Introduction
The East Dulwich Estate is a medium-sized council estate in the south London borough of Southwark. Built in the early 1930s by the London County Council, it consists of 22 blocks and 740 flats, in the brick-built style typical of this era.
Following an initial consultation in autumn 1998 by a private consultancy, tenants and residents on the estate were deeply shocked to receive a letter from Southwark in February 1999, announcing that the council had decided (2 months earlier in December 1998), and without consultation on this, to demolish six blocks on the estate and sell off the land to private developers.
There was understandably a strong reaction against this, and people on the estate have campaigned long and hard ever since against plans for demolitions. However, Southwark has continued to insist that up to 6 blocks be demolished and land sold to raise just under £5 million towards an overall regeneration scheme of £20 million.
In December 2000, tenants and residents agreed to establish a "Project Team" (PT) to discuss details of any potential scheme with Southwark. And in March 2001, the PT voted unanimously in favour of appointing an independent, non-profit organisation to undertake, for the first time, a proper and thorough consultation around tenants' genuine views on what should happen on their estate. The PT also insisted that any final decision on the estate must be taken in a ballot of all tenants and residents.
Despite initial scepticism, council officers agreed to this, and NIF were appointed to carry out the independent consultation.
Methodology
We spent June to August 2001 preparing for the "Planning for Real"® day, which was held in September 2001 - making a model of our estate, and also designing and distributing our own questionnaire.
113 people participated in the PfR day, and 1251 options cards were used on our model. The questionnaire received a relatively high response rate of 32%.
A key finding was that 60% would oppose demolitions if it led to a reduction in the amount of Council housing on the estate.
A major outcome of the consultation concluded that "doubts are consistently raised about whether demolition is effectively funding non-essential, even excessive, standards and measures of regeneration..... many tenants might simply prefer basic top priority improvements if, in doing so, demolition could be avoided".
The results further highlighted that "following the PfR event, tenants have questioned the funding, decanting, rehousing and future management implications of this strategy", and that "the Council strategy will ..... require much further refinement and explanation if it is to command the majority support of tenants and residents on the estate".
At the moment, the Projects Team has no resources of its own, and members of the PT have to lend each other staplers, hole-punchers etc. in order to get the most simple things done, such as sending out mailings. But we have now set up a bank account and will be seeking funds to support our future activities. We are also trying to improve the flow of information between people on the estate.
And a very recent professional survey of the estate has confirmed the basic structural soundness of the estate - "the surveys do not point to any of the blocks being in such a structural condition to warrant demolitions" - exactly what we have always argued. Despite all the problems, we are still as determined as ever that we are not going to be pushed around and that people on the estate are going to have the final say in what happens here.
Summing up
We would like to thank NIF for providing a very participatory - and cost effective - service to people on the estate and to Southwark council.
