Streatham Hub – it’s the Lambeth planning hot potato that no one wants to take hold of. Especially so Tesco, the corporate paymaster.
The latest twist in the decade long running farce to build a new ice rink and leisure centre in SW16 took another spin this week. With @lambeth_council cabinet planning to place the permanenttemporary ice pad down the A23 at Pope’s Road, resistance has already started to organise.
The fine Friends of Brixton Market [disclosure: I am a member, along with a rather decent @LambethLabour councillor] voted on Tuesday to formally oppose the planning application for Pope’s Road.
With the council owned car park having been closed since December 2009 because of “structural difficulties,” traders have reported a loss of up to 30% in earnings. As one representative stated at the recent cabinet meeting, customers buy in bulk in Brixton. With nowhere to park, the trade moves out of the area.
There is a feeling of a double whammy by @lambeth-council, straight in the face of the Friends of Brixton Market. Not allowing customers to use cars to shop in the area is bad enough, but trade is then shifted out elsewhere – probably to Streatham, and probably towards the corporate paymaster that is Tesco, once the new store is built.
Meanwhile, back in SW16 and the hockey players and skaters of Streatham don’t want to make the reverse journey down to Brixton. Never the twain shall meet, or so it seems.
The decision by the Friends of Brixton Market to directly take on @lambeth_council is a repeat all over again of the highly successful campaign put in place by the Hands Off Our Common group.
Alarmed that a public space was going to be the permanenttemporary place for the ice pad, the group mobilised and campaigned, forcing cabinet to make an embarrassing U-turn. A similar show of resistance from local people will cause considerable embarrassment to a cabinet that has pretty much run out of ideas when it comes to the Streatham Question.
It is unlikely that any of the other twelve sites will now be considered. Brixton was the best of a bad bunch. Brockwell Park and Clap’ham Common will meet the same show of resistance from the respective Friends groups.
The tragedy of the situation is that local communities are being pitted against one another by a cabinet that has the answer sitting right on it’s SW16 doorstep. The possible site along Streatham High Road remains vacant. All that it requires is for the corporate paymaster to put its fingers in the pie and cough up a bit more.
With a demand for 40% more retail space from the original planning application, it seems that the you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours arrangement that has come to characterise Streatham Hub, isn’t quite as equal as both bed fellows like to portray.
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 StreathamBrixton 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 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?
“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.
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.”
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?
“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 permanenttemporary 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.
Plans for a Bank Holiday booze session were put on hold, with news coming my way that BIG politics was heading over to my little patch of South London. Having chased down Dave in vein around Kennington, and then slept through Gordo’s Brixton Hill blink and you’ll miss it church visit the day before, the Boy Clegg was Streatham bound on Bank Holiday Monday.
Blimey.
This has been something of an arse of a stage-managed election campaign. Fear of the Little People has kept the Little People away. One word out of context, and that carefully handled PR campaign comes crashing down all around you.
Ah, the Love Me I’m a Liberal Lot. You just gotta, um, love ‘em. I think.
Cripes.
So yeah, news broke on twitter over the weekend that the Boy Clegg was coming my way. It was an open invite, and an opportunity for the Little People to come and see what the Messiah nonsense was all about. Attendance and first hand debate has to be better than accepting the twaddle that has been coming out of the mainstream media since that epochal first Leader’s Debate.
There was a sense that you could almost smell the power (behave) at the Palace Community Centre just off Christchurch Road on Monday morning. You could certainly smell the booze from some old boy who was taking the ‘refreshing’ approach of the LibDem agenda perhaps slightly too far left of centre.
The Nu Labour boys were also out in force. General elections aren’t won by the size of your placard. If that were the case, then you may as well reduce the whole farce down to a willy measuring competition. There were some big dicks loitering around the mean streets of SW2 as we awaited the arrival of the Messiah.
I welcomed the appearance of our friends from @LambethLabour, and encouraged some local political debate with a self-proclaimed “Nu Labour activist.”
“Do you support the policy of the right wing Nu Labour cabinet in Lambeth to build a temporary ice rink on Streatham Common,” I asked the activist, ever keen to keep it the #hyperlocal.
The smell of booze from the Brixton old boy suddenly became a smell of fear.
“I’m not that familiar with the specifics of what you are talking about,” came the response. Which is a perfectly fine Nu Labour style of argument for dealing with the Little People. Deny all knowledge and grin for Gordo. The activist had been trained well in the political skills of inactivity.
