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For the most recent news see Campaign News. This page contains older items. See below for news on:Hub update at SAC meeting 25th April 2007 (updated 03.05.07) Hub update at SAC meeting 7th March 2007 (updated 17.04.07) Fatal shooting incident 4th Feb 2007 (updated 17.04.07) Hub update at SAC meeting 17th Jan 2007 (updated 06.02.07) Streatham skaters at British and European Championships Jan 2007 (added 19.01.07) Hub update at SAC meeting 29th Nov 2006 (updated 30.11.06) Hub update at SAC meeting 27th Sept 2006 (added 05.10.06) Leisure centre funding and construction at Lambeth Cabinet meeting 17th July 2006 (added 19.07.06) Hub update at SAC meeting 28th June 2006 (updated 19.07.06) Section 106 agreement at PAC meeting 30th May 2006 (updated 23.06.06) Streatham Ice Rink celebrates 75th Birthday (added 30.05.06) For the next section see Campaign News - Archive YHub update at SAC meeting 25th April 2007Two public notice questions about the existing Streatham Leisure Centre and an update on the new Streatham Ice and Leisure Centre were on the agenda for the Streatham Area Committee meeting on Wednesday 25th April 2007. There was a lot of strong feeling at the meeting about how the existing leisure centre has been run down and concerns about the lack of management both before and after the transition to GLL. Public meetings for the users are being arranged. David Lawrence presented the report about the Hub project. The main points from his presentation are summarised in the minutes. He acknowledged that there have been difficulties with the consultation and communication process and said he intended this to be more open in the next phase. In response to a question about the timescale for signing the Section 106 agreement, he said there was a single remaining legal issue which he hoped would be resolved within a week. The general tone of the presentation was that the last few months have been difficult but the project is now entering a more positive phase. Tesco have replaced some parties in their project team and have reaffirmed their interest in finishing the project as soon as possible. The council have also reviewed their processes and the issues are gradually being resolved. The PDF documents are available here SAC public notice questions April 2007 or to find all the papers for the meeting go to http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/Services/CouncilDemocracy/ Follow the link to 'Calendar of meetings' on the rhs, then scroll to 25th April for the Streatham Area Committee and click on the link. Back to Top of Page Hub update at SAC meeting 7th Mar 2007A short report on "Streatham Ice and Leisure Centre Funding and Construction" was on the agenda for the Streatham Area Committee meeting on Wednesday 7th March 2007. The report is available at SAC update March 2007 Councillor Paul McGlone, Lambeth Cabinet member for Regeneration and Enterprise, who has political responsibility for the regeneration project, was at the meeting. However, to the dismay of the committee members and public, there was no officer there to present the report and answer questions. Cllr McGlone introduced himself and said that "the prize was worth hanging on to". He announced that the money to bridge the previous £1.2M funding gap was finally agreed last week. Referring to the 9 month delay announced in the report, he said that the cause was the complexities of the project, including
He said the Council still has faith in Tesco to deliver the project. It is in everyone's interest to ensure cost certainty which is why they have decided to allow this extension. The legal agreements will be signed indicating faith in the process. Cllr. Lumsden expressed concern about Tesco stepping back from their previous position and commitment to continuity. There have been suggestions about a temporary ice rink site, not in the centre of Streatham and possibly not even in Lambeth, and the Council should rule this out. He was also concerned that the officers have cancelled a series of meetings, including a user meeting at Brixton Rec. TfL should not be allowed to delay the project. If the delay was agreed there must be better communication with councillors, users and local people. Cllr. McGlone replied that the Council was standing by its current position. TfL are a public body and the difficulties will be overcome, but they cannot just be ignored. Bridged Hall (User rep for the existing Leisure Centre) spoke eloquently about what is happening at the existing leisure centre. The existing management contract runs out at the end of March but the new contract has not been announced. Many staff are leaving because they do not know what is happening. The pool is dirty and all attempts by the users to get information are being ignored. She asked how it was possible that at this late stage Lambeth did not know what was happening about the contract and were letting the centre die. Cllr. McGlone replied that he was not responsible for the leisure contract (it comes under Councillor Lib Peck, Cabinet member for Environment). However he said the Council did know, but were not allowed to announce the decision because of a "purdah" period that will end soon. There were pleas from the floor for urgent communication with the users. Cllr. Mark Bennett said that Cllr. Peck would be writing on Friday. Nicky Hale (Chair of the Stakeholders Group) asked what has changed, since all the complexities mentioned by Cllr. McGlone were already known. For example, the issue of the rink over the pool had been