Alton Estate residents to be balloted over regeneration plans
Dikerdem said: "Roehampton has got large social deprivation. It's an area where the council needs to invest in order to make sure that life chances in Wandsworth are fair, and so it's really, really important that alongside the housing offer we also have a really good community offer."Under the new masterplan, 167 homes on the estate would be replaced with 614 new homes, with 57% affordable housing. There would be a net increase in social housing, although the exact figure has not been confirmed, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
The council's previous Conservative administration planned to demolish 288 homes on the estate and replace them with 1,108 new homes – including 261 affordable homes. A new community hub with a library, a family hub with a GP surgery, a bigger supermarket, community square and council offices have been proposed under the new masterplan.A recent viability study commissioned by the council reported that a suitable regeneration scheme could be delivered at a net cost of about £100m.Lib Dem Kieren McCarthy, who stood for Putney in last year's general election, said residents had been "treated appallingly for 20 years"."It's been left to rot and it's an embarrassment," he said of the estate.A previous council report said Alton Estate had areas among the 20% most deprived in England, according to research in 2018, and among the 10% most deprived in respect of income and housing.If most residents vote in favour of the scheme following a ballot in September, the council aims to submit a planning application in June 2026.
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Daily Mail
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
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Teacher sacked and branded 'Islamophobic' after he was reported over a Facebook post criticising Lucy Connolly's prison sentence says he has lost everything after the 'witch hunt'
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The NEU said in a statement: 'The management of Preston College reached a decision to dismiss the teacher following disciplinary procedures. 'The NEU was not directly involved in these processes and it will be for the Employment Tribunal to consider the fairness of the dismissal if and when the claim reaches a hearing.' Preston College said: 'Upon receipt of complaints from a number of our staff, an internal investigation was undertaken into whether some of Mr Pearson's social media posts were a breach of the College's Staff Behaviour Code and Values. 'Following an investigation and subsequent disciplinary process, Mr Pearson was dismissed from his employment at the College.' It comes after former childminder Connolly, of Northampton, was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court in October and imprisoned at HMP Drake Hall, Staffordshire, after admitting to making her 'racist' post on X, formerly known as Twitter. With about 9,000 followers on X at the time, her message was reposted 940 times and viewed 310,000 times before she deleted it around three and a half hours later. The mother-of-one was arrested on August 6 last year, by which point she had deleted her social media account. But other messages which included other condemning remarks were uncovered by officers who seized her phone. Her X post was made just hours after killer Axel Rudakubana murdered three young girls and attempted to murder 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29 last year, sparking nationwide unrest. A number of public figures and politicians have spoken out since Connolly was handed her sentence, claiming that she is a victim of 'two-tier justice'. Connolly lost an appeal in May this year to shorten her 31-month sentence despite telling the Court of Appeal in London she 'never' intended to incite violence and did not realise that pleading guilty would mean accepting she had. Connolly's husband, Raymond, a former West Northamptonshire Conservative councillor, said on the day she lost her appeal: 'Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood says she will release 40,000 prisoners, some of them dangerous men on tag. 'Lucy has not been allowed out on tag and she has been denied leave to see our child who is struggling. 'The court had the opportunity to reduce her cruelly long and disproportionate sentence, but they refused. That feels like two-tier justice.' The Daily Mail revealed this week how Connolly is set for release soon, with a friend sharing a post to X saying she believed the convict would be 'with a glass of Whispering Angel in-hand' this time next month. It is understood Connolly will be freed on August 21.