She did lead me however to a local Labour candidate who was also awaiting the arrival of the Messiah by making rather a lot of over-excitable noise. In all the excitement, our friend from @LambethLabour forgot to give me his name.
No worries. I pressed him on the issue of the temporary rink on the Common, a debate that has divided the local community, and all through the making of @LambethLabour bending over backwards to accommodate a multi-national superstore.
“Ah, but @ChukaUmunna is AGAINST the plans for the rink,” came the response.
And yourself, um, un-named Sir? If you were elected to @lambeth_council, would you too take the principled position that is allowed by an (as yet) unelected PPC, or would you roll over and tickle the underbelly of @cllrstevereed?
Our @LambethLabour friend took this opportunity to get even more excitable, and waved his big banner around at the LibDems, without answering my question.
Like I said – there was a lot of big dicks around SW2 on Monday morning.
But anyway – about that yellow and orange Messiah…
We waited, waited, and waited for Saint Nick to show up in Streatham. A religious themed Gospel band kept us entertained and amused. I prefer to think that religion and politics don’t make the best of bedfellows. I almost took to the stage though for some good ‘ol fashioned South London moonstompin’ when the Gospel kids broke into a verse of Monkey Man.
Ruuuuude!!!! Boi!!!!!
It was around about this time when the slick, election machine of the political party became slightly chaotic. Labour placards jostled with LibDem placards. The Tories were nowhere in sight (which is a bit weird, seeing as though @ChukaUmunna reckons that only the Tories can topple him in Streatham.)
All that Gospel; all that political hot air. I needed a breather ahead of the arrival of the Messiah (still stuck in Lewisham, was the tweet that dropped from the good @Darryl1974.)
My 3G signal was crap inside the community centre. I had content waiting to escape from my iPhone and I knew just the man who was able to free me from the restraints of the political rally.
“Wolfgang!!!!!” I shouted, having spotted revolutionary leader Wolfgang Moneypenny, spokesperson for @FreeSouthLondon, standing outside the Palace Community Centre.
For some reason, the good LibDem folk didn’t think Wolfgang was part of the community, and left the poor chap loitering outside. What happened next I take full responsibility for, and make no apologies for acting in the dark art of political spin behind the scenes.
“Wolfgang, my fine chap,” I said. “You need to be over there…”
I thrust the placard and platitudes of @FreeSouthLondon straight into the throng of the mainstream media press corp. The snappers from Her Majesty’s Popular Prints lapped up the South London revolutionary.
F*** me, we’ve created a monster, I pondered, as the political agenda switched from the Clegg bounce to the Wolfgang limp. I look forward to the front pages of Her Majesty’s P0opular Prints with some interest come Tuesday morning.
I gave the nod and the wink to the LibDem doorman, leaving Wolfgang stuck outside (actually, that’s not quite true – @LambethLibDems leader Councillor Lumsden told the doorman “he’s one of us” (ooh – get you!) as I was ushered back in. I haven’t been so offended since @AnnaJCowen outed me as a closet Notts County fan.)
Back indoors and Floella Benjamin (blimey!) was keeping the crowd happy. If you can portray Humpty Dumpty as the life and soul of the party for half an hour on kiddies TV, then whipping up a storm with the Love Me I’m a Liberal lot has to be an easy gig.
And then finally, finally…
“The great man is upon us!”
Nope, Wolfgang Moneypenny wasn’t in the building, but the Boy Clegg was back in town, alongside Streatham PPC @Chris4Streatham. It was like a Biblical moment (seriously) as the Messiah parted the Great Red Sea of SW2 as he strode through the masses.
There’s a mixed up local political metaphor in there somewhere. Of course the sea may even have been Green, but this most certainly wasn’t a Blue sky day.
After a *shhh* overcast South London morning, the sun finally broke through, just as the Boy Clegg took to the Streatham stage. I’m not sure if the sun was shining upon the Messiah, or out of his backside.
But yep – Nick’s here…
The speech itself was uplifting, positive, and slightly too focussed on the national agenda for my liking. This is the man who has genuine ambitions to be the next Prime Minister, and so I think he is forgiven.
Education was a key focus, as well as criticism of the arrogance of the Tories. This speaks volumes as to the feeling around the Streatham LibDem camp, that the Tories are attacked rather than Nu Labour.
