Unique legal advice centre opens to serve Hackney

The UK's first legal advice centre to offer free confidential support to people who witness street violence opened last week in north London.

The centre will offer advice to eye witnesses and victims in cases of street violence. Initially its focus is on incidents that occur in Hackney and Islington.

The centre is run by Witness Confident, an independent charity which aims to reduce the numbers of muggings and stranger attacks by encouraging the public to take a stand when they see street violence. The centre, which is staffed by a barrister, a solicitor and a law graduate, has been approved by the Bar Standards Board. It has been funded by donors including the Nuffield Foundation and the Allen Lane Foundation.

The kind of cases the charity's legal helpline will advise on are where the client:

• is unsure whether the police can or will do anything
• needs to know what the process will entail
• wants to check their evidence is of value
• cannot contact the right police team
• is anxious about going to court
• suspects or dislikes the police
• is afraid of reprisals

If you are a victim or witness of street crime in Hackney or Islington, you can contact the legal team on 020 7226 0968 or at help@witnessconfident.org

The Comprehensive Spending Review and Hackney

As you will be aware, the government's Comprehensive Spending Review was published last Wednesday and sets out the picture for the public sector spending over the next four years.

As one of the poorest borough's in the country, Hackney will be disproportionately hit by the severe cuts that have been set out.

The Review offers a bleak picture for the future of local government. Council funding will be cut by 27% between now and 2015. In addition, central government will only pay the council 90% of council tax rebates, rather than 100% as at present, resulting in either a further cut in funding or an additional burden upon our poorest residents.

On top of this, the changes to social housing policy threaten, if implemented, to be extremely damaging to the fabric of our borough. In particular the proposal to increase social housing rents to 80% of those charged on the open market will make them unaffordable to a very significant number of current tenants.

We will work closely with residents and civil society to ensure that our most vital services are protected wherever they can be. The prudent management of Hackney Council's finances leaves us in a far better position to address this situation than many other councils who are already being forced to cut vital services.

Mayor Pipe and all Labour Councillors will make every effort they can to minimise the effect of these cuts. However, like every public body in the country, Hackney will face extremely difficult choices over the coming years.

Consultation on Sex Licensing Policy

Hackney Council's Licensing Committee is consulting on its draft Sex Establishment Licensing Policy which sets out the principles that will be applied in determining applications for 'Sex Establishments', such as lap and erotic dancing venues, sex shops and sex cinemas.

You can see the draft policy here.

The licensing committee is keen to hear from local people about the proposals and how these will affect the local community so if you have comments, please make them known.

The consultation runs until 13 December 2010.

You can have your say by going to the consultation page which can be found here.

Housing Allowance changes and homelessness in Hackney

New research released by Shelter shows that Hackney will be one of the worst affected areas of the country by the proposed cuts in Housing Allowance.

Figures show that Hackney is in the top 20 worst affected local authorities in the country. Households in Hackney living in a 3-bedroom flat or house would be £113 worse off under the changes being proposed. This would result in families being forced to move and threatens an increase in the number of people presenting themselves as homeless to the council.

Nationally, the research - undertaken by the University of Cambridge - shows that 134,000 households will either be evicted or forced to move when the cuts come in next year and an an estimated 35,000 will approach their local authorities for housing assistance.

You can read more here.

Cuts to Hackney bus services

Saturday 16th October will see Transport for London imposing changes to the 149 bus running along Kingsland Road.

In order to fulfil Boris Johnson's election pledge, the buses used for the route will change from being articulated 'bendy' buses to conventional double-deckers. Although a few more buses will run in the weekday peak hours, at all other times the service will be less frequent. This will result in a lower passenger capacity on the new service.

Service on the 349 route from Ponders End through Seven Sisters is also being cut, with the service now ending at Stamford Hill rather than going on to serve Stoke Newington.

We'd like to assure you that Hackney Council has vigorously objected to this reduction in passenger capacity, and are fully aware that the 149 is already often overcrowded particularly at peak times. The cuts will mean a poorer quality service for residents and visitors using Dalston and Stoke Newington town centres, and will cause particular problems for people using buggies or wheelchairs.

Both of these retrograde changes fly in the face of our aim to have an attractive public transport service in the borough for residents and visitors alike.

121 Mortimer Road

You may have seen some work going on at 121 Mortimor Road, the house of William Lyttle - often known locally as the Mole Man.

Relatives of Mr Lyttle have come forward and are now legal owners of the house. They have started to perform some work upon the house and are seeking permission to demolish it.

Separately the are also seeking planning permission for a block of flats in its place. You can see more details of what is being proped here. The development is described in the planning application as "a four storey building to provide eight two-bed flats".

A number of residents have already been in touch with us about the work that is ongoing, and we are monitoring developments with the help of council officers. The house sits within the De Beauvoir Conservation Area and this will have to be taken into account when the applications are considered.

If you wish to make a representation on the planning permission proposal, comments from members of the public need to be submitted the the Council by October 25th. The reference for the planning application is 2010/2137.

Improvements continue on London Overground's North London Line

Work continues to improve the North London Line. The final phases are due to begin in early 2011, and by mid-2011 these will have delivered more frequent services with longer trains. This will provide greater capacity and improving the experience of those who use Dalston Kingsland station or others within Hackney.

In the immediate future the following closures are required in order to complete the installation of the signalling system that has been installed over the past months:

• Gospel Oak to Stratford from the evening of 18 December until 24 December 2010
• Richmond to Stratford and Shepherd's Bush to Willesden Junction from 27 December 2010 until 3 January 2011

Further shorter closures during spring 2011 to complete the works by next May, the dates of these will be confirmed closer to the time. Works requiring weekend-only closures will carry on until mid-2011.

Whilst the disruption continues to frustrate at weekends, once complete this work will both make the rest of London more accessible to those who live in Hackney, and make Hackney more accessible to those who live elsewhere, benefiting the area in a range of ways.

Full details on the works can be found by looking here or by calling 08457 11 41 41, and you can find out more about overall improvement programme here.