Development of John Jones Site / Sketch House

Arkady

Yeah I raised an eyebrow at the orange writing.

Kate Jones

The developer of the site on Lennox Road is called Spiritbond. John Jones no longer owns the site - Spiritbond does. I appreciate that people are looking for someone to target regarding the trees, but it is not our land anymore and we are not part of the development plans that have been given permission, so targeting myself, John Jones and Matt Jones with messages about the trees and how nasty we are, as people have been doing, is not going to get any results, sorry.

DillysDad

Hmm. Not sure people are targeting you as 'nasty'. Complicit, perhaps, nasty would be most unfair. What is unfair is that whenever you've been challenged with a question you can't answer, you resort to calling them childish, or label them as being nasty or against the development. You've collectively (you, council, developers), clearly been very naive in gauging public opinion regarding what the trees mean to the residents. What I find more unfair is that the John jones development was afforded the right to appeal the councils original decision that the trees should stay. We have been given less than a weeks notice and no right to appeal. Arkady - not at all implying mis truths in your canvassing but I live on Ennis road and neither me or my neighbours have ever been spoken to about it. So, if we're discussing validity of evidence, yours, perhaps could be somewhat flawed too. Again, just in case someone reads this and thinks I'm being unfair, I am not implying any mistruths. Just the facts.

Kate Jones

There have been some very nasty personal comments thrown at us - far worse that calling someone childish! I have been on this site for four years, answering questions about our development and have always maintained a polite tone of voice. I think it was unfair for you to make the comment that you did as you said we had something against wildlife, which we don't. Hence I found the comment to have a childish tone. <div><br></div><div>We have had abuse via our phones, emails and social media today. As I have stated in my previous comment, we do not have any say in the development along Lennox Rd. We are not trying to cover anything up - I have been clear and open in all my communication. There are plenty of land owners and developers who wouldn't care at all. It makes we want to shut down all communication in the future and focus on our business - but I am not going to do that because despite what you may feel, we do have support from many local residents and I want to keep them updated on what is going on with our development and plans. Good luck with Spiritbond - I hope you can find a way to keep the trees. </div>

DillysDad

@Kate Jones - Abuse is uncalled for and I'm sorry you've been on the receiving end of some. Like I said before, as an actor, I'm all for having arts bases in the area and I support the business end of what you're doing.<br><br>I do wonder, if the development is now all down to Spiritbond, why John Jones isn't upset at having the 8 trees taken down. Surely, you guys are in abetter position than any of us to help? (This isn't an accusation ... more a poorly phrased question!)<br><br>Thank you for the best wishes.<br>

Kate Jones

Thanks, it hasn't been nice. I did actually send a message to Spiritbond earlier today to see what can be done, so I will let you know. Hopefully they'll get on social media and talk directly to everyone.

DillysDad

That's really helpful, thank you.<br>

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DillysDad

I think Misscara has summed that up really well.<br><br>I can't see any abuse on social media at all (although who knows what people may have emailed). Lots of people questioning @johnjoneslondon and @mattjohnjones The reason people are directing things towards you are because this is the first they've heard about the land being sold to Spiritbond, especially with all of the John Jones fencing surrounding the entire site (and directly behind the trees in question.)<br>

Mirandola

May I ask what Spiritbond's plans are?

andy

<div>If cutting down trees is now murder, I hope no-one used any paper today.</div><div><br></div><div>The tree report says that the impact of the development is likely to impact the roots, so the trees are at risk of not being healthy or viable after the development. So the tree officer (the only tree-professional in this whole show) recommends taking them out and putting them back afterwards. There's an argument that this is an overly zealous "health and safety" risk assessment by the person whose job it is to know about trees, but lets save words like murder for things like murder.</div>

gardener-joe

...

DillysDad

I think if people see it as murder they can call it murder. In some ways this is worse than murder, it's killing a tree and destroying a habitat for many more creatures. A tree expert had already disapproved of the felling. Two experts with differing opinions. What makes the second one 'more expert'?