@Chris4Streatham spoke next, thanking the hard working local constituency members, and encouraging more work in the remaining days ahead.
Sadly there wasn’t any time for an audience Q & A. I wanted to ask about the increasing power of big business in our local communities, and how the LibDems can help us, as we try and take back control of leisure in Lambeth, rather than place all power in the hands of a multi-national superstore.
I was also keen to ask about the fear of the Tory bogeyman, a claim that has been put out by @ChukaUmunna around Streatham in recent weeks.
But nope – all the attention was now with the big boys from mainstream media land. Quentin Letts was sucking a lemon at the back of the hall, and The Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland had been dispatched to deepest South London, showing his paper’s new found love for the Love Me I’m a Liberal lot.
I took the debate outside, and was thrilled to find the relative sanity of the South London #hyperlocal blogging community around me. @BrixtonBlog shared the same amusement as me over Monkey Man; @StreathamPulse was pleased to see that a gold dust story had landed right in the centre of his #hyperlocal news patch.
Wolfgang Moneypenny meanwhile was too busy trying to cop off with the delightful Mrs Clegg, and telling the lovely Miriam in Spanish that: “You are very, very beautiful.”
The cheeky South London scoundrel.
A lone heckler during the LibDem leader’s speech was later seen boarding the local battle bus of Tory PPC Rahoul Bhansali – ah… so *that’s* how local politics works.
I caught up with Caroline Pidgeon, my Vauxhall PPC, and asked her how she thought the event, and her campaign had both gone:
Wolfgang then gate crashed the conversation and I had the pleasure of introducing Caroline to a genuinely revolutionary South London fighting figure. Which must be a first, considering that Caroline is up against the complacent Kate Hoey.
Battle bus boarded for the Kingmaker to be, and @Chris4Streatham kindly offered me his thoughts as the banners were put away and Streatham returned to some sense of normality:
The Streatham constituency is still too close to call. The only certainty is that despite what @LambethLabour is saying about the fear of the Tory bogeyman, either @ChukaUmunna or @Chris4Streatham will be elected to Westminster at some time around 3:30am on Friday morning.
Having lost @AnnaJCowen in all the excitement of the political scrum, we rendez vouzed to exchange tales of political intrigue. The poor girl ‘aint much of a political beast, but she was thrilled to see Anthony H Wilson standing next to her during the speeches.
Ah – we need have a conversation together later, my dear…
And so that is how national politics works on a #hyperlocal patch. You plan, you stage-manage, and yet some form of anarchy still manages to break out.
There’s hope yet for the sleeping beast that is South London democracy.
Another wet South London Monday evening, another @lambeth_council cabinet meeting with leisure high up on the agenda. Actually, leisure was the *only* item on the agenda.
Blimey.
Anyone would think that there is a local election lurking around the corner…
This specially convened cabinet meeting, the final one of the @LambethLabour administration (we think…) was scheduled for the not very voter friendly time of 5pm. All praise the power of flexible working from home.
And so after a decade of political and corporate dithering, the future of Streatham Hub all came down to one hour of complex political and economic points being condensed into a voter friendly package, and then a big red rubber stamp from our friends at @LambethLabour.
Streatham Hub is happening.
Or is it…?
The deal finally struck by the @lambeth_council cabinet with Tesco earlier this month is a genuine good news story. I had my doubts (rather major doubts) but the boys and girls of @LambethLabour did us good.
Having given the cabinet a particularly rough ride over leisure in recent months, I am positive that Streatham Hub is finally at a stage closer to being built than it has been at any time in the past decade.
But the seeds of doubt remain. Condensed into a fun packed one hour session in Room 8 at Lambeth Town Hall, we heard the Cabinet Member for Employment and Enterprise describing the deal as: “not perfect – you have the right to be sceptical given our track record.” The Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration added: “we didn’t get everything we wanted.”
Probably not, but you may read over the coming weeks how Streatham Common has been confirmed as the site for the proposed temporary ice rink. The adjective of ‘proposed’ has to remain along legal guidelines – the Council’s very own legal adviser interjected during the meeting to advise that the Secretary of State would have to be consulted ahead of plonking a 60m x 30m ice pad on a piece of Common land.
Other headline news coming out of the Hub meet was that twelve other sites in Streatham were considered for the temporary provision. Cabinet refused to name these on the public record. Ward boundaries are a sensitive matter, especially so during times of a local election.