investigated and resolved by specialist structural engineers. This question was not answered. Saki Hajnal (Secretary of SISAG) asked Cllr. McGlone to confirm that the clauses in the Section 106 agreement about continuity had not been changed. They specify keeping the existing rink open, and should not be altered behind the scenes into some weaker definition of "continuity" using a temporary rink. Cllr McGlone would not give an explicit commitment about the text, but repeated that "the Council is holding to its position". Trevor Hutton (Skaters for the Hub) was angry that so little was done earlier to resolve all the issues. He was concerned about the deteriorating state of the existing rink due to lack of investment over such a long period. Cllr. Clarke asked how much money the Council is liable for due to the 9 months delay. Cllr. McGlone replied that Tesco have disclosed their additional costs which are considerable, but the Council is only liable for a very small part. Cllr. Clive Bennett said that Tesco are calling the shots and the Council needs to get its act together. The local community needs to be active and involved. Cllr. Heather said that we had been told previously that the exercise to establish the costs had reached the stage of a shortlist of two suppliers, and would be completed before the legal agreements could be signed, but now this order of events seemd to have been reversed. Cllr. Lumsden summarised the many questions that had been raised. Cllr Palmer (Chair) said that these questions must be pursued with officers. The following resolution was passed.
The official minutes of the meeting are at SAC minutes March 2007 . A written response to the above resolution was subsequently sent to Councillors and is at SAC Officer response March 2007 Back to Top of Page Fatal shooting incident 4th Feb 2007At about 11pm on Saturday 4th February there was a tragic shooting incident at the rink, during the evening disco session. The report on the BBC news website is http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6329569.stm The rink was closed for a few days but re-opened on Wednesday 7th February and is now open as normal. Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to pass it to the Safer Neighbourhoods team via the SNT e-mail address Stleonards.snt@met.police.uk anonymously via the Crimestoppers line (0800 555 111) or by ringing the SNT at 020 8721 2621. A public meeting was held in Streatham following the shooting, to give the local community the chance to express their concerns to the Safer Lambeth Partnership. Among those attending were Councillor Mark Bennett, Lambeth Council’s Cabinet member for community safety, a representative from Lambeth Police and Streatham MP Keith Hill. Councillor Mark Bennett announced that Lambeth Council would be carrying out a review of safety arrangements at the ice rink in the context of the entertainment licence. The South London Press on 16th February reported "Councillors are to review the entertainment licence at Streatham Ice Arena after the tragic shooting. Police have requested Lambeth council's licensing sub-committee reviews the licence ... The sub-committee is expected to meet to review the licence next month." SISAG spoke to Councillor Bennett before the Streatham Area Committee meeting on 7th March and he said that the SLP report was incorrect. The review did not need to go to the licensing sub-committee. The licence has already been reviewed internally and nothing further needs to happen. An article on the effect of the shooting on skater numbers on Friday and Saturday nights was published in the Streatham Guardian and can be found here . Back to Top of Page Hub update at SAC meeting 17th Jan 2007A short report on "Streatham Ice and Leisure Centre Funding and Construction" was presented to the Streatham Area Committee meeting on Wednesday 17th January 2007. The report is available at SAC update Jan 2007, the minutes are at SAC minutes Jan 2007 or to find all the papers for the meeting go to http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/Services/CouncilDemocracy/ Follow the link to 'Calendar of meetings' on the rhs, then scroll to 17th January for the Streatham Area Committee and click on the link. Back to Top of Page Streatham skaters at British and European Championships Jan 2007The British Championships this year were moved to January. Streatham ice dancers Phillipa Towler-Green and Phillip Poole won the silver medal for the second time, earning their place to compete in the European Championships in Warsaw, Poland 22nd - 27th January 2007. Back to Top of Page Hub update at SAC meeting 29th Nov 2006At the Streatham Area Committee meeting on Wednesday 29th November 2006, David Lawrence, who is leading the project on behalf of Lambeth council, presented an update on the Hub project. By the time of this meeting, he had expected to report that Lambeth and Tesco had exchanged the legal documents, and present a video presentation of the leisure centre design. However, things have not moved as anticipated. A final check of all Lambeth, Tesco and TfL's legal documents revealed conflicts within the documentation when put together that would have meant the facilities couldn't be built, along with other problems such as losing 45 car parking places. They are now almost at the stage of having removed all the conflicts. There has been a process within the council to ensure that the changes that have been made cause no increased risk to the council. There has been a process within the planning team to deal with the conditions and