Lib Dem Pressure Pays Off Over Temporary Arcade Use

Part of the former Arcade site in Walthamstow is to be prepared for temporary use after pressure from local Liberal Democrat councillors and party leader Nick Clegg.

The announcement was made in an email to High Street Lib Dem councillors from the new Leader of the Council, Chris Robbins, and will add to confusion over the future of Labour portfolio holder Terry Wheeler’s controversial plans to use £35 million of taxpayers money to fund the long-awaited regeneration of the area. The Liberal Democrats voted against the proposals in a recent Cabinet meeting.

The email from Cllr Robbins claims that an area of the disused site will be cleared and levelled in preparation for the change of usage, with work beginning on 1st June. However the next report to Cabinet on the public funding of the Arcade regeneration is not expected until later in June.
It is not known how much involvement Cllr Terry Wheeler, who criticised Clegg’s comments on the Arcade site, has had in the Council Leader’s decision to now accept the Liberal Democrat proposals over temporary usage of the site.

Lib Dem leader Cllr John Macklin said:

“Although this change of heart over temporary usage of the Arcade site obviously comes a little late, it is certainly to be welcomed. It is unclear how much input the portfolio holder has had in this decision, so it remains to be seen how it will impact on Cllr Wheeler’s plans for the funding of the Arcade site regeneration project.”

The decision to commit to temporary use of the site comes after pressure from Liberal Democrat councillors.

Last December Cllrs James O’Rourke and Johar Khan succeeded in amending a Council motion to include a commitment to examine useful ways in which the Arcade site land could be utilised in the short-term before the period of redevelopment begins. On a recent visit to Walthamstow Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg gave his support to these proposals, telling the Waltham Forest Guardian that “the best thing would be to find some communal use for that space on a temporary basis so that a proper sustainable solution can be reached.”

Local ward councillor James O’Rourke said:

“The motion we successfully amended and the pressure we have kept up on this issue has clearly been the catalyst for this decision.

“Myself and Cllr Khan have been informed that decisions have not yet been taken on temporary usage, so this gives local residents plenty of opportunity to make sure they tell us what you think the land could be used for.”

Lib Dems Reaffirm Opposition to Taxpayer Arcade Gamble

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.”

What the Papers Say…

This week’s local Yellow Advertiser features a report on the Waltham Forest Liberal Democrats attempts to support local residents groups and businesses plans to reopen local Post Office branch closed under Labour’s national closure programme. Local people, along with those Waltham Forest businesses hit by the knock-on effects of the closures, want to know what the Council can do to back their efforts to see the Post Offices saved.

Read more about our plans to help here.

The paper also photos and reports of Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg’s recent visit to Walthamstow Market, where he spoke to stallholders and local businesses about how they the UK’s economic crisis has affected them.

Click here to see what Nick had to say.

Clegg Speaks Out on Arcade Site

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg has used a visit to Waltham Forest to give his backing to Lib Dem proposals for the vacant Walthamstow Arcade site.

The national Lib Dem Leader, who was in Walthamstow to lend his support to Farid Ahmed, the parliamentary candidate for the constituency and local European Parliament candidate Jonathan Fryer, took time to speak to the local Waltham Forest Guardian about the need for greater transparency on the Arcade development and the need to find some temporary communal use for the derelict site.

Head over to the Guardian website to read all the details of Nick’s interview on the Arcade site.

After speaking to members of the local press, the Lib Dem leader headed to Walthamstow to speak to stallholders, before addressing business leaders on the effects of the recession and the need for greater support for small businesses.

Arcade speech now online

Cllr James O’Rourke last night led the Waltham Forest Liberal Democrats successful attempt to get councillors to express their concern at the ongoing delays in the Arcade development in his ward with a speech which highlighted the realities of the current condition of the site.

You can now read Cllr O’Rourke’s speech in our new ‘Speeches’ page, either by following the link or by clicking on Speeches in the left-hand toolbar.

Scroll down to read Cllr O’Rourke’s Arcade speech, or take your time and have a look at what else we have contributed to other Council debates over the past year.

