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How to solve a problem like Streatham Hub? Preferably by keeping local politicians and corporate paymasters out of the whole process. That was pretty much the conclusion come the end of @ChukaUmunna‘s first People’s Question Time, held in the Labour MP’s Streatham constituency on Thursday evening.

The Hub is a headline writer’s gift that keeps on giving. At any one time over the past ten years, stories of mismanagement have surfaced out of SW16.

The latest entry log states that @lambeth_council has now admitted that “plans will not move forward” for the temporary swimming pool in Streatham, and Tesco stating that “Lambeth Council has compromised in choosing Pope’s Road as a site for the temporary ice rink.”

Cripes.

The Hub saga story so far…

In a classic you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours scenario, the corporate superstore was granted planning permission in Streatham, in return for building a new leisure centre and a new ice rink. So far, so good.

The trouble is that this was almost ten years ago. The scheme is filled with as much uncertainty a decade later as it was back in the day. The timeline up until 2010 has included Tesco holding all the cards and threatening to walk away unless an increased floor space was granted, the closure (and failure to re-open) of Streatham Leisure Centre and the continued search for a temporary ice rink in Streatham.

Ah yes – about that Streatham Brixton temporary ice rink. It is the “continuity of ice” clause in the original planning document that led the good @ChukaUmunna to hold this current crisis meeting.

Essentially Tesco has to provide an ice pad at all times in Streatham. This was fine with the original agreement, which involved constructing the brand new rink on the Hub site, and then knocking down the old barn.

The corporate paymaster became impatient however, and wanted to bulldoze the site with one great big swing of the wrecking ball. Meanwhile @lambeth_council was left looking rather silly, searching around for a suitable site in an urban borough to place a whopping great big temporary ice pad.

The packed assembly hall at Dunraven School on Thursday night was unanimous in rejecting @lambeth_council’s current plan to shift Streatham Ice Rink down the A23 to Pope’s Road Car Park in Brixton.

This has emerged as the U-turn choice from the @LambethLabour cabinet, after the whole community united against the bonkers plan to place the ice pad on Streatham Common.

“This is a highly emotive issue,” admitted @ChukaUmunna at the start of the People’s Question Time. “There is a perception in the community that residents have been held in the dark over recent months.”

Sandra Fryer, representing the council as the Divisional Director of Strategies and Partnerships stated:

“We have been working with Tesco since March on the location. Streatham Common had processing issues [eh?] – it would have taken us longer than we wanted to place the rink here. There were also technical issues. It wasn’t clear where the power source would come from.”

You would have hoped that before rubber-stamping the Streatham Common site back in March, cabinet would have had the foresight to address basic issues such as where the power for the ice pad was going to come from.

A solution is available, slightly closer to home than the Pope’s Road compromise.

“We also looked at a site on Streatham High Road,” admitted Fryer. “Tesco have a budget however, and weren’t able to progress with this option.”

And so it seems that Pope’s Road became the preferred location on account of @lambeth_council already owning the site. Two birds can be killed with one stone, by demolishing the structurally unsafe council car park, and then plonking the ice pad there instead.

The fear for the Streatham skating and hockey community however is that Pope’s Road becomes permanent, and the south end of the borough loses one of it’s most historic and cultural sites of interest forever.

Having skipped the previous Streatham Hub public meeting, it was decent for the corporate paymaster to turn up this time. Mike Kissman, the UK Corporate Affairs Manager for Tesco, told the meeting:

“Running an ice rink is not something that we have a great deal of experience in.”

Best learn on the job then, Mr Corporate Affairs Man. Tesco will be financing the temporary pad and is expected to either manage the facility itself, or put in place a management team that is capable of the job.

Questions then followed from the floor.

“The plans for Streatham Hub have chopped and changed so much, what guarantees can you give this meeting that this won’t happen again?”

Apt timing for the fashionably late arrival of Councillor Florence Nosegbe, the Cabinet Member for Culture, Sport and the Olympics:

“We own Pope’s Road – we can control the process. It will be easier for the council to move forward.”

Tesco’s Kissman added:

“Time is the issue for Tesco.”

You can bet it is. Every week that Tesco hasn’t got a superstore open in Streatham is a week where the competitors along the High Road are rubbing their hands and lining their tills. Plus it’s, ahem, a little late in the day for Tesco to be complaining about the Hub timeline after a decade of dithering.

A speaker from the floor came back to the location of the temporary rink, and picked up on the point why Pope’s Road has been chosen, rather than the High Road location:

“With annual profits recently revealed, plus with the planned increased of 20,000 extra floor space at Streatham, Tesco is not exactly light of wallet right now. Why can’t the company pay to finance the staging of the temporary rink along the High Road?”