changes necessitated by developing things like the refuse strategy and the emergency strategy. Meanwhile the procurement programme for the construction is running to time. Two contractors have been selected from an original list of five. Both are well known in the UK, and one internationally. They are competing over the pricing for the opening phase. Whoever wins that will be appointed for the whole scheme. The leisure contractor is being selected by Lambeth in a separate procurement process covering the leisure contract for the whole borough. In the course of a presentation of the design to the bidding leisure contractors more was learned about the management of the building, which has resulted in some changes to the design. There will be a video presentation of this at the next SAC meeting (17th January 2007). They now expect to exchange documents during December. The scheme will go to the Tesco board in January. They will set the prices for the leisure centre development in March 2007. In response to questions, David Lawrence gave the following further information: Q: Is the start date for construction still the same? A: Yes, the overall timetable for the development is still as presented at the last meeting, with construction due to start in June 2007 Q: What has happened in the dispute about the small strip of land in front of the leisure centre? A: It is still being resolved. TfL have still not signed. Q: Given that there is performance/community space as well as the ice rink and pool, will there be enough parking for events? A: Parking will be managed by scheduling large events so they do not clash with peak shopping hours or with each other. Q: What is happening about the closure of the existing leisure centre? A: Tesco will put a health and fitness facility on site for the build period, using stacked portakabins. They have got further with St Joseph's and other swimming providers, but swimming provision is still the main problem. Q: Will the ceiling of the swimming pool be retained? A: Yes the glass panels will be a feature of the new building. Q: Is the first phase still the construction of the bus terminal? A: Yes, but there has been a change. TfL had specified that once the bus stand was there they must have "unbridled use" of it. The original schedule would have meant the developers coming back after two years and closing it whilst building the end of the Tesco store and residential units. Now the first stage includes the bus terminal, the end wall of the store and residential with a stabilising structure to hold it up until the rest is built later, and the back of the leisure centre (up to where the buses are now). The official minutes of the meeting should be available on the Lambeth website next week. Back to Top of Page Hub update at SAC meeting 27th Sept 2006At the Streatham Area Committee meeting on 27th September 2006, David Lawrence (Consultant, Lambeth Environment & Cultural Services) presented an update on the Leisure Centre project. There have had to be negotiations with TfL, Network Rail and Thames Water on a variety of legal issues. The issue with TfL concerns a 3 foot strip of land that has been the subject of ownership and boundary changes. The issue with Network Tail concerns a piece of land owned by Network Rail that had rights of access. This is now close to solution. The issue with Thames Water concerns the main sewer for south London, which runs under the site and will be changed to a double sewer to make future maintenance work possible. All these legal issues have resulted in a four month delay to the project timetable. The good news is that the Section 106 and Development agreements have now been signed off by executive officers, and Lambeth were hoping to exchange the documents with Tesco on Friday 29th September. In the meantime there has been a great deal of work on the internal plans of the leisure centre. The latest version was presented to the meeting. They are much improved since the initial ones done for the planning consent. The basement floor now has a full size (4 court) sports hall. On the lower ground floor the training pool has a moveable floor and there is seating alongside the main pool. On the entrance level there is a shop and bar/cafe, a creche and communty rooms as well as the health and fitness suite. There are views into the swimming pool and sports hall (although the glass can be made opaque if privacy is required). On the ice rink floor there is zone for a cafe and rooms for coaches, staff etc, plus skate hire and a small amount of rinkside seating. There is a lift platform to get the zamboni in and out of the building. On the upper floor, apart from the 1000 seats, there is a community room and lounge bar with a possible location for sponsors boxes overlooking the ice. There has been a lot of work on circulation routes and escape routes. The presentation also covered some more technical areas such as insulation between the rink and pool, and controls over noise and disturbance escaping the building. Lambeth are looking to find ways of mitigating the impact of the closure of the existing pool and leisure centre. They might be able to put an interim health and fitness facility nearby. They have had an offer from St Joseph's School to accommodate some of the swimming activities. They are also looking at alternative venues, e.g. for the disabled swimming, and will make every effort to provide transport where needed. There have also been meetings about local people getting the jobs created by the scheme. In the session for questions Saki Hajnal (SISAG) said