But this *should* be a done deal. Yer man @Chukaumunna, the rather nice PPC candidate for Streatham, confirmed to me at the close of business that Mr Tesco had just told him that this is the third deal that the baked bean seller has been asked to consider. Three times lucky, once, twice, three times a South London lady, etc.
“They’re [Tesco] all about money, that outfit. If they don’t go ahead and do it, they know what is going to happen. Our community won’t give them any more planning permission.”
You can see why I rather like Mr C.
And so what of the detail of the blink and you’ll miss it rubber-stamping of the future of leisure in Streatham? Cllr Peck opened up the ‘debate’ (sort of) by declaring this as “the real deal.”
“The news was not good in November. The continued closure of Streatham Leisure Centre is impacting upon leisure provision in the whole borough.”
Well said that lady. I am rather warming to the Cabinet Member for Culture and Communities. I feel that the portfolio of leisure has been dumped on her from high above, with little previous thought as to a well-planned leisure policy.
“The refurbishment of the old leisure centre is not viable,” continued Cllr Heywood. “We will guarantee that the temporary facilities on the Common will be dismantled and resorted.”
Ah yes, about those temporary facilities on Streatham Common. This is now the key issue for me, and I suspect for many local politicians putting himself or herself up for re-election on May 6th. The issue is one of credibility. How can you do the #labourdoorstep Saturday afternoon thing, when you are proposing to put a temporary ice rink on a public piece of land?
Make no mistake – this is one of the key battlegrounds as the ballot box looms. @LambethLabour has staked what remains of its reputation on leisure in Streatham. The timing of the Hub agreement could either re-elect Labour, or revert them back to the opposition benches, should the electorate not take too kindly to the temporary leisure arrangements.
Speaking of not taking too kindly to events, yer man from Tesco decided to turn up at the cabinet meeting, having declined the invitation to attend the public meeting last month. I don’t think cabinet had a bag of lard waiting to fill the empty seat, as was the case a few weeks ago.
Andrew Boyle confirmed the specifics of the deal that his company has signed up to:
“A 25m swimming pool, a 13m teaching pool, four football courts, gym space for 100 machines, a 60m x 30m ice rink, 250 new homes, a piazza [urgh] 600 jobs, and oh, a whopping great big supermarket.”
Ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?
Needs must, ‘n all that.
But will the leisure facilities open at the same time as the whopping great big supermarket? A representative from the fine Streatham Ice Skating Action Group, asked cabinet for reassurances that the rink and superstore will both open simultaneously.
The concern is that Tesco will build the superstore, and then lose interest in all local matters. Cllr Peck confirmed that the Hub project would be built as one entity.
Ah, but will the temporary leisure facilities ever open…?
The Friends of Streatham Common confirmed that they would formally object to the Common being used to site a temporary ice rink.
“This is a Grade 1 listed nature space. The Common is for public use. Our concern is that the temporary will become the permanent.”
The Friends group called for the temporary rink to be housed on the Hub site itself. Common sense, it would seem.
You can see what is happening here. The complete meltdown of @LambethLabour’s confused leisure policy is dividing locals on the ground. The Friends group rightfully wants to protect the peace on the Common, the skaters and hockey players want continuity of ice.
Meanwhile, @LambethLabour wants to get re-elected, and there’s plenty of political capital to be made out of a prestige new development in the borough.
To demonstrate his point, the good Cllr then produced a rather bizarre artefact, in the form of a Christmas card sent out by @lambeth_council leader @cllrstevereed. It was a weird moment in La La Lambeth Land, as the LibDem leader read out the seasonal greeting stating that the Hub agreement has been signed, and it will be opening in 2010.
Part comical, part rather major political point scoring, Cllr Lumsden milked the moment, remembering that the card was sent out in relation to @cllrstevereed’s election contest to be selected as the PPC candidate for Streatham. With the whole Hub project at stake, and with yer man @chukaumunna sitting in the cabinet room, this was no time for petty party politics.
Cllr Lumsden made a more valid point by asking why Lambeth Life stated that “twelve sites” are under consideration for the temporary facilities, yet Cabinet confirmed that Streatham Common was the only option.
The LibDem leader wrapped up the small amount of time that cabinet allocated for an opposition response, by asking for Tesco to place a bond with @lambeth_council, that will be returned once the Hub is complete.