This question achieved the loudest applause of the evening, if not the most adequate of answers:

“We have been through difficult times,” said Kissman. “We are still here. We are an organisation, and not a local authority.”

Which all rather begs the question who is actually controlling leisure in Lambeth? The local authority that is reliant upon the private capital to finance the schemes, or the private capital paymaster that won’t be accountable?

Jimmy Gardner from the Streatham Chiefs Ice Hockey team then made an impassioned speech:

“We had a show of hands this week. If Streatham Ice Rink moves to Pope’s Road then my club will fold. This then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy – there is no demand for ice hockey in Streatham, and so there is no need to build a rink back in SW16.”

“Why won’t you work with other local councils?” asked another question. “If Lambeth Council actually spoke to the likes of the neighbouring Merton Council, you might actually find a site closer to home.”

Other observations from the floor centred on the Brixton location, with accusations that “the Lambeth cabinet is not visible in Streatham. Everything has to be Brixton based.”

The meeting then moved on to discuss dimensions – dimensions of the temporary ice pad and dimensions of possible parking space at Pope’s Road.

Councillor Nosegbe confirmed that the temporary pad will be 56m x 26m in dimension – a size smaller than a standard hockey pad, and a space that is unsuitable for figure skating, as the mother of a Streatham skater pointed out.

The @LambethLabour Councillor also confirmed that there is the “possibility” of parking for twenty spaces at Pope’s Road. The average hockey team benches twenty-five players.

Finally we came on to the Elephant in the Streatham meeting road – swimming.

Oh Lordy.

With all the focus on the temporary ice pad, swimming has been overlooked in Streatham. Swimming has been overlooked in all of Lambeth over the past four years, if truth be told.

Whereas ice time had a continuity clause in the Hub deal, swimming has historically not been treated to this privilege. This is probably because @lambeth_council wasn’t expecting to close Streatham Leisure Centre late last year, without an alternative plan in place.

Councillor Nosegbe said:

“I recognise that there has been an under-investment in the pool. We don’t have the funds for a temporary arrangement in Streatham. We won’t be going forward with this.”

Where all of this leaves the @LambethLabour election manifesto pledge of “free swimming for every resident” is somewhat uncertain right now.

A final question pondered: “What will happen at the cabinet meeting on Monday night?”

The implication within the question was whether or not Councillor Nosegbe would report back to her @LambethLabour friends on the strength of feeling against the Pope’s Road compromise that is currently being felt within Streatham.

The reality of course is that the @LambethLabour cabinet will have a friendly chit chat on Monday evening, and the temporary ice pad will be agreed to be put in place at Pope’s Road in under half an hour after the meeting has commenced.

The real question however is will the Pope’s Road rink ever actually open, and more importantly, will @ChukaUmunna still be holding his People’s Question Time in five, ten years time, still pondering the Streatham Hub question?

The cabinet paper for the @lambeth_council cabinet meeting on July 26th has been published, and whadya know – Streatham Ice Rink is Brixton bound.

Blimey.

As *cough* revealed over here last month:

“This report sets out the progress since March and in particular recommends that the temporary ice rink to be located on the former car park site at Pope’s Road, Brixton.”

And so it would seem that the permanent temporary ice pad at Streatham is making its way down Brixton Hill, and positioning itself on the derelict Pope’s Road car park after all. Hurrah for the continuity of ice clause, pity the poor sods trying to earn a living at Brixton Market.

The Pope’s Road compromise is probably the best outcome out of a no win situation. With all the power to run leisure in Streatham long since sold away to a corporate superstore, @LambethLabour has been left to *sell* the idea of the compromise to the Little People.

The relief will be that the temporary ice rink won’t be plonked on Streatham Common, as seemed to be the non-negotiable stance taken by cabinet, only as recently as March of this year.

The fear for the Streatham skaters and hockey players is that Pope’s Road will become permanent. Tesco will have no reason to finance a permanent pad back up in SW16, and a historic cultural facility will be lost in Streatham forever.

Pope’s Road makes ‘strategic sense’ [urgh] in being next door to Brixton Rec. Don’t rule out the bonkers idea of changing facilities for skaters and hockey players being placed in some shoebox of a corner tucked away at the back of the Rec.

Some issues still remain over the Pope’s Road rink. In true Rotten Borough style, concerns have been raised in the cabinet paper regarding, um, car-parking provision at the former car park.

See what they have done there?

