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Title [Caledonian Park] visitor centre: must talks always be on their terms? [letter] Author Material Article External document Councillor Claudia Webbe’s assertion that she is “in discussions with the community around Caledonian Park about concerns they have raised about the council’s proposed visitor centre” could not be more misleading (We’re listening to your concerns as we work to improve our parks, October 14).
Cllr Webbe knows very well that the only reason the council has decided to speak to us is because the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) told them to. The HLF requires evidence of community support for the visitor centre before it provides nearly £3million in funding.
But until HLF stepped in, Cllr Webbe has ignored our concerns for nearly two years. And even now, despite promising otherwise, she is refusing to talk to us about our main concern, which is to relocate the visitor centre away from our homes.
Cllr Webbe wants her unwanted buildings to be within 15 metres of our nearest homes, despite clear evidence that they would be better sited at the main entrance to Cally Park in Market Road.
Cllr Webbe has a long record of showing contempt towards our community. Here are a few prime examples:
• We produced a 750-signature petition asking for an initial flawed consultation to be reopened. Cllr Webbe brushed it aside.
• A second public, council consultation revealed that 73 per cent of respondents opposed the visitor centre plans. Cllr Webbe paid no attention to it.
• A third council consultation revealed that 62 per cent opposed the visitor centre plans. But the outcome was deliberately corrupted by a secret, bogus, misleading petition submitted by Holloway councillor Paul Smith. Cllr Webbe shrugged off the opposition, and supported Cllr Smith’s subterfuge.
• We collected an 874-signature petition opposing the council’s planning application. Cllr Webbe turned a blind eye.
• Some 90 objections were submitted to the council’s planning application for the visitor centre. Cllr Webbe didn’t read a single one.
We can also list five occasions when council officials have admitted that their communication with us has been poor. Furthermore, before the intervention of HLF they have consistently taken no notice of our emails, press statements and letters. Only now, when HLF requires it, are they beside themselves to meet us. But, as ever, it is all on their terms and on their agenda. That’s not listening, that’s diktat.
We would be delighted to meet Cllr Webbe and her colleagues to discuss placing a visitor centre in Cally Park, but away from the north gate. Even now, despite being deceived, misinformed and condescended to, we will take part in meaningful talks.
MIKE POWER
Vice-chair, Clocktower Residents Group
I live next to Caledonian Park and, like Sharon Jobe, I was angry at the insensitive remarks by an unknown senior council official about returning the park “to its former glory” (They want to rip up flowers and shrubs to give us a white elephant, October 14). The park is already glorious, but it won’t be if faceless Town Hall bureaucrats have their way.
They want to place two public buildings just 15 metres from our homes, which will take something like a year to build. This means not only destruction of some lovely beds of flowers and shrubs, but also endless disruption and noise for us residents.
There’s hardly a single person in our community who wants these buildings on our doorstep. It is a tragedy that the council has refused to listen to our residents’ group’s proposals to relocate them to the south gate in Market Road.
Until the council listens to sense neither I nor my neighbours will have anything to do with this ill-conceived plan. I and many others have clearly stated that we will not volunteer or help in any way. In fact, most people will boycott the new centre if it is not relocated.
Already, the council has wasted nearly £350,000 on this project, and there’s more to go as it spends on yet more architects’ plans and a fourth consultation.
Council tax-payers face an ongoing bill of £90,000 a year for the next 20 years to pay for the upkeep of this unwanted and unloved visitor centre. I genuinely hope that the Heritage Lottery Fund, which the council hopes will stump up a couple of million pounds to underwrite its scheme, will say “no”. I hope it listens to the community, and knocks some sense into our Town Hall.
EILEEN CARNELL
Clock View Crescent, N7 Notes Islington Tribune filed at A-Z periodicals (Islington Local History Centre) Audio
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