Campaigners ‘decorate’ key worker homes around Victoria Park in protest over Peabody sale

Campaigners have cranked up their protests over a housing association’s planned sales of former “key worker” homes near Victoria Park by “decorating them” with posters.

The property in Gore Road. Picture: Sheila Parkin - Credit: Archant

The Victoria Park Community and Residents’ Association (VPCRA) wants Peabody to stop the auctions of three houses that used to be reserved for public servants such as police officers and nurses.

The group says the selling of the homes also breaches the terms of sale from 2011, when they campaigned to get legal provisions included in the deal that saw Peabody buy the homes from the Crown Estate.

Hackney and Tower Hamlets mayors Phil Glanville and John Biggs have written to Peabody asking why the homes are being sold, and so to have Sadiq Khan’s team.

VPCRA says it has had no response to a request for a meeting with Peabody chair of trustees Lord Bob Kerslake, so decided to take action.

The Old Ford Road home. Sheila Parkin - Credit: Archant

A spokesperson said: “We have decorated the homes with statements of our concerns and when we’ve been present on viewing days people have come up to us to support us.

“VPCRA will continue to mobilise the support we have already had from MPs, Mayors and councillors to stop these sales and any further ones.”