The bond idea was supported by @streathamaction, as was the call to name the other sites that cabinet has considered. Sounds too sensible, and as with most events regarding the Hub over the past ten years, the bond idea was rejected, as was the suggestion of naming the other sites that were under consideration.
A bit of leeway was granted by @jkazantzis, the Cabinet Member for Employment and Enterprise:
“Placing the temporary gym in the Rookery car park is not ideal. Stockport Road Playing Fields would be better suited. The residents would welcome these new facilities.”
Seems like the good @jkazantzis’ cabinet colleagues don’t share the same view as the SW16 locals.
@cllrmarkbennett, the Cabinet Member for Community Safety, and the Cllr for the Streatham South ward, thanked the various stakeholders for their patience during the whole project:
“Residents have huge concerns over the use of the Common. We share these concerns. We have looked at them objectively, but the Common is the only viable site. To ignore this would be to the detriment of Streatham.”
The sentiments were genuine, but as @RahoulBhansali, the Conservative PPC for Streatham would later remark to me – “it sounds like some local Councillors are speaking with a loaded gun raised to their head.”
A council officer then confirmed the criteria that was set out by cabinet in selecting a temporary site:
“Suitability [vague] structure, ownership, time, traffic and re-instatement of land. The Common wins on all of these.”
Cllr Peck concluded the debate with some Nu Labour twaddle of:
“Confidence, community and delivery.”
I would argue that after four years of the Nu Labour project in Lambeth, community is perhaps the only one of these buzz phrases that the ruling administration is able to boast of.
It then came to decision time, and whaddya know – cabinet rubber-stamped the agreement for Streatham Hub. Once gain, I need to confirm: this is a good news story. Local politicians have worked incredibly hard on this project. Mistakes have been made, but we now hopefully have a way ahead for the Hub.
Having door stepped the Labour Parliamentary Candidate for the Streatham ward, @chukaumunna, as well as his LibDem counterpart, @chris4streatham at the recent hub meet last month, I completely overlooked any aspirations of political objectivity by not finding the Tory to talk to.
This wasn’t deliberate – honest. There was a huge sense of confusion on the night once the main hustings had broken up. I truly wanted to find out what the response from Conservative PPC Rahoul Bhansali would be.
With so much spinning taking place at a local level in the run up to both the general and local elections, it is all the more important to actually go out there and try and carve your own path through all of the political twaddle.
I offer an open platform for *any* political party that is putting forward candidates in Lambeth to meet up and offer their solutions as to how to put the borough back to where it should be, as a thriving, sharing and responsible place to live.
A bit of door stepping in the corridors of power in SW2, and Rahoul and his team of Tory local council candidates very kindly agreed to a brief @audioboo.
It all got slightly confused towards the end – a combination of one of the Conservative local council candidates not knowing that cabinet had just agreed to bulldoze the existing site with one fell swoop of the wrecking ball, plus some rather lovely steel drum music drifting in from the Lambeth Black Achievement Awards.
But I think we got there in the end.
Phew.
Many thanks again to Rahoul for his time. I greatly enjoyed his company, and it was worthwhile in being able to speak directly with a candidate that I might have otherwise overlooked.
Rahoul’s (friendly) rival in Streatham is of course @chukaumunna. Yer man is fast becoming a highly visible face in the borough, listening to concerns, and offering solutions. Here is his take on the cabinet decision to confirm the Tesco deal.
And so with cabinet having agreed the Hub deal, @audioboo’s recorded with various PPC and even time for a bit of political gossip with some rather good local sources, that was yer lot.
At least I thought it was.
I cycled back down Brixton Road in the South London rain, and then thought: hang on – they’ve not mentioned swimming.
Cripes.
I was following the debate in great detail, tweeting and even smiling at the cabinet from my vantage point of the front row. It was only on the journey home when I tried to piece together the wider picture that I realised something was missing.
I’m happy to stand corrected, but my notes make no mention of swimming. The temporary rink on the Common took up most of the time; the ‘dry facilities’ that will be dumped on the Rookery were also very much on the radar.
The location for the temporary swimming pool wasn’t even a thought in the town planner’s sketchbook. Swimming is certainly seen as a Cinderella service within Lambeth.
Streatham has a proud history of hockey, but you need somewhere to house all those “free swimming sessions for every resident,” as promised in the @LambethLabour election manifesto.
[Point of order: I asked a cabinet member for an off the record clarification to explain this astonishing election pledge. I shall report back when I receive an on the record response.]
