Thanks to everyone who came to our October 8th meeting about the Hub
Representatives from Tesco, Lambeth’s regeneration team and Cllr Lib Peck, the Lambeth Cabinet Member responsible were all present at last night’s meeting.
Both sides stated that they were still committed to the project, but weren’t willing to discuss the terms of their current negotiations on revised plans for the site. They said that they will be able to go public in eight weeks time - i.e just before Christmas.
However, from the vagueness of the statements being made about “buildability” and phasing, I was concerned by the lack of certainty on whether Tesco could be legally held to what we had all previously assumed was a guaranteeof continuity of skating provision - i.e that the old rink being kept open until the new centre opened.
We have asked Lambeth for confirmation of what is in the Section 106 planning obligation agreement - which Tesco has signed up to - and what is in the development agreement with Lambeth - which it appears had not been signed before the credit crunch hit.
The assembled audience of Streathamites, including representatives of the users of both the rink and the leisure centre, were unanimous that there shouldn’t be any back-sliding on this commitment.
We’ll try to make a fuller note of the meeting available as soon as possible together with answers from Lambeth on some of the questions that were raised.
Thank you to Fran and her team at Streatham Business Centre for generously providing the meeting venue, to Pat Sauer and Lee Alley of Streatham Action for making the event happen, and to Gerry Evans for taking the notes.
- Robert Doyle's blog
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Further delays
I have spoken with both Lambeth & Tescos’s, with Holidays, sickness and constant changes to personnel, an announcement or follow up meeting is not expected till late January at the earliest. Richard Bowen is currently in Hospital after an Op, Eion Dardis is going in for an op next week, Detlev O’Munster is only working two days a week currently, the sports director William Balakrishnan has left and has been replaced by Derek Prentice, the Swimming Pool is shut indefinitely due to structural concerns after debris fell from a ceiling, and guess what lambeth has no contingency fund to get it repaired or rectified as the cost may be very high. Patric Terpenning has confirmed his 5 year lease renegotiated recently protects the continuity and says he will guarantee provision of ice providing he is kept aware of when the development agreement is signed and a detailed project plan with dates to completion is published, his plan is reactive rather than proactive so each problem has to be dealt with as and when it happens, it would be better if a full maintenance agreement was in place and parts or equipment were readily available ensuring minimum downtime. There is no reason why the stakeholders meeting should not have already taken place, as every member has signed the confidentiality agreement so excuses are unacceptable, but we would all feel a lot more confident if our own representatives knew what the real issues are and were involved in the discussions proactively.
Trevor Hutton