JC MOTORS EVICTION DAY DEMO TODAY!
A demo will take place today Tuesday 12th November at 3.30 JC Motors, 332 Stean St, E8 4ED.
Today is eviction day for JC Motors. We want readers to see the minutes taken of the first and last meetings between Len, the EETG and our partners the New Economics Foundation with Transport for London and Places for London. We sent these minutes to PfL and TfL days after each meeting and they have not contested them.
Click here for both last year’s taken by Dr Deivi Norberg PhD and this year’s taken by EETG Memberships Manager Rhodri Burnett.
There were two additional meetings in August 2024 on the 12th and the 29th that should have happened much sooner and only took place after persistent chasing. Guild members, staff and partners worked hard to prepare for the meetings drawing up agendas, a pitch deck for our Community Land Trust and presentations by the New Economics Foundation.
Download the CLT Pitch Deck and NEF Presentations from August last year and August this year with statistics on the erosion of jobs in areas with TfL arches here.
Today Len’s arch will become the fourth TfL-owned space within a 500-meter radius that is empty. Tragically Richard Enver from Dunstan Garage took his own life in part due to the stress of displacement. The arch, formally home to Dunstan Garage on Dunstan Street has been empty for five years. The arch next door but one to Tripspace Yoga and Dance, has been empty for a year and the space once home to family business Crispins Removals empty for at least five years.
“The journey has just begun!” Len Maloney, JC Motors
When you stand with Len you stand for future generations and the whole community! That is the power of solidarity. Whether you believe that electric cars will replace fossil-fuelled cars or not the world will always need people who repair and fix vehicles to make them last longer. This is a key tenet of a green economy.
PfL’s & TfL’s desire for growth via market rents supports the London property market to stifle “good growth” and the local economy and is destroying the livelihoods of the people who created the market value in the first place.
TfL and PfL’s refusal to see JC Motors as part of the essential ecosystem of Social Value on their estate has strengthened the power of local solidarity. Together with the local community the Guild stands resolute with Len and our Manifesto for the New Economy, which calls for Social Value Leases on the arches estate and for land to be transferred to community ownership via the London Trades Guild Community Land Trust! This would give the community a direct say over what rent should be paid and what kind of businesses should occupy the premises, creating affordable rent for future generations of social entrepreneurs in perpetuity.
The irony is that the principles of the solutions proposed by the Guild to PfL in our Manifesto have been fed into the Growth Plan for London. If our proposals are actioned they would be felt and seen by London’s constituents. Further listening done by the GLA to shape this Growth Plan reveals only 23% of Londoners surveyed felt that London’s economy is currently fair. Our solutions that would enable Len to stay on Stean Street also fit with current local & national policy:
1. Partnership. We are ready, sleeves rolled, to work in partnership with the government for its core mission of economic growth and stability
2. Social Value Leases would support the GLA and Hackney Council to meet the London Growth Plan’s aims of “Delivering an Inclusive Economy”
3. The Trades Guild Community Land Trust is also key to the Growth Plan’s aim of “Supporting Local Economies to Thrive” for the long-term!