The WDCO constitution review – WDCO’s vision

[Adrian Essex]

WDCO is the body that represents residents’ views in the partnership made up of WDCO, Berkeley Homes, The London Borough of Hackney and Notting Hill Genesis.

It has been agreed that the constitution that underpins the proceedings of WDCO should be reviewed and I am part of the working group beginning to do so.

The approach we have agreed upon as a first step is to look at the Vision and Mission Statements which preface the constitution.

 

The Woodberry Down Vision

 We see Woodberry Down as a large, inclusive, sustainable community which is based on both respect for cultural, social and economic diversity and the recognition of common values, where individuals acknowledge their responsibilities to the wider community and their commitment to the maintenance of a safe and healthy neighbourhood

 Does the reality match the Vision?

This vision was first drafted in 2008, and I wonder if it is still what we should be looking for, or even if it makes sense.

“Sustainable” goes well beyond ambiguity, and has become little more than box to be ticked, almost completely meaningless.

“Inclusive” is good. There should be very few reasons why anyone be excluded from a community, but the list of diversities is now woefully inadequate. There are nine characteristics protected from discrimination in law. Our three here only covers one of them, except that economic diversity is not protected in law. I am allowed to discriminate against someone because he is rich.

“Large” reverts to the vague and untestable. What do we mean by it? Large enough to fill the White Hart Lane stadium, enough to fill the Naturalist? I think the implication is that everyone living on the estate is part of the community.

 

But what is actually happening? Do we have a large, inclusive, sustainable community?

We do have some evidence in the form of figures from the Office for National Statistics and the 2021 Census.

This link takes you to the map below of the Middle Layer Super Output Area E02000346, aka Woodberry Down & Manor House.

Here we can examine some of the data from the census.

On our economic diversity axis we can see that 84.2% of those in E00184097 are economically active, while only 37.4% of those in e0017622 are.

On cultural diversity only 36.7% of households in E00184037 have members that are all from the same ethnic group.

So there is absolutely no question that the area is diverse.

But what evidence do we have of community? It only takes a couple of minutes glancing at the information boards outside the Naturalist to identify community when the estate was built after the war. The proud owners of the new homes beam out from the images. Their children take huge pleasure in the street parties. Some of the people in those pictures still live here today. Facebook pages are littered with questions of “Does anyone remember this teacher?” And I’ll bet that the Happy Man used to have a sing song on a Friday night.

It’s true that we do have organised activities still. The late Queen’s final jubilee was one such. But check out those statistics. A huge number of the households here don’t think of themselves as belonging to the UK. A very large number of Woodberry Down residents didn’t arrive here until their 20s, 30s and 40s. There is no reason why latecomers from outside the UK shouldn’t be part of the community, but it doesn’t happen spontaneously.

 

Which perhaps takes us on to WDCO’s mission.

 

[Hilary Britton]

Woodberry is what it is and as WDCO has no say in who lives here or what they think etc. I wonder whether we really need a vision because there can be no common vision and is the mission statement enough.

I must say, my vision, and I am just making it up now, is of a finished estate, well on this side of 7Sisters anyway - I may not live to see the rest, in pleasant green surroundings, where  all residents acknowledge that living in a relatively close housing scheme they have to treat their neighbours with respect and tolerance. 

I think these visions and mission statements are very dated ideas. Most organisations jumped on the band wagon and wrote down things that they thought sounded good and many are now moving away from the idea. I think there is a move to simple practical ideas.  If you have a vision and you think it is worth achieving then you have to have a pathway to achieving the vision. I am not aware that there is one at WDCO. I think the MIssion statement is more important.