Wow, what a meeting!

Over 70 people turned out at our public meeting last night - thankyou so much to everyone who took time out of busy lives, at a difficult time of the evening, to show their support.

Thanks also to Ian Fry, Alastair Metcalf, Tom Higginson and Emily Mansell all of whom came along from Network Rail. Ian gave a highly informative presentation clearly stating the limits of Network Rail's interest in building a bridge across the rear of the tracks. Although they would support such a bridge, they would not at the moment be prepared to pay for it as it does not fit with their business plans. A bridge would cost approximately £4 million, which Ian confirmed represents about 1% of the over £400 million budget for the station redevelopment. Network Rail have kindly given permission for us to reproduce Ian's presentation here:

Download york_way_access_16_july_08.pdf

The meeting was chaired by Michael Edwards of King's Cross Railway Lands Group. Michael was able to set the scene enabling a truely positive and productive atmosphere throughout. He gave a presentation after Ian, putting the bridge into it's historical context, making the case for current and future need and finally calling for a visionary, imaginative bridge development project that would put the icing as well as the cherry on the cake of the new King's Cross Station. Michael's presentation can be downloaded here:

Download kx_exhibition.pdf

Cllr Paul Convery (Labour, Calendonian ward) gave a stirring talk, calling on all bodies that could become partners in the bridge project to see the bigger picture. Without a bridge, King's Cross turns its back on our community. With the bridge our community remains properly joined to sister communities in Somers Town and the south side of King's Cross making our area a better place to live and work. It is infrastructure like this, said Paul, that gives communities self respect and fosters healthy, cohesive communities where anti-social behaviour and youth crime can decrease dramatically.

Prospective Parliamentary Candidates for the Liberal Democrats, Bridget Fox (Islington South and Finsbury) and Jo Shaw (Holborn and St Pancras) made excellent contributions from the floor. Caroline Pidgeon, Greater London Assembly Member and LibDem spokesperson on Transport at the GLA sent a message of support as did Councillor Marisha Ray of Clerkenwell ward.

Jenny Jones, Greater London Assembly Member, leader of the Green Group on the GLA, Deputy Chair of the GLA's Planning and Spatial Development Committee and member of the GLA's Transport Committee, sent her apologies to us. Sadly she was involved in a bicycle accident at the weekend and is suffering from a very painful broken wrist. Jenny submitted a written question about the Mayor's stance on the bridge for Mayor's Question Time yesterday, she will get a response next week - watch this space.

Also attending was Duncan Webster, chair of the Islington Conservative Association. Duncan is hugely supportive of the campaign and is working to alert key party colleagues to the need for a bridge.

Messages of strong support were also received from Alex Goodman (Green Party Councillor in Camden) and from Sian Berry (national spokesperson for the Green Party and recently their mayoral candidate).  Both had other meetings that evening which prevented them from coming but they are supporting the campaign.

A detailed exhibition, very kindly reproduced and laminated for us with no charge by Gratte Brothers, was viewed by those present - I hope to upload more graphics from the exhibition soon.

Questions and comments from the floor were well-informed as well as very practical, giving us all food for thought about the next steps. Two people present last night have today become members of the email-based organising group for the campaign. Ideas are flowing, again I'll report more soon. Meanwhile, a new category on this site will appear in the next day or so. Titled, 'Resources' it will contain a host of information, graphics, templates for letters, addresses to write to and lots more. Please do keep in touch and remember - get all your friends, family and colleagues to sign the petition - we are up to 429 signatures as I write - can we hit 500 before the weekend?

A detailed report of the meeting will be published in the next few weeks... If you were not at the meeting and would like to make a comment or ask a question for the report, do email us. The deadline for all submissions is 27 July.

Comments

[Marianne Wilson]

From Network Rail's presentation, it sounds like the obstacle to the neigbourhood getting "the bridge" is purely financial. Network Rail has offered £1 million - the bridge will cost about £4 million.

The campaign should look into public and commercial sources from which the missing £3 million can be raised and/ or financed over time.

