Centerprise loses court case against Hackney Council
On way out: Centerprise in Kingsland Road, Dalston. Photograph: Antonio Curcetti
A Black cultural centre is being forced to close after four decades following a rental dispute with Hackney Council.
The Centerprise Bookshop, cafe and meeting centre in Kingsland Road, Dalston, lost its court battle to try and stop Hackney Council hiking up its rent and has been ordered to hand over the keys to its premises within seven days.
At the London Central County Court Hackney Council demanded that Centerprise pay £50,000 rent which they said was outstanding from last June along with the council’s legal costs.
Judge Lydiard paid tribute to the “very worthwhile work” of the centre, saying: “It makes an impressive contribution to the local community.”
However, he upheld the council’s demands.
Centerprise boss Emmanuel Amevor said: “This is a very sad day for the Dalston community. After the war there is peace, but we don’t believe Hackney Council understands the language of peace.”
Along with its bookshop, which provides a platform for local writers, Centerprise offers educational support to local children in Hackney and hosts a Caribbean cuisine restaurant.
It also runs WordPower, Europe’s biggest black literature festival and book fair. The centre is run as a charity.
Centerprise had been paying a peppercorn rent of £10 per week but has been told they can no longer operate without agreeing to a huge rent hike.
Hackney Council has been asked for comment.
Update 4.27pm Tuesday 16 October 2012:
A Hackney Council spokesperson said: “For many months Hackney Council has committed to working with Centerprise to resolve this situation and despite our best efforts, unfortunately the Council was left with no option but to go to court.
“Centerprise were paying a rent of £520 per year for the use of this building for many years. That’s just 8p per square foot and significantly less than the subsidised rent rate of £4 per square foot.
“The Council has a responsibility to ensure that the tax payers of Hackney receive a fair rent for its buildings including 136-138 Kingsland High Street and given the great demand for buildings by the voluntary sector, that each group is treated the same.
“The Council has no intention of selling the building and it is committed to ensuring that it is used by a voluntary or community group to provide services to the people of Hackney.”
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Related:
Storm over Centerprise rages through Black History Month
Dear Hackney Council spokesperson,
I have no evidence that you personally are a racist person, but I want to understand your ability to counter racist actions, so that the victims of perpetual racism, can plan and provide an alternative strategy which does not, knowingly, or otherwise aid, abet or perpetuate their own genocide / mentacide.
So In regard of the proposed closure of Centerprise, and your most recent public address on the issue I would wish to draw your attention to the following:
YOU WORDS:
A Hackney Council spokesperson said: “For many months Hackney Council has committed to working with Centerprise to resolve this situation and despite our best efforts, unfortunately the Council was left with no option but to go to court.
MY THOUGHTS:
Seeing no other decision, not the same as having no option. Please take responsibility for your actions and their consequences.
YOUR WORDS:
“Centerprise were paying a rent of £520 per year for the use of this building for many years. That’s just 8p per square foot and significantly less than the subsidised rent rate of £4 per square foot.
MY THOUGHTS:
The value of the rent is important, but the spirituality, race, religion and gender of the users of the centre takes precedence over economics always. Otherwise, its persecution. Wherever money is the determinant in relation to black people in diaspora, the rule of thumb is that black people have NEVER had money, capital, intellectual property proportional to their contribution to the civilisation. So we cannot be held responsible or made to suffer for any western democracys inability to manage the significant material advantage given to it through 500 years of free, cheap and unpaid labour
YOUR WORDS:
“The Council has a responsibility to ensure that the tax payers of Hackney receive a fair rent for its buildings including 136-138 Kingsland High Street and given the great demand for buildings by the voluntary sector, that each group is treated the same.
MY THOUGHTS:
The group “Tax payers of hackney” includes black people in diaspora, the principal demographic of the Centerprise building. The council has a responsibility to understand the difference between equality and equilibrium. Treating each “group” the same is not the same as treating everybody lawfully. Were everyone to get the historic work opportunities and wages of black women, for example, the Council would save a lot of money, but then the local economy would collapse within a year.
In any case, the Council has a pre existing responsibility to not use tax payers money – or any one elses money for that matter – to fund, support, finance or remunerate activities and actions that have the effect of racism and gentrification either in the immediate or the forseeable future.
YOUR WORDS
“The Council has no intention of selling the building and it is committed to ensuring that it is used by a voluntary or community group to provide services to the people of Hackney.”
MY THOUGHTS
The building is currently being used by voluntary and community groups;, and again, the customers and capitalists and constituent stakeholders of the Centerprise building are all people of Hackney. So unless you intend “The people of Hackney” to not include the black people in diaspora who currently use the building, your statement is exclusive and racist in that the well established roots of black people in diaspora in the building are being removed and ignored against their best interests and express wishes.
Notwithstanding the above, can you please make ALL STAKEHOLDERS Publicly aware of the proposed alternative provision for the services and commercial opportunities provided by Centerprise as a result of your decision
Regards
VM
Wonder how long before Lee Jasper demands a protest by the “local” community about this.
Centerprise were providing some great services for the community. But times are tough now and councils won’t let prime spots go on paying little or no rent. Shame for the community though
I am a Hackney taxpayer and I wish my taxes be used to support Centerprise.
I can live without the tiny shred of financial saving that will be made by closing down this valuable space and place of refuge and community cohesion.
If it’s worth mentioning I am not Black myself, and so I don’t personally benefit in that way from Centerprise. But I benefited in other ways – it introduced me to some Black writers I’d have never found otherwise.
I have noticed that Centerprise was one of the very few prominent and recognized Black organizations in our neighbourhood – but they never really made money. Why is it all about money??
Taking up the final point of haggerstonians & why is it all about money?; unfortunately it generally is. A background is provided in the “reforms” of such as the police service, the Armed forces, NHS and many other publicly-funded services. The terms of reforms,efficiency, etc, is nothing other than code for cuts. It is cuts that characterises the present Government that is led by a mainly right-wing Conservative Party playing the game that all new Governments play namely “blame the previous lot for the mess we’re in” and for who the recession was an absolute god-send. The cuts have been visited on local councils the length of the country with another coded message in authorities will decide locally what services are to be decided. In short, local councils are lumbered with the consequences of the cuts in their central government grants.
Coming down to local level and such as youth clubs, pensioner clubs plus other social amenities that once gone will never be replaced, except perhaps in truncated form, we come more specificallyto the decision by Hackney Council to pursue Centerprise through the courts for £50,000 back-rent, it may be wondered how much the costs of the case were.
Surely outweighing the purely financial aspect is what Centerprise represents/represented in a whole number. Something that may not occur to many reading this is is to ponder is how increasingly scarce independent bookshops are across London with Black-subject bookshops being rarer still and this is is hardly helped by the closure of Centerprise.
Haggerstonian makes the comment that he is not Black and this is also the case with the writer of this email but unlike Haggerstonian, I am not a Hackney resident.
However, like Haggerstonian, bookshops like that provided me with an iintroduction to writers that would otherwise have hardly ever come my way.
Given what has been written above, the context of the closure becomes immediately obvious but as to just what is lost by the closure of Centerprise for the locals in Hackney, I recommend a close reading of the long email from Vidal Montgomery.