£110,000 is earmarked for railings in ‘well off’ area - Social Fund clash set for exclusive Sussex Gardens

Published: 03 June 2011
by JOSH LOEB

RESIDENTS of a Westminster estate have crit­icised City Hall for planning to spend money earmarked for worthy causes on railings in a “well-off” area.

Last week Labour councillors demanded to know how the council was intending to spend £850,000 sitting in the Paddington Social and Community Fund, a pot of cash made up of Section 106 contributions from major development projects and intended to benefit deserving community groups.

Now it has emerged that £110,000 of this money is set to go towards repairing railings in front of exclusive hotels in the Sussex Gardens area of Paddington – a scheme which has sparked anger among residents on the Lydford estate off Harrow Road, who have been asked to stump up £588 each for new railings in front of their homes.

Lydford Estate Residents’ Association chairwoman Liz Martindale said: “The people on our estate are not well off and have had to scrimp and save to get a lease, having previously been council tenants. 

“It’s unfortunate that this end of the borough should end up having to pay for their own railings whereas an area that’s well off will get them paid for out of this fund.”

Church Street Labour councillor Barbara Grahame said: “This shows the perverse priorities adopted by Westminster Conservatives who prefer to spend money identified for social and community purposes on cosmetic schemes, rather than on meeting the needs of hard-pressed residents”

Harrow Road ward Labour councillor Guthrie McKie suggested the money might have better been spent on helping the Paddington Law Centre, which recently had its funding cut.

Councillor Alastair Moss, Westminster Council’s deputy cabinet ­member for major developments, said: “The ­money for the railings in Sussex Gardens comes from a previous round of funding from the Padd­ington Social and Community Fund that was made a number of years ago to improve public gardens in the area. 

This was a decision supported by the Padd­ington Business Improvement District.

“The fund is used to bring meaningful benefit to the Paddington area. It has already helped people from all sections of the community by providing new opportunities and improvements to the local environment.”