Liberal Democrat councillors in Waltham Forest have moved to defend their decision to oppose plans by Labour members to use millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to fund the redevelopment of the Arcade site in Walthamstow.
The Lib Dems have hit back after Cllr Terry Wheeler, as Portfolio Holder for Enterprise and investment, criticised the Lib Dems position — and the comments of national Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg — in a letter to last week’s local Waltham Forest Guardian.
Nick Clegg warned that the Council should not rush into an unsuitable development of the site and backed local Lib Dems call for the derelict site to be given a temporary usage before any final development begins.
Now local Lib Dem leader Cllr John Macklin has backed Clegg’s comments and defended his group’s opposition to the plans:
Cllr Macklin said:
“Large scale projects cannot be simply be hurriedly imposed onto people. They depend on openness and accountability at all stages. Repeatedly lecturing those who have expressed their concern at the plans and claiming to act for the ‘silent majority’ probably isn’t the way to go about achieving this.
“If Cllr Wheeler isn’t careful these proposals will be seen as yet another attempt to suddenly rush into regeneration commitments in Walthamstow in the run-up to a local election.
“We won’t be bullied into making poorly thought out decisions just so he can have cranes on the Arcade site for next May.
“We have taken a fair amount of flak from Cllr Wheeler and his supporters over our opposition to his Arcade plan, and he has not been slow to dismiss the concerns of anyone who has warned that his proposals need much greater consideration, including the Council’s own Scrutiny Panel.
“The Lib Dems took the decision to vote against Cllr Wheeler and Labour in Cabinet for the simple reason that the plans were poorly set out, have huge knock-on effects for other areas of Walthamstow and do not as yet provide anywhere near enough justification for risking so much public money. We continue to stand by our decision.”