“NO ENGAGEMENT YET AGAIN” SAY GREEN PARTY (GLA sports centre plans slammed – part seven)
THE GLA has – again – dropped a bomb on the Crystal Palace area with its plans for the National Sports Centre – and without ANY prior engagement with local groups, say Crystal Palace Greens.
Local groups such as the community stakeholder and heritage groups for the park could have helped them develop much more workable plans, they argue.
Instead the Greens say there is a “bungled consultation on the latest ill-conceived plans for Crystal Palace park”, part of a number of “disjointed projects” the GLA is pushing in the area.
Crystal Palace Greens are among a range of groups – and Bromley council leader Cllr Stephen Carr – who have savaged the GLA proposals to build a primary school and Capel Manor College next to the sports stadium in Crystal Palace park. The Greens say:
“Boris Johnson and the GLA love a big, grand project that they can dump on a local community with bold and exciting promises like ‘a new Crystal Palace!’
“Jolly old Boris claimed these proposals for the National Sports Centre would be ‘an exciting opportunity to reclaim one of London’s greatest sporting assets to benefit the local community and beyond’.
“Well here’s a radical idea: why not let the local community (and the sports community) decide what we want?
“Stop developing these projects in secret, withholding details of briefs given to consultants or their reports, and then being surprised when there is uproar about inadequate consultations.
“Instead, get behind the proposals for a Neighbourhood Forum for Crystal Palace, and work with the many constructive and positive people in the local area to develop and implement a coherent vision for the NSC, the park, and the wider area.
“If you bring everything in the park together with brilliant people like the Crystal Palace Overground Festival team, we can develop a sustainable business plan for the whole park.”
In a statement on their website Green party members in Crystal Palace also say:
the proposals differ from the adopted Masterplan, which was the result of years of consultation and dialogue to come up with plans that most people could support
while new school places in the area are definitely needed, the middle of the park is a daft and inappropriate place to put one
details like a new road from Crystal Palace Park Road will further cut the park up
the sports facilities are well used, the GLA’s methodology for assessing its use was fatally flawed, and the GLA needs to work with the Crystal Palace Sports Partnership to ensure the Olympic Legacy in London isn’t trashed
these proposals are one of a number of disjointed, incoherent plans for the park and they need to – as their consultants say – join the dots!
“When the proposals were first published for consultation, many people thought ‘Great! ‘They’re going to get rid of that walkway’ or ‘Finally! More school places.’
“But as we all studied the maps and read between the lines, and were denied access to much of the information the GLA used to arrive at their ideas, and as the athletes and other sporty types who actually use the NSC and its facilities got stuck in, the folly of these plans became clear.”
The Greens add that because their response was on behalf of all Green party members in the area, they didn’t respond on some of the more subjective issues like whether or not to demolish the raised walkway.