“Linked to the above would be the ability for users, particularly families to be able to access some dedicated parking, pick up and drop off points and to access taxis to ensure safe and convenient access for users.”

Doh!

One step forward, two steps back.

Shifting a major part of the local economy in Streatham down to Brixton needn’t have been necessary if @LambethLabour had actually had the balls to stand up to Tesco in the first place. The original agreement was for Tesco to knock down the old SW16 barn first, build the brand new ice and leisure facilities, and only then on completion, planning permission would be granted for the superstore.

But Tesco soon took control of the timeline and changed the priority to retail, rather than community leisure facilities. This of course fits in perfectly with the private provision of all services that is favoured by the right wing @LambethLabour cabinet. The end result is the transference of power in Streatham from the local authority to a major corporate power.

But wait – what of the temporary dry sport [urgh] and *shhh* swimming facilities back up in Streatham? These too were promised back in March, as part of the political bending over backwards by @LambethLabour to keep Tesco on board.

The cabinet paper for July appears to mothball the idea of swimming returning to Streatham in a temporary capacity, stating:

“The March Cabinet report gave details of the provision a 25m x 12m six lane temporary swimming pool and associated facilities. The report also highlighted the considerable footprint such a pool and its housing would require. The only available sites in the Streatham area for such a facility is identical to those identified for the temporary ice rink and present all of the same difficulties and issues.

In addition there is no budget provision for the cost of purchase and or lease for such a facility and the net cost to the council would still require a subsidy of at least £14 per user. No further action has been taken pending a decision from Cabinet on if a further report detailing the financial implications is required and on whether and when public consultation should commence.”

This appears to be yet another classic @LambethLabour approach to totally overlooking the provision of swimming in the Rotten Borough.

Meanwhile, Tesco has the corporate cheek (and power) to demand a further increased floor space in return for financing the scheme. An extra 40% was rubber stamped by @LambethLabour to save face back in March. Now it seems that a further 20,000 square foot is required if the scheme is to progress:

“Tesco has developed proposals for an additional 20,000 sq ft of retail floor space to be contained within the approved store in the form of a mezzanine [urgh] floor. It is envisaged that this additional floor space will provide space for non-food retail goods.”

All of the above bumbling has led to the Streatham Hub timeline being delayed once again. The back slapping that took place at cabinet back in March concluded with a pledge for the new ice rink, swimming pool and dry sports facilities to be completed by Q4 2012.

The cabinet paper for July lets slip that Q3 2013 is now the current target. And so yeah – Streatham will remain without any sports facilities as the Olympics takes pride of place across town in 2012.

Cabinet will be rubber stamp the proposals at 7pm on 26th July in Room 8. Speaking rights for *ahem* citizens are extremely limited. If you want to have your say on the continued confusion surrounding Streatham Hub, then a better bet is to attend that nice @ChukaUmunna‘s People’s Question Time, taking place on 22nd July at Dunraven School.

Oh, go on then – one more time…

The Lambeth School’s Musitrax Festival over at Windrush Square looks rather interesting this week. I confess a declaration of interest – I’m usually blowing the trumpet, so to speak, of the musical talents of school kids over the borough border in Southwark as part of the day job(s). But yeah – bring it on, young folk of Brixton:

“Take 350 primary school young musicians, add a dash of Reggae Reggae sauce (courtesy of Levi Roots), simmer it up with a little Brixton sunshine and you get this week’s Lambeth School’s Musitrax Festival. Taking place on Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd July in the new Windrush Square, this free open air musical happening has been put together by Lambeth Music Service and is designed to celebrate the achievements of Lambeth children (all have been playing for less than a year) and to encourage people of all ages to have a go for themselves.

Free daily performances will feature massed bands of 8 and 9 year olds from Lambeth primary schools, daily family djembe drumming workshops and a star performance by Brixton’s very own Levi Roots. All events are free, open to all, with no tickets or booking needed.

Programme:

Thursday 1st July:

1pm – MX Band in concert

The band features 150 Year 4 children from Lambeth schools playing trumpet, trombone, clarinet, flute, sax and percussion.

2-4pm – Family djembe workshops

Friday 2nd July:

1pm – MX String Band & Levi Roots in concert.

The band features 200 Year 4 children from Lambeth schools playing violin and cello; plus Levi Roots performing his new single accompanied by the children.

2-4pm – Family djembe workshops.”

Enjoy, all…

When is a free swim not a free swim? When the coalition government is used as an excuse by @LambethLabour not to continue with the local election pledge it made less than two months ago.

