Sunday, 7 November 2010

Community of Balfron Tower under threat

Whilst teaching at Summerhill over five years ago I was living in a flat in Tower Hamlets, in the famous Tower block designed by Erno Goldfinger, Balfron Tower. The flat has seen my older brother graduate as a Doctor at the Royal London, my twin brother marry and have his first child...
I was informed some three weeks ago that the building is going to be refurbished, its bathrooms and kitchens, something the Housing Association, HARCA, had promised when we voted to go from a council estate to join them. At the time there were rumours that they were only interested in the real estate as a source of revenue, but it was only a rumour.
Now they tell me that they are refurbishing the whole flats, as if they are helping the community, but that they are emptying them and selling them off!
They are callously destroying a community. They are not even offering the choice of the tenants keeping their homes. They are using the refurbishment to empty the building and to allow them to sell it off.
On Thursday 18th November at 5:30-7pm an artist, Simon Terrill, is taking a picture of Balfron and its community. Come and support us. Visit the artists website and sign-up to fight for the local community that live in Balfron Tower.

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