Viv Broughton
Bungling officials at Hackney town hall have chopped through the roots of a ‘green wall’ at Europe’s first solar powered recording studio. Their excuse was: “We thought it grew down, not up.”
The 40 feet tall vine, which took five years to grow, is now dead and the East London studio – home to UK stars like Lily Allen and the Arctic Monkeys - are threatening to sue the council for the damage.
“A bunch of workmen just showed up one day and sawed through the base of the vine. By the time we realised what they were doing it was too late,” said Julia Craik who works at The Premises Studios. “We take our green responsibilities very seriously. It’s quite unbelievable that they could be so stupid.”
The Premises has been the capital’s most popular music studio complex for 25 years. It houses fourteen high-spec, low-cost music studios for rehearsal and recording.
The hapless council boasts on its website that “Hackney is officially the greenest borough in London, with the lowest carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions anywhere in the capital, according to Government figures. “ It adds that the council is “committed to getting greener, with a number of measures and policies in place that reflect this commitment.”
The borough’s Mayor Jules Pipe said: "Although climate change is a global reality, action needs to start locally and I am pleased that by increasing the levels of rubbish we recycle and procuring the greenest waste fleet in the country we are making Hackney a greener place.”
Thomas L. Blair is a sociologist and political blogger on the Chronicleworld 'for creative renewal in Black Britain and Afro-Europe'. His work is honoured in the British Library's archive of "social, historic and culturally significant web-based material from the UK domain". He won top prize in the blogging competition on The-Latest.
Sumantra Maitra is a freelance journalist from Mumbai, India. He is a correspondent for All Sports magazine, and a foreign affairs blogger for the Washington Examiner. He has written articles for news website Merinews.com and other regional publications. Sumantra runs a blog at DailyWorldWatch.wordpress.com. He provided exclusive eyewitness reports for The-Latest on the Mumbai bombings of 2008.
Brian Usher is photography consultant for The-Latest.Com. He is a highly experienced editorial and commercial photographer whose work has been published throughout the world, appearing in many well known magazines and newspapers. Brian has featured in several books and has been a writer for the Royal Photographic Society magazine.
Heidi Kingstone has spent time in Afghanistan reporting for a number of publications. Her work has appeared in the Financial Times, The Spectator, The Sunday Times and other international journals. She has also reported from places like Iraq, Rwanda, Lebanon, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Kenya. Heidi is The-Latest's Editor at large.
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