that it was a long time since any plans had been in the public domain, and there would a lot of interest in the greatly improved ones presented at the meeting, and asked if they could be made available online and displayed in the current rink and leisure centre buildings. DL said these plans had only been received on the Monday, but if they proved fairly firm the proposition was sound. We will continue to push for wider availability. Councillor Geiss asked how the changes would affect the planning consent. DL said that case law has changed in the interim, and there will be a formal process to agree the changes. The timetable for this was due to be defined at Friday's meeting. Councillor Lumsden asked about the rough timetable. DL said that after the exchange of documents, the design would be finished to allow the construction to be priced. The price should be agreed in March 2007, with contracts signed in May and construction to begin in June 2007. At that time the rest of the timetable becomes more fixed. It can be affected by the contractor deciding how to build the structures. David Crisp (Natal Road Residents) expressed concern about the height of the building, and the innovative nature of the design. DL said it was the same height as the top of the ridges of the existing bus garage. It has not increased in height since planning consent, and in fact the roof profile has been softened at the sides to reduce the impact. With respect to innovation, the design has been reviewed by international construction engineers and the council's insurers, and there is no reason by it can't be built and have a long life. Residents also said that the recent drilling of pilot holes at the back of the site had begun without warning and caused disturbance, with Tesco "getting off on the wrong foot" at the start of a long process. DL said the council had licensed the drilling by the pool which was away from residents but they had no legal control over land that doesn't belong to the council. Nonetheless they can talk to Tesco about being more considerate. Robert Overall said they would table these concerns formally with Tesco at Friday's meeting. The minutes of the meeting are available at SAC minutes Sept 2006 Back to Top of Page Leisure centre funding and construction at Lambeth Cabinet meeting 17th July 2006Leisure Centre funding and construction was discussed at the Lambeth Cabinet meeting on 17th July 1006. To find the papers for the meeting go to http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/Services/CouncilDemocracy/ Follow the link to 'Meetings and Events' on the rhs, then scroll to 17th July for the Cabinet and click on the link. Apart from the agenda, there are the following documents
The report is also available at Cabinet report July 2006 It mostly covers similar ground to the previous reports to the Planning Application Committee and the Streatham Area committee, about the switch to using Tesco as the sole contractor. However, there is a significant new point in the area of financial implications. The summary says
The recommendations in the report mention closing the funding gap through "obtaining additional third party funding, reducing the project scope or other similar action as appropriate". Saki Hajnal spoke at the meeting on behalf of SISAG, and made the following two points: 1. The way the recommendations in the report are worded, it appears the Executive Directors of Finance and Environment and Culture only have to report back to the Cabinet if they cannot bridge the funding gap. They could bridge it by reducing the project scope, without any obligation for consultation or submitting proposals to a public forum such as the Cabinet or PAC. The original planning report specified the planned facilities in the leisure centre (including the size of the ice pad) and there have been many meetings during the process based on these. Any reduction in the facilities would be a major issue that needs to be subject to scrutiny. 2. The issue of continuity of ice skating provision was the subject of a long campaign and became a central plank of the Council’s approach. With the change of procurement route, Tesco’s obligation to keep the existing ice rink open ends with “practical completion”, and it will be up to the leisure operator to do the final fittings of signage and equipment.The Development Agreement obliges Tesco to allow access for this during the Commissioning Phase. Understandably, it does not oblige the Council to make use of this. Therefore continuity of provision depends not just on this agreement with Tesco, but also on the other part of the process leading to the leisure contract. This was the subject of an extensive discussion at the PAC on 30th May, and the chair of the PAC subsequently wrote to Cabinet about it. Please could the Cabinet make an explicit public commitment to ensure the leisure contractor is ready at the appropriate time to do the fitting and everything else (such as staffing) required to open the centre. Even a short delay at this stage could result in loss of continuity of provision, since there is no reason to expect Tesco to keep the existing rink open any longer than they have to. Two Streatham councillors also spoke on similar themes. Councillor Geiss asked the Cabinet to remove the words "reduce the project scope" from the recommendations. Councillor Palmer asked for the Cabinet's full commitment to continuity of ice provision, as already requested by the PAC and the SAC. There seemed to be nods of agreement to both points around the Cabinet table, and nobody