Streatham Hub announcement delayed (From Streatham Guardian)
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Streatham Hub development announcement delayed
2:40pm Wednesday 16th December 2009 in News By Matt Watts
Changes: The Streatham Hub development
A promise that new plans for the Streatham Hub development would be revealed no later than this week has been broken.
Concerned residents, ice rink and leisure centre users were promised by project leaders from Lambeth Council and Tesco at a crisis meeting on October 8 that revised plans for the project would be revealed within eight weeks.
But despite the closure of the dilapidated Streatham Leisure Centre causing fears to grow over the future of leisure facilites in the area, the council and the supermarket giant have missed their deadline to ease resident’s concerns.
The council said it would now hold a meeting in the new year after plans were properly finalised, and thanked residents for their patience.
Tesco has said the delivery of the Hub - a major redevelopment project which includes new home and a swimming pool and ice rink complex - has had to be delayed because of the recession.
Despite billions in profits, Tesco said a drop in the housing market meant the current scheme - already delayed by three years - was not financially viable.
There are also concerns a revised scheme may not guarantee a new ice rink would be built before the current one closes.
Trevor Hutton, from Skaters 4 the Hub, said: "This project has been plagued by delays and this is typically another one. They just do not seem to care about keeping people informed. A lot of residents are worried about this project's future."
Councillor Lib Peck, cabinet member for housing and regeneration said: “We are determined to deliver a much needed new ice rink and leisure centre, and we continue to work with Tesco to find a mutually agreeable solution.
"With the recent closure of the leisure centre due to health and safety reasons we are keen to provide a new centre fit for the 21st century, and are negotiating with Tesco about the continuity of ice-skating provision. We want to finalise these arrangements before going back out to the public.
"We are extremely close to agreeing a way forward that is financially sensible, allowing us to provide brilliant new facilities for local resident to enjoy.”
Comments(3)
Julia 123
says...
3:24pm Thu 17 Dec 09
JohnEB
says...
6:01pm Fri 18 Dec 09
We as a nation should be ashamed when Lambeth and Tesco together cannot put together the funds for what is a comparitive drop in the ocean when considering the outlay that this London is putting into the Olymics that will run for a few weeks only. Hasn't anybody approached Boris Johnson yet?
Tim Barnsley says...
5:16pm Wed 16 Dec 09
1) This report confirms that Tesco have said that the proposed development, which has involved consultation with users of the ice rink and leisure centre, is no longer financially viable. So, in the absence of any other information, we assume that any development will not go ahead in the form envisaged.
2) The Council Cabinet member says the Council is still working with Tesco "to find a mutually agreeable solution" . (The Council is also negotiating on continuity of ice provision.)
3) The Council wants to "finalise" the arrangements before going out to the public.
Does this mean that users are not going to be consulted on the proposed new development?
A number of people representing different types of user of the leisure centre and of the ice rink have given their time and expertise to help deliver a new centre fit for the 21st century. Can we be assured that this work is not going to be thrown away, and that users will still be involved?
If they are not, there is the risk that any new centre will not meet the public's needs.
Many people seem to be unaware that this project involves a large amount of public (Lambeth) money. If the public are not involved, there is a real risk that this will be wasted.