• WE on the Hillview Estate, King’s Cross, have had enough of the unchecked drug dealing and using swirling around our homes.

Dealing and using goes on 24/7. Big vehicles turn up, buyers flock around, the deals are done. Our tenants, many of them with children, have been subject to crack users pushing past them into their own courtyards.

Argyle Walk is becoming a no-go area again. landlord, transitioning between One Housing Group and Riverside Housing, based in Liverpool, has failed to act on faulty access gates to our eight blocks, some of them sticking open because flimsy domestic door closers have been fitted instead of proper mechanisms.

The landlord can afford to assist in our security. The annual report for 2020/21 shows for that year 91 members of OHG staff earned between £60k and £100k and that 22 staff earned more that £100k. CEO of Riverside, Carol Matthews, earned over £200,000 that same year.

We ask that One Housing/ Riverside, our Labour councillors (who we haven’t seen since the 2022 local council hustings in Marchmont Street – organised by Hillview), and the council, convene a meeting on our estate to discuss and form a plan of action.

The tenants of Hillview were important in changing the nightmare that was King’s Cross in the 1980s, turning our estate from a pimp, drug, and violence-ridden hell-hole into an island of peace and cooperation.

We have no intention of going backwards and demand that those paid by us and those elected to represent us act on our behalf to protect our tenants and estate.

CHRIS REEVES
Co-chair Hillview Residents’ Association