Lib Dems hit out at Arcade site delays

Local Liberal Democrat councillors have used a major meeting of Waltham Forest Council to place on record their concern at the ongoing delays in the redevelopment of the Aracde site in Walthamstow.

During a debate at the latest Full Council meeting in Waltham Forest Town Hall, the Lib Dems asked fellow councillors to publically express their dissatisfaction that the project continues to take so long to complete.

Liberal Democrat members also asked opposition councillors to agree to look at ways in which the land left vacant at the Arcade site can be usefully used prior to work on the redvelopment getting underway.

The Liberal Democrat proposals were accepted unanimously after Labour councillors withdrew a planned amendment congratulating portfolio holder Terry Wheeler for the work he has led so far on the vacant site.

High Street councillors James O’Rourke and Johar Khan led for the Liberal Democrats during the debate, and both were quick to raise residents concerns regarding what Cllr O’Rourke described as the redevelopments “moving goalposts”

Cllr O’Rourke said:

“If we try to explain to residents that a possibly unprecedented economic downturn, a local collapse in property prices and a growing recession are not going to have an effect on planned large scale redevelopment projects, I think that residents would question our grip on reality.

And I can tell members about the reality in Walthamstow and in my ward, High St.

The reality is a huge, ugly expanse of fenced-in, derelict, unused scrubland at the heart of Walthamstow – bordering our High St, our main shopping precinct and the borough’s busiest transport terminus.

That is a reality that is simply not good enough for residents”.

Liberal Democrat leader John Macklin’s calls for reassurances regarding the development have recently featured in the local press. Concerns about the viability of the development have been heightened by the news that Waltham Forest has suffered one of the worst property price crashes in London.

Cllr Macklin said:

“The collapse in property prices is bound to have an effect on regeneration projects in the borough and I will be looking for clarification from the relevant portfolio holders regarding the timetables for work on these projects, “

“As I have said before a series of unused ‘land banks’ across the borough awaiting generation is just not acceptable.”

As always, High St councillor James O’Rourke’s excellent blog has more news and opinion on the progress of the Arcade site development.

Concerns continue over local property price crash

The Waltham Forest Liberal Democrats recently revealed their concerns that the property price crash could have a major effect on redevelopment projects in the borough – and now it seems as if those concerns are being shared by others in the borough.

In the same week as the London Evening Standard bought to wider attention the severity of the problems in Waltham Forest, the local Yellow Advertiser featured Liberal Democrat leader John Macklin in a feature on the local property crash.

The Evening Standard confirmed that Waltham Forest suffered the largest year-on-year fall in London property prices . The local Lib Dem team recently revealed that there had been a 9.2% fall in local prices, sparking concern about building projects in the borough.

Cllr Macklin told the Yellow Advertiser:

“The collapse in property prices is bound to have an effect on regeneration in the borough, and I will be looking for clarification from the relevant portfolio holders regarding the timetables for work on these projects.

“The Government has allowed house prices and irresponsible mortgage lending to rocket almost unchecked and this completely irresponsible approach is now resulting in dire consequences for residents.”

Waltham Forest worst hit in London as housing crash begins to bite

Liberal Democrats in Waltham Forest have reacted with concern to new figures which reveal that Waltham Forest has suffered the biggest “negative change” in property prices of any London borough.

And Lib Dem Council Group Leader John Macklin is asking for reassurances that the collapse in property values will not further delay long-awaited redevelopment schemes across the borough.

The news comes after Lib Dem councillors warned earlier this year that Walthamstow homeowners faced an “above average” risk of suffering from negative equity.

The new figures, published in HotProperty magazine, show that Waltham Forest has suffered heavily from the collapse in property prices in comparison with other London boroughs. The latest Land Registry figures show that the average property price in the borough is down 9.4% in the last year, with a huge 5% fall being suffered in the last quarter. The rapid collapse means many local homeowners are now at risk from negative equity.