Ah yes – it’s a return to an old family favourite around these parts – that @LambethLabour election pledge of “free swimming for every resident.”

*sigh*

Almost two months after @LambethLabour was returned to power, has anyone actually managed a free swim at any of the borough swimming pools Brixton Rec yet?

Nope, me neither.

I appreciate that for pledges to become policy takes some time. What is not acceptable however is to make political capital out of a pledge, just because you don’t like what the ConDem coalition is doing up the road in Westminster.

We’ve seen this already in the Rotten Borough, with the mixed message being sent out regarding the school Academies debate (bad locally, but we’re still going to build one…) It now seems that swimming has become caught up in the political point scoring as well.

The axing of free swimming for under-16s and over-60s in the ConDem budget was a typical free market move. Pay to play etc, and sod the healthy benefits that are often needed by this demographic.

But the national ConDem swinging of the leisure axe has absolutely nothing to do with the local election pledge made by @LambethLabour less than two months ago.

Free swimming for every resident is free swimming for every resident. Simple. No ConDem opt-outs were made in the manifesto. The choice was clear for Lambeth residents – vote for @LambethLabour and free swimming will be rolled out.

Not so now it seems.

Already @LambethLabour councillors are starting to show signs of using the ConDem budget as the get out clause, rather than be held to account.

If manifesto pledges are dependent upon a higher power, then what’s the point in making them in the first place? You may as well live in fantasy Lambeth La La Land, promise the most ridiculous piece of local legislation, and then retract it whenever the electorate decides not to vote in your Westminster pals on a national level.

Keeping it local, and I’m still paying twice for my daily swim – once with Fusion for @BrockwellLido, and once again with Greenwich Leisure Limited for my Brixton Rec membership. Both pools are owned by @lambeth_council, but the pimping out model of public services means that residents get fleeced twice.

And so yeah, Councillor Bigham – free swimming for every resident? This blame game is starting to sound a little lame.

The news coming out of Lambeth Town Hall this weekend is that the @LambethLabour cabinet is considering placing the temporary Streatham ice rink down the road in Brixton.

Blimey.

Pope’s Road Car Park to be precise. Ah, but wouldn’t it be slightly problematic to place a permanent temporary ice rink right in the middle of a municipal car park? Um, not so if you knock down the car park first.

Cripes.

It’s an encouraging move, to be honest. The widely ridiculed suggestion of putting the temporary rink on Streatham Common has united the local community in anger. It’s probably a Lambeth thing, but anger is indeed an energy around these parts.

But what of Pope’s Road car park, down by Brixton Rec? The council closed this *temporarily* (ah, that word again…) mid-December in 2009. Structural defaults were given as the reason.

The timing was tragic. With the busy Christmas period in full flow, the nearby market traders were furious that the closure left nowhere for out of towners to park in central Brixton.

The argument still stands – bulldoze the car park and the market will probably die on its arse. But the cost to re-build is something that is certainly northbound of the current @LambethLabour budget, especially so in these challenging (*very* challenging) #lambethcoop-erative times.

As for Streatham Hub? Placing the permanent temporary rink in downtown Brixton will certainly help to kick-start the project. It will probably peeve off the skaters and hockey players. It may be a short bus journey down Brixton Hill, but as anyone who makes the trek regularly will know, it’s a bumper to bumper stretch down the A23.

Of course this problem is all the making of the @LambethLabour cabinet. In an attempt to appease their big business pals on the Tesco board, planning permission for an increased sized superstore was granted, with a timeline to suit the supermarket chain, not the residents of the borough.

The original plan put in place to please the *ahem* citizens was for the old rink to remain open until a new one was built. Bending over backwards for the corporate paymaster has put an end to that.

With @lambeth_council owning precious few large development spaces in the borough, you can see how the Pope’s Road solution would seem like the perfect fit for any council leader backed into a corner by both large corporations and citizens.

The Pope’s Road plan is still very much under consideration, but it is a project that is already being fast-tracked by the cabinet. It’s the best of a bad situation. If carried out, safeguards need to be put in place so that Pope’s Road isn’t the permanent position for a rink in Lambeth, allowing Tesco to walk away from our community yet again.

Another day, another @LambethLabour leisure pledge as polling time approaches. If it’s Tuesday, then it must be time to roll out the unworkable vote winner of:

“Free swimming for everyone.”

But yep – that’s exactly what @cllrstevereed has done in the latest rally call to keep the Red Flag (oh, stop it!) flying from the roof of Lambeth Town Hall:

“Our manifesto is full of positive ideas and commitments you can hold us to …a major expansion of sport and leisure facilities with four new pools and free swimming for everyone.”

