ISLINGTON
INDEPENDENT WORKING CLASS ASSOCIATION
IWCA calls for Owen Hart to be sacked from EC1 New Deal board
The Independent Working Class Association (IWCA) has called on Finsbury-based regeneration body, EC1 New Deal, to rid themselves of board member Owen Hart after papers distributed by the IWCA outlining Hart's views led to him being voted out as Chairman of own his tenants association.
The IWCA had distributed quotes to Hart's neighbours taken from the minutes of a London Leaseholder's Network (LNN) meeting in March.
During the LNN meeting Hart had labelled those allocated social housing as "the workless, the feckless" and declared that "anything that reduces the amount of social housing and transfers social housing into the private sector is good for Islington... sell the lot of it and don't build anymore."
And remarkably for someone who had got himself elected as Chairman of the Percival Estate Tenants Association, Hart, a leaseholder, had told the LNN that: "Leaseholders should have nothing to do with these tenants' bodies because our interests are fundamentally opposed. We have nothing in common with tenants and therefore we have no business in attending their meetings."
On Wednesday 15th October residents on the estate decided they'd finally had enough and voted Hart out during a meeting characterised by behaviour (Hart's) one resident described as "abusive".
Tara Pearson, who was elected as secretary said: "Hart was aggressive, abusive and foul mouthed to those who had turned up to our Annual General Meeting to challenge him about the things he had said. This was in front of my two year old child, representatives of Homes for Islington, the Federation of Islington Tenants Association and a Lib Dem councillor. He is not fit to represent anyone in EC1; his interest is in himself and his own offensive agenda".
Gary O‘Shea of the IWCA has called for Hart to be also removed from his position of New Deal Board member. He said: "Of course Owen Hart is perfectly entitled to his own views. However, I cannot see how someone with such open contempt for working class people in Finsbury be deemed a suitable representative of EC1 New Deal, a body set-up to supposedly tackle poverty and disadvantage in the area. He should be removed immediately.
"It says much about the direction EC1 New Deal has taken since its inception, that elected representatives such as Sharon Hayward are expelled from the project for taking the side of the local community and people with views such as Owen Hart's are seen as valued members of the board.
"The likes of Owen Hart can't even get re-elected onto the committee of his tenants association, so there was no chance of him or any of the others being voted onto New Deal again. Obviously that's why the cabal led by Matthew Humphreys abolished elections to the board in favour of personal appointments.
"Ever since the St Lukes debacle in 2006 the credibility of the board is probably about zero. But if Chief Executive Andy Murphy has a shred of self respect he will be asking Mr Hart to fall on his sword. Ironically given the fact the none of the board members are actually elected anymore, removing Hart should not prove much of a procedural problem. But if Murphy fails to act it will be only natural for people to ask how many other of their 'representaives' on this supposed regeneration body share Hart's hateful views."
25 October 2008 04:07