I told Kate Hoey to shut up

The thing was, I didn't know it was Kate Hoey, which I am sure added insult to injury.

For those who do not know, Kate Hoey is the MP for Vauxhall, which is in Lambeth, where we live. She was at a Town Hall meeting that we attended a couple of weeks back. K is now on the committee of our Residents' Association, and he and two other committee members had been nominated to speak on behalf of our block of flats at the meeting of the Planning Application Committee, in objection to a massive new development that Lambeth College, who occupy the neighbouring site to our block, are planning to build. This will be the same height as Brixton Hill Court, blocking out our light, quite a lot of the views of sky and trees that many flats see at the moment, as well as having an impact on our privacy, on light pollution spilling over from illuminated classrooms, and the noise from games and social activities in the garden and games area they are planning to put right on the other side of the low wall which separates us from them.

This is a view taken out of our window when it was snowing in February (I can't believe that was just this year!!). Lambeth College is the low building you can see to the right. Potentially this will be replaced by a building as high as the block on the left.

Our committee representatives were keen to stress that we are not against the redevelopment of the Lambeth College site, which seems inevitable - the buildings are old and inadequate and it is obvious that there needs to be better education provision in Brixton. But we were keen to make our point that the planning and design process has not properly taken into consideration the impact on our flats, and on the tight-knit community that has existed here since the block was built in 1936.

One of the great things about where we live, and perhaps about Brixton (or even London) more generally, is the expertise of the residents - so our reps were a professional solicitor; K who daily works with issues relating to architectural planning, especially the interplay of historic and modern buildings; and a retired thespian, ready to tug at the heart strings. To speak on our behalf, they all had to register their names with something called 'Democratic Services' - it seemed to me that anything that needs such a service doesn't seem very democratic, but there you go...

The committee called for a large delegation of residents to support them, and happily a good number of people turned up - which made the difference, because there were 3 planning applications on the agenda, and the Chair took a show of hands at the beginning to see who was there for what. We had the most supporters so our guys went first!

I must say it was an eye-opening experience - I'd never been in Lambeth Town Hall, which was fascinating in itself and I wanted to spend time just wandering around the building, which has a strange shape by virtue of occupying a corner spur between Brixton Hill and Acre Lane (there are some then-and-now photos here)... But I had never been to a Council meeting either, so that was interesting - utterly bureaucratic, puts you off getting into politics.

We didn't take to the Chair at all. He seemed intent on influencing the other committee members against having a site visit to Brixton Hill Court, which was the main outcome our representatives were asking for (a deferral of the decision on planning permission until they have properly assessed the implications for our site). When he asked a question after our 3 had given their presentations, he completely ignored the two of them who were obviously drawing on their professional expertise, and went straight for the retired thespian (a woman), whom he clearly perceived as someone less threatening to him than the other two. Happily, they both jumped in to back her up! Ha ha...

But the heroes of the evening were the two Tory Councillors - who would have thought that a bunch of Brixton residents would have come away praising Conservative politicians to high heaven!?! They were dead against the modernisation plans and very keen to press for a site visit, which will go ahead at the end of September. We were all so chuffed at the outcome that we went to the pub for a celebratory drink afterwards! How often do you go down to the pub with a whole bunch of your neighbours??

----------------------------------------------------------

So how does Kate Hoey come into all this, I hear you cry? Well, sitting behind us was a group of people who were clearly attending the meeting for one of the other points on the agenda. As soon as the Lambeth College presentation started, they started talking amongst themselves. It sounded like they were reading the agenda out to each other, so I turned around and told them this was currently being read out by the Planning Officer. The lady whom I now know was Kate Hoey said "This is something else". It seemed to me that that would be a reason for not talking over it. They stopped for a moment, then after a little started talking again - so I turned around and said, "I am sorry, we can't hear". "Sorry, sorry", old Kate said, and that was that for a few more minutes. Then they started talking again! I was pretty fed up by this point (our guys had started making their representations), so I turned around, gave them a look, and said sternly, "Do you think you could prepare your presentation outside??" This seemed to finally shut them up, and a bit later when another member of their party joined them, they did indeed go outside.

It was only afterwards, as we were walking to the pub, that one of our neighbours said, "Did you see Kate Hoey was there?" and then I realised who it was I had told to shut up! Thing was, absolutely everyone from BHC was pissed off at their inconsiderate talking, and chuffed that I had taken a stand. And this made me more pissed off with her! There we were, trying to exercise our democratic right to object to this new building development going ahead and making the lives of Brixton Hill Court residents a misery for ever more, and she - an elected Member of Parliament! - should have had more respect than anyone else there of that attempt to have our voices heard!

More unfortunately - as we left the meeting room after our agenda item was finished - I managed to slam the door in the face of the Principal of Lambeth College!! That was not deliberate...!