danny Fiszman is doing that. Gulp.
So with the phone in one hand, the mouse in the other, I quickly scan down the Environmental Impact Assessment. Section 106 planning agreements (conditions necessary for planning), and the Code of Construction Practice take care of quite a few problems, ranging from dust, noise and vibration. But the list is huge. Thrown back on my own resources. And I’m live now…..
So what are the environmental issues of the project?
I reel off a list – transport, air pollution, noise, dust, vibration, land contamination and ecological issues.
Do you think Arsenal have done enough?
Yes, I said. They’ve employed around 32 consultants for around £10m. And section 106 and Code of Construction Practice and planning conditions are there to ensure solutions to the environmental problems.
Do the figures stack up. Is it viable?
Roughly, I said. We don’t know what the property market will be doing in the future. (Arsenal are part funding the project from the sale of properties.)
The extra revenue from ticket sales and merchandising in a season with a good run in the Champions League has been estimated at £30m.
And I mentioned the 9.9% share deal with Granada, worth £77m.
Will it be finished on time?
It is challenging, I said. The three projects Ashburton Grove, Highbury and Lough Road) are dovetailing. If it were just one, then it would be a lot easier.
At which point, another presenter said. What about the waste station? How would you like a waste station put next to where you live?
I said the whole waste station had been thoroughly thought through and modelled.
What if the models don’t work in real life?
I said these things are highly regulated, and that the government and local government had to strictly obey the various environmental directives on waste and pollution.
How do you think the vote will go tonight?
Word on the street is that it will get through, I said. Adding it is a public v private issue, and that the public benefits such as physical and social regeneration outweigh the individual interests.
Thankyou.
Go off to meeting. But get back to the office and find the Beeb want me on the lunchtime TV news. Got to get to the Marylebone studio from Ladbroke Grove in thirty minutes. Never do it. Offer a phone interview. They want me on camera. Shame.
Still I felt I’ve done my bit for Arsenal. Although I will never know how much they used my research.
Ever since the early planning meetings which I attended, I thought there was a win-win situation here for the majority of people.
Islington is one of the poorest boroughs. They will never get what they are being offered here given government spending ceilings – including health and community centres, jobs and training opportunities, transport improvements, vastly better and more housing and general building stock, which won’t emit so much damaging carbon dioxide, as well as a general sense of civic pride and belonging.
I have some sympathies for the businesses which are being asked to relocate, and the houses which have Compulsory Purchase Orders against them.
But there is compensation.
The whole process has undergone widespread consultation. And the plans have been heavily modified.
Just can’t help thinking that the Bentham philosophy is applicable here: for the greatest good of the majority, or words to that effect.
Mid-December 2001