I’m going to treat the four new pools pledge with the folly that such a false promise deserves. First of all, are we talking about “four new pools” per se, as the exact linguistic interpretation suggests?

Or are we talking about re-opening Streatham and Clap’ham – two pools that have been closed under the @LambethLabour watch – and then opening two further more pools?

Overlooking the blind faith in two new pools being built in West Norwood and Waterloo by the time local politicians start to get friendly with the Little People once again in four years time, then surly this leaves us with NO new pools being opened, but simply the closed two pools coming back into public use.

Moving on…

@AnnaJCowen will be rather pleased once polling day is over. It will mean that the letter from @janeinlondon / East Hampshire, that makes the exact same word for word pledge of “free swimming for everyone,” can be removed from its current place of beside the front door.

We’ve been eagerly awaiting the Oval #labourdoorstep team since the misleading letter was first posted. I want @janeinlondon / East Hampshire to look me in the eye (oooh…) and confirm that if I vote for her on May 6th (Oval, not East Hampshire,) then I will get free swimming at Brixton Rec come Friday morning. This is the implication of the twaddle that has been landing through the letterboxes in Lambeth.

I’ve already made enquiries with the very decent folk at Greenwich Leisure Limited about the management of “free swimming for everyone,” and the effect that it will have on the pimped out John Lewis style provider.

“Know nothing about it, mate,” has been the answer coming out of my man from GLL.

“Ah, but would your current contract with @lambeth_council be able to support the pledge to provide free swimming for everyone,” I asked?

“Um, Probably not. Money aside, there’s not exactly a lot of pools open in Lambeth right now,” continued the very nice man from GLL.

And so it’s a chicken and egg / free swimming and four new pools scenario in the Rotten Borough. Which came first? Free swimming or the four new pools?

Or perhaps *shhh* neither?

Nah…

That would just be *too* politically clever from our friends @LambethLabour.

This is a piss take, right?

“One of the key campaign issues in Lambeth has been the regeneration of the borough and the future of our pools and other leisure facilities. Many local residents will be heading to the ballot box on May 6th with memories of LibDem inaction as they watched Streatham Leisure Centre crumble without any secure plans to replace it and will recall their attempts to sell Brixton Rec and Clapham swimming pool to property developers when they ran the council with Tory support.”

The re-writing of the leisure agenda in the past four years by our friends from @LambethLabour is almost on par with the dodgy data that has cropped up over in the Herne Hill election leaflets.

To use Nu Labour language, the complete meltdown of leisure in Lambeth is hardly a case of fixing the ceiling whilst the sun was shining. If that were so, the closure of Streatham Leisure Centre last year would never have happened. The roof fell in on the good people of SW16 – quite literally.

Clap’ham Pool meanwhile *has* been sold to a property developer, but not under the @LambethLibDems watch, but by the right wing @LambethLabour cabinet.

It is hypocrisy of the highest order to claim otherwise, when you consider that it was the Cathedral Group that closed Clap’ham with only two weeks notice on New Year’s Eve, having finally secured the funds to build private property on council owned land.

The twaddle continues with a quote from @cllrstevereed, stating:

“A vote for them [LibDems] threatens this hard-won progress as their infuriating idleness saw leisure facilities languish when they were in charge.”

*speechless*

Sort of…

Streatham closed, Clap’ham closed and Brixton barely open since January. I note that the manifesto pledge of: “free swimming for every resident” is now no longer repeated in the @LambethLabour leisure literature.

No worries – if we wake up with a red flag flying over Lambeth Town Hall towards the end of next week, I’ll be first in the queue at the Rec, clutching the @LambethLabour manifesto and demanding my free dip in the kiddie piss pool.

Perhaps the only positive side to come out of the whole Streatham Hub fiasco has been @LambethLabour’s ability to unite the local community. Sustainable Streatham, Streatham Society, Streatham Festival, Friends of Streatham Common, the Open Spaces Society, and Streatham Action – all have joined forces to fight the plan to place the temporary ice rink slap bang in the middle of Streatham Common.

The Streatham and Clap’ham projects may have progressed in recent weeks (funny that…) but let it not be forgotten that it is private capital that is now propping up leisure under @LambethLabour.

Pimping out your key community assets to big business, and then dressing it up as a cooperative council, seems like a one-way relationship to me. No public consultation (as promised) and no right of reply from the elected officials, should the free market throw a wobbler once again.

Hey hoe – sling out a press release and simply re-write leisure history within the Rotten Borough.

Shameless.