Local Lib Dems sounded a warning over the heightened risk of negative equity for local property owners back in March after figures released by credit rating agency Experian predicted that Walthamstow residents could be amongst the worst sufferers of the economic downturn, with those who had bought property within the last 12 months expected to be the worst hit.

At the time, local Liberal Democrat leader and Walthamstow councillor John Macklin urged government intervention to prevent mass repossessions, which, he said, would only worsen the housing crash.

Now this week he has expressed his concern about the effect that the crash in property prices will have on building projects within the borough.

Cllr Macklin said:

“The collapse in property prices is bound to have an effect on regeneration projects in the borough, and I will be looking for clarification from the relevant portfolio holders regarding the timetables for work on these projects.

“As I have said before, a series of unused ‘land banks’ across the borough awaiting regeneration is just not acceptable”.

Fellow Walthamstow councillor and deputy Lib Dem leader Cllr Johar Khan has spoken out about the situation in Waltham Forest, noting that the collapse in house prices would “cause misery for those who could end up owing more on their mortgages than their property will be worth.”

Cllr Khan continued:

“Waltham Forest looks like it will be hit particularly hard by this recession and the collapse in house prices. Sadly, the anguish this will cause local homeowners has been all too easy to predict.

“The government has allowed house prices and irresponsible mortgage lending to rocket alomost unchecked, and this competely irresponsbile approach is now resulting in dire consequences for residents.

Local Liberal Democrats Want Arcade Site Progress

Liberal Democrats in Waltham Forest are seeking reassurances from the council regarding progress on the long awaited Walthamstow Arcade site development.

Walthamstow councillor John Macklin, leader of the Liberal Democrats on Waltham Forest Council, stressed that the Arcade development “must fit in with the local area”.

He is also urging local traders to get involved in ensuring that the development will “compliment and not damage existing Town Centre businesses” whilst acknowledging residents concerns over the residential building that will form a centrepiece of the development.

Cllr Macklin said:

“Whilst I accept the need for the development to be high density, this doesn’t mean that it has to be exclusively achieved through height. I have been meeting with campaigners to make it clear that the Liberal Democrats want a landmark building that will be a source of pride for residents and a focal point for a properly regenerated town centre.

“We also echo the views of the many people, in particular our younger residents, who are desperate to see a cinema return to the borough.

“However, I am acutely aware that regeneration projects, if not handled properly, can be detrimental to existing businesses.

“Regeneration is not just about big new buildings. It should also be about enabling local people and businesses.”

“I absolutely do not want to see any new facilities simply competing for existing trade with our current shops and market traders. They must compliment each other if the development is to be a success.

Cllr Macklin is encouraging local businesses and traders to get involved in making sure that the Town Centre is compatible with the new facilities that will arrive as part of the development.

“We want to see local traders and businesses taking the lead in ensuring that a regenerated town centre is mutually beneficial to both new and existing businesses.

“We need imaginative ideas from business leaders to ensure that the market, as part of a modern Walthamstow Town Centre, can provide an attractive product that shoppers will want to use.

“This could be achieved, for example, through the establishment of a Business Improvement District or a more prominent role for the Market Traders Association.

“The Liberal Democrats will strongly support any such involvement from local businesses and make sure that their voice is heard in Council. The best way to ensure that local people are satisfied with the outcome of the regeneration project is to involve them every step of the way in the decision making process and communicate progress on the site to residents more effectively.”

Fellow Liberal Democrat councillors for High Street Ward, James O’Rourke and Johar Khan, added to Cllr Macklin’s calls by claiming that, as part of the regeneration project, the council needed to have deliverable plans to bring the EMD building back into use in a way that complimented the development and provided “a worthwhile community facility for residents that will bring them back to the High Street”.

“We want to see the council work with interested parties to bring the EMD into use as soon as the Arcade development has been accepted by the Mayor of London.”

The Lib Dems efforts in encouraging greater community involvement in decision-making is the latest part of plans to increase resident participation in the running of local facilities. Earlier this year the party called for Local Management Boards of service users to take over the running of local cultural facilities.