Stoke Newington maisonette among number of community spaces being converted back into council housing

Clevedon Close. Photograph: Julia Gregory

Two Stoke Newington flats that were once used for community meetings are set to be turned back into council homes.

The two-storey maisonette on Clevedon Close was used as a community centre for 31 years until 2019, but it is not fully accessible for people with disabilities.

The council plans to turn it into a two-bedroom home for up to three people.

It said there would be no changes on the outside of the building but it will be fitting a cycle store.

At a planning committee meeting last week, Cllr Clare Joseph asked if the Town Hall has looked at the impact of converting community centres.

Officers said the housing services department has 58 community halls, 13 community rooms and some flats for community space, and that it considers the proximity of alternative spaces when suggesting conversions.

Committee chair Steve Race said: “This is the second one of three social housing units turned into community spaces. Clearly we had a surfeit of social housing at one point and now we definitely don’t.

“We can welcome in some ways the reprovision of social housing.”

A second application to transform the three-storey Jack Watts community flat in Lea Bridge was also passed by the planning committee.

The building in Detmold Road was originally built as a home and was last used as a community space in 2020 before the pandemic struck. Councillors also held ward surgeries there.

There is another community space close by that will be transformed into a one-bedroom council flat for two people.

The council has a policy to look at infill spaces to provide more social housing.

Planning officers said it was not possible to extend either flat to make bigger homes which are in demand by people on the council housing waiting list.

They said the flats will be easily converted back into homes.

In November, the planning committee approved a scheme to convert first-floor community meeting rooms into a one-bedroom flat at Southwold Road in Lea Bridge.

The end-of-terrace flat previously hosted the Radley and Southwold tenants’ and residents’ association, but it has not been used since March 2020.