said anything against them. Councillor Lib Peck (Executive Director for Environment and Culture) said that she was willing to make a statement on continuity. However, when it came to the resolutions at the end, the only change that was definitely made was to add a 4th recommendation that the finalised development agreement (this was just the draft) should come to Executive Director level and not be delegated to officers. Despite the apparently sympathetic stance of the Cabinet in the discussion, it was not clear that the actual wording about reducing the project scope was changed. The lack of clarity may have been because things were rather rushed, since by that time the meeting was running very late. Saki had a discussion with some of the councillors afterwards (not the ones in the Cabinet, because the meeting was still going on). We are going to wait to see exactly what appears in the minutes, and if necessary pursue the matter further through the Scrutiny Committee. On a more reassuring note, we did not get the impression that any attempt to reduce the project scope is at all likely. The draft development agreement allows either side to walk away from the project under certain circumstances, but not to change the scope. Also, there would also be implications for the planning consent which was on the basis of the specified facilities. Nonetheless, we should try to get this stated explicitly. Back to Top of Page Hub update at SAC meeting 28th June 2006The Streatham Hub was discussed at the Streatham Area Committee meeting on Wednesday 28th June. To find the papers for the meeting go to http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/Services/CouncilDemocracy/ Follow the link to 'Meetings and Events' on the rhs, then scroll to 28th June for the Streatham Area Committee and click on the link. The relevant documents are
The report is also available at SAC update June 2006 The whole report (9 pages) is well worth reading, but for convenience I reproduce the indicative timetable here
Back to Top of Page Section 106 agreement at PAC meeting 30th May 2006The Streatham Hub Section 106 agreement is on the agenda for the Planning Applications Committee meeting next Tuesday 30th May. To find the agenda and papers for the meeting go to http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/Services/CouncilDemocracy/ Follow the link to 'Meetings and Events' on the rhs, then scroll to 30th May for the Planning Applications Committee and click on the link. In the associated documents for the meeting the report is the link marked 'Report front page' The previous draft S106 was agreed by the PAC in August 2004. The reasons for revising it are stated in paragraph 1.3 of the report, as follows.
While there is nothing wrong in principle with changing the procurement route to make the scheme viable, we needed to be sure that the continuity of ice rink provision is still protected. A submission detailing the concerns is here SISAG Submission to PAC 30th May 2006 This was registered as an objection in a document from the planning department tabled at the meeting. Saki Hajnal spoke at the meeting on behalf of SISAG, and there was lengthy discussion of the continuity commitment at the meeting. It turns out that the situation is better than it looked from the original report. The revised definition of completion does still include getting the Leisure Centre to "a state suitable for use by the public", including fitting out of everything _except_ "signage and moveable furniture and equipment". For example, it includes getting the ice and swimming pool working to a pre-agreed performance specification and putting in everything that is fixed or bolted down (like seating). There will a 3 month period at the end of the construction during which the operator will be able to get in and put in the signage and moveable furniture and equipment. Advice from the environment and culture department says 2 months would be sufficient. The access during that 3 months period will be specified in the Development Agreement (which will be another legally binding document signed at the same time as the Section 106). Getting the work done and the leisure centre actually opened will be the responsibility of the Council, but the time to do it is allowed for before the trigger point which will allow Tesco to close the existing rink. There was extensive and constructive discussion of this issue at the meeting. In the end the committee passed a motion recognising that continuity of provision is essential, and that in addition to the Section 106 and the Development Agreement, there needs to be a commitment from the Council Cabinet to take all steps necessary to get their bit done and the centre open within that 3 month period. We got as far as we could within the remit of the PAC and understanding Tesco's obligations. Following the meeting, the committee sent a letter to the Lambeth Cabinet, urging them to "ensure that the project was progressed and that continuity of ice skating provision in Streatham was guaranteed, by the Council taking the necessary steps to ensure that the leisure contract is in place and the contractor is ready to complete the fit out within the two months available." The full letter can be viewed here PAC letter to Cabinet May 2006 Back to Top of Page Streatham Ice Rink celebrates 75th birthday26th February 2006 was the 75th anniversary of the original opening of the rink on 26th February 1931. There was a celebration at the rink. Some pictures are shown here Back to Top of Page For older news see Campaign News - Archive Y |