[Sophie Talbot]

The issue of funding has come up. At the moment, we feel that as Network Rail are removing existing entrances in order to build a new platform that will increase its revenue, they should be the ones to pay for a replacement to the current entrance. It is only 1% of their redevelopment budget for the station. Meanwhile, LB Islington’s West Area Committee passed a resolution at their last meeting to work with LB Camden, Argent King’s Cross and Network Rail to look at funding issues. As a small community campaign we really don’t have the resources to raise the £3 million gap. By the way, it’s not that Network Rail has ‘offered’ the £1 million, this money is part of its Section 106 agreement with LB Camden, it’s not by any means a donation.

[loralie Barker]

Dear Sophie,

I am curious about what is being done to increase the number of signatures on your petition and awareness on this issue? I have just received an e-mail from Stephan Schulte and I have already signed the online petition, but I wonder if anyone has tried the old-fashioned approach of getting signatures on paper? I would volunteer to canvass inside the station or at the north entrance if that would be helpful.

best regards and thank you for your initiative on this.

[Sophie Talbot]

Hi Loralie,

Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to mix a traditional paper petition with an online one. For legal reasons we can’t allow any duplicate signatures, and it’s not as easy as it sounds to avoid that. In any case, it’s so useful to have the total number in one place, and the best place to have that is the Number 10 site. However…… We did a blitz one day at the Wharfdale Road entrance to the station, just for an hour or so. We handed out approximately 500 leaflets about the public meeting and online petition. As a direct result I reckon we got an additional 100 signatures that day alone, so it is definitely worth leafleting at the station about the online petition.

We don’t have a stock of leaflets at the mo. We do have a design, but no funds. I don’t want to approach the companies that helped out last time, as I don’t want to give the impression we are going to keep asking them for stuff. It maybe worth approaching P&O Estates for an in-kind donation – they could arrange to get a stock of leaflets and posters printed for us and they would foot the bill. Do you have any links with P&O – or indeed any other local companies that may be approachable for such a donation? Once we’ve got leaflets, we can hit the streets!

Also, myself and Rachel Zatz are thinking about doing a market stall, just for one day at Chapel Market. I was thinking we could borrow two or three laptops, secure them to the stall, find a friendly wi-fi access point and get people signing up there and then. The Canal Museum are happy to lend us some exhibition stands so we could take the big colour exhibition Gratte Brothers donated to us. It’d make quite a splash and I’m sure would boost petition numbers. We need more bodies to help with it though – might you be interested?

Sophie

[Simon Piper]

Dear Sophie,

I don't know if you have any contact with someone at the Guardian but if so maybe you could suggest that someone put a link on their intranet (if they have one?) to the petition. I am sure that a lot of their staff would catch the train and woudl understand the value of the bridge for their commute in to the future.

It seems that the entry is now even busier than it was before (I don;t know if that has to do with Kings Place opening or not). But it goes some way perhaps to highlighting the fact that with all the regeneration that bridge would provide a key access for an increasing amount of people as the regeneration of the area continues.

I think you are doing an amazing job with this issue - it is great to see such enthusiasm and action by someone in the local community.

Simon

[Sophie Talbot]

Hi Simon,

Thankyou so much for your very kind words, can't tell you what a difference it makes to get positive feedback!

So far no luck with the Guardian, despite emailing various journos, their trade union and the entire board of Guardian News Media - phew. I've a feeling they won't act on this until they are fully moved into King's Place and realise the ramifications of losing the Wharfdale Road entrance. It doesn't look so much on a map, but when you actually have to walk down York Way or Goodsway on a regular basis it hits you in the face. I've a feeling Network Rail staff are finding this an interesting time, they have fully moved into King's Place and sure enough, they are using the Wharfdale Road entrance. I think they are all following the Network Rail line like good corporate bunnies, as various smartly dressed people rather rudely refused our leaflets during the King's Place opening festival - bet they were Network Rail employees.

Fancy joining us in a bout of leafleting outside the Guardian once they move in? It maybe the only way to get the message across...

All the best!