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DillysDad

There are a few worryingly mysterious things going on here. Here's the petition for those who want to but haven't. https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/jeremy-corbyn-stop-the-felling-of-the-8-trees-on-clifton-terrace-and-lennox-road-and-consult-the-residents-over-this-major-re-development And for those of you who don't value trees as much, it's not just about the felling of the trees, it's about the lack if respect and consideration afforded to residents. Spirit bond/JJ had the right of appeal, we've been given 10 days notice that public trees are going to be felled. I spoke to 2 ladies yesterday who live directly opposite the trees and last week was the first they'd ever heard of it. They were deeply upset that they were being taken away and that the council thought so little of them as tax paying members of the community.

miss annie

Neither the mysterious 'Spiritbond'/JJ, or the council have engaged with local residents very well it seems. Was there any news on which environmentally friendly and sustainable materials were used?

yagamuffin

There seem to be lots of ifs, buts and maybes in the tree experts report. It seems the obvious answer is to leave them be and wait and see. IF they need felling later than it can be discussed then but to fell them now on the off-chance it may need doing later seems silly at the very least.

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NorthNineteen

"we've been given 10 days notice that public trees are going to be felled"<br><br>No you weren't. The felling of the trees was always part of the planning application that local residents and interested parties had ample time to respond to.  If I was living next to such a large development I would certainly have taken an interest.<br><br>I haven't got time to look now but in the original application I didn't see a single person object to the trees being cut down, only LB Islington.<br><br>I would rather have the development and the trees, but I hope this doesnt delay the development.<br>

DillysDad

How many people read the plans when they first go out? Not many, until they realise they're being effected. Also, this was years ago. A lot of new people have moved here in the last few years!<br>

yagamuffin

As a matter of interest, when large developments like this take place how are neighbours and other local residents notified? Is it the same as with any other planning application? An A4 bit of paper selotaped to a telegraph pole?

andy

@yagamuffin<;div><br></div><div>There used to be a national planning alerts site, with a public API, and we used to scrape it for all planning applications in a 2 mile radius and post it in a column on a sidebar. For some reason it got broken (I think this was a very bad national decision to do with Royal Mail owning the copyright to postcode data) and so we couldn't do it anymore. Nothing has come close to it since. I think there are national guidelines on consultation for big developments (events, door-to-door mailings etc) but most of it still offline rather than online.</div><div><br></div><div>Also, even when it is published, there aren't many places to discuss it. In general, people don't comment on official council sites and twitter/facebook is a bit like howling into a void. So sites like this play a big role.</div><div><br></div><div>But we more or less rely on @arkady actually looking at the applications and posting the interesting ones.</div><div><br></div>

Arkady

And sadly Islington stopped sending me their list, so I only know about new Haringey ones.

ChangN4N6

Simple answer to the grief (as sed earlier) get spiritbond to put in replacement MATuRE trees. Done Chang

andy

<font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">@changn4n6 To be honest, no-one knows they aren't going to do that. </font><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">A semi-mature London Plane looks like it costs £300. </font><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">http://www.pracbrown.co.uk/specimen--semi-mature-trees/deciduous-trees</font></div></div></div>;

Arkady

Assuming the 'tree-officer' was right and trees do need to go, then semi-mature replacements would seem like an obvious solution.

ChangN4N6

Cranky you can bet it will be 3k per tree by the time digging and fees are included. Lets's shame them and raise the core cost . I pledge half a tree £150. So long as miscarra does a conga under it. Chang

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Sutent

Go on Chang make a pledge like Arkady and do this. It will make you more of a Stroud Green hero than you already are!

DillysDad

Nesting season starts in a week. Once the returning birds come back, they won't be able to take the trees down for months. As no 'no parking' signs have gone up and no notice that the road will have to be closed, I'm hopeful that we'll have more time.