And so in conclusion, it’s still all about location, location, location for the Hub. Hopefully the main project will take care of itself. In the interim, I’m none the wise where the temporary rink, gym and pool (?) are going to be housed.
I remain positive about the plan. Ten years of political and corporate dithering was always going to lead to a painful process for the leisure users in SW16.
Hopefully now, both politicians and baked bean sellers have seen sense. A pool and rink should be back in place in Streatham by 2012, and as the pay off, Tesco gets to do colonise a corner of South London.
The art of compromise is unfortunately the way of the modern world. Here’s hoping that there will be more giving than taking when it comes to the temporary leisure facilities during the interim.
And so anyway – those points of interest that have landed in my inbox from an unnamed political source:
(i) As I understand it, the 50% increase in Tesco shop space is by creating a mezzanine floor within the proposed Tesco store building.
Urgh.
Any talk of a mezzanine should lead to the culprit being forced to listen to the Massive Attack album of the same name. It’s as crap as the concept of a mezzanine is. It’s all about the local people, isn’t it? A 50% site increase being used for a mezzanine could be used for, oh, a genuine local public square.
Hang on…
(ii) Public Town Square – this is a bit of a joke as there is hardly any room in the agreed plan for any public space – it’s more more of a ‘virtual’ public space adjacent to the church which is staying, certainly nothing anything near the size of the Windrush Square.
Streatham High Road isn’t the most inviting stretch in South London. The area is crying out for a central meeting point, not some mezzanine.
(iii) Several Lib Dem Councillors [think I've just blown my source] plus Chris Nicholson attended an impromptu meeting of the ice hockey users on Saturday. They were understandably extremely nervous that the ice rink would be demolished before the new combined ice rink / pool / leisure centre will be built. They remember Richmond ice rink from the 1980’s. It was demolished on the basis that the developers said they would build a new one. It never happened.
What’s to stop Tesco bulldozing the current ice rink, then finding that unexpected changes in the retail market prevented them from proceeding with building the new ice rink etc. The previous planning application and development agreement guaranteed that the existing ice rink would stay open until the new one was built. That guarantee has now gone. Also, there is the example of Leeds and Tesco for broken Tesco promises.
I guess we just have to take Tesco and Labour led @lambeth_council at their word on this one.
Yep, I’m thinking the same…
(iv) Building a temporary ice rink on Streatham Common? The temporary ice rink in Cardiff cost £3 million, was supposed to be there for only three years and is still there four years later. The Streatham Ice Rink will have to be on the same scale as Bristol, if it is to allow Olympic style hockey tournaments to take place. What about the likely opposition from Streatham residents about building a structure of this size on the Common?
Exactly.
See an earlier comment on m’blog, posted by a resident of Streatham Common. As mentioned in my original response to the Hub decision, I still believe that the issue is all about location, location, location.
Location of the temporary rink, location of the temporary pool and location of the temporary gym. These are the issues that I want cabinet to reassure me over on Monday evening.
(v) Lambeth have just rolled over and surrendered to Tesco. The Tesco press release says the scheme will be delivered “two years earlier” under this new plan. Really? What it actually means is that the Tesco store will be open two years early as they won’t have to wait till the new combined ice rink / pool and leisure centre is built, before they can knock down the existing ice rink and build their new store on ice rink the site.
Agreed. Tesco is the ultimate winner; the leisure users in Lambeth are a secondary concern. But at least that concern hasn’t been silenced, mainly due to a very passionate, and caring local constituent.
(vi) On the same theme of Lambeth rolling over, they are allowing 50% extra spelling space for the Tesco store. Many of those at Saturday’s meeting were terrified at what this could mean in terms of planning delays, as any new plan will have to go through the GLA Planners and the Mayor, the Government Office for London (GOL) and probably the Secretary of State. Mayor Livingstone held up the last planning application by eighteen months. With the issue of so much extra retail, will all these bodies be happy to give the planning process a smooth passage?
Ah, Events dear boy (or girl,) events. One of which is a local election on May 6th, where the good people of Streatham will ultimately be given a chance to let their feelings on the whole handling of the Hub be known.
I still firmly believe that the Hub announcement earlier this month was wonderful news for South London. But it’s far from the end of the story. Cabinet has a lot of explaining to do on Monday 29th. The tricky 5pm start time is still a problem for me. Seems like my source will be able to put forward all of the fine points above.
