As of 26 July 2010 - HOOC wins the day! [1]
Next Event: Celebration Picnic - Streatham Common, Saturday, 31 July 2010
What is the Hands Off Our Common (HOOC) campaign all about you ask?
Well, Tesco [2], who own the Streatham Ice Arena [3], want to build a huge superstore in the south of Streatham, along the High Road. The council [4] got them to promise to provide 'continuity of ice skating provision' for the community (keeping the old rink open till the new one was built) as a condition of granting planning permission. The agreement was that Tesco would build the new ice rink and leisure centre first, then build their superstore, after the community amenities were actually built and opened.
To help their negotiations it turns out that Tesco threatened to walk away (Dec 2009) and close the ice rink if the council wouldn't let them save a bit of money by knocking all the buildings down (including the old ice rink) at once, and building the entire development in one go. To do this required building a temporary ice rink [5]. The council agreed to this, and approved the building of the temporary ice rink on Streatham Common [6]
HOOC thinks this is fundamentally wrong. Why?
- If it happens it will establish a precedent for the council to use our Streatham Common to build things they can't put elsewhere regardless of what the community think about it and there is a danger that it won't be 'temporary'!.
- Streatham Common is Metropolitan Common Land, protected by Act of Parliament, and has been open land, free for the use of the residents of Streatham for over 1000 years! It has been officially closed for "other use" only once in modern and medieval history, and that was to house officers and provide allotments for Dig-for-Victory during World War II.
In spite of all the above, because of the demands by a large developer, and because it's own promise to the residents of Streatham to provide continuous ice skating is threatened by that developer, the council has chosen to designate the our Streatham Common to be the site of a 'temporary' ice rink. HOOC vehemently opposes this and are organising to prevent it happening.
HOOC's Goal:
HOOC wants Streatham to get the Ice Rink it has been promised, but on a suitable site and NOT on our Streatham Common.
The goal of the Hands Off Our Common campaign is to:
- To raise awareness of the plans by the council to allow the building of a huge industrial-scale 'temporary' Ice Rink on our Streatham Common and to help people understand the problems that this will cause.
- To stop the building of the Ice Rink, or any other 'temporary' facility of any kind on our Streatham Common, and prevent a precedent being set.
- To tell people about the the loss of invaluable, freely available, Green Space to the people of Streatham and beyond.
- To demand that Lambeth Council and Tesco urgently find a suitable, and preferably brownfield site (previously built on), for the promised Ice Rink until such time as the new Leisure Centre is built.
Please join HOOC in demanding that this madness stop. To the left is a list of things you can do now, today, to help. Together HOOC will do all it can to save our Streatham Common.
Thank you.
