GET IN TOUCH
Get involved: send your photos, videos, news & views by texting WFNEWS to 80360 or email » »
WALTHAMSTOW: Arcade plan 'still viable' despite developer's losses
11:00am Tuesday 29th July 2008
A LEADING councillor has admitted the credit crunch may slow progress on the redevelopment of the Arcade site, but insists the scheme is still viable.
The council's enterprise cabinet member Terry Wheeler said the multi-million scheme, earmarked for the site on the corner of Hoe Street and High Street, is not in danger, despite developer St Modwen PLC announcing a pre-tax loss of £20m in just six months.
Cllr Wheeler said: "There is no question about the viability of the scheme, and we will try to keep as similar as possible to the original plans, although it will be modified to meet market conditions and some of the retailers may change.
"This may slow it down a bit."
Cllr Wheeler said St Modwen is committed to the scheme and is determined to complete it as soon as possible.
He said: "There is not a definite indication of when we are going to see a planning application, but we expect it be later this year, within six months."
Following the granting of planning permission the site would be sold to St Modwen.
Some have speculated that St Modwen's finanical problems may cause them to delay putting in an application.
But Cllr Wheeler said he believes the giant firm is robust enough to cope with the loss.
He said: "I am conscious people want to see something built on the site.
"And this is an exciting project, it is about getting the right balance because we want the job to be done quickly but to a high quality."
Early plans for the proposed complex include an 18-storey tower, a two-floor Primark, a cinema and homes.
A St Modwen spokesman told the Guardian the scheme was being reviewed, but the company is still working to submit the application as soon as possible.
Your Say Your Guardian
Stow Cat, Walthamstow says...
11:05am Mon 4 Aug 08
FanboyStow, Walthamstow says...
2:22pm Mon 4 Aug 08
I know that I should be above schadenfreude, but it's difficult to not be pleased that St Modwens are having a hard time, having blighted many a town with their ill-conceived get-rich-quick schemes. It's local people who have to deal with the long-term impact of such schemes, not temporary complicit council-folk and developers who make their money and run.
I am local, and I do want to see the site developed, but I really want to see this particular project fail. Then we can vote out the incompetents who have systematically failed to build so much as a sandcastle in the Arcade site money-pit.
Would it have been so hard to plant some grass and put some benches in the space in the interim, instead of six years of a building site blighting the High Street?
It's always been my belief that people who work in local government are either good people committed to public service, or talentless people promoted to the level of their own incompetence who wouldn't survive a day in the real world. Sadly Waltham Forest Council seem to have a quite a few of the latter.
LoveLloydPark, Walthamstow says...
2:32pm Mon 4 Aug 08
Who needs a multi-screen cinema when the EMD cinema -right next to the Arcade site - is just in need of a little TLC and could be reopened. Waltham Forest is one of the only boroughs in London without a cinema. The EMD would be a proper local cinema and very good for the community.
Oh - and tower blocks are ugly. Fight the height.
FanboyStow, Walthamstow says...
2:54pm Mon 4 Aug 08
I know that I should be above schadenfreude, but it's difficult to not be pleased that St Modwens are having a hard time, having blighted many a town with their ill-conceived get-rich-quick schemes. It's local people who have to deal with the long-term impact of such schemes, not temporary complicit council-folk and developers who make their money and run.
I am local, and I do want to see the site developed, but I really want to see this particular project fail. Then we can vote out the incompetents who have systematically failed to build so much as a sandcastle in the Arcade site money-pit.
Would it have been so hard to plant some grass and put some benches in the space in the interim, instead of six years of a building site blighting the High Street?
It's always been my belief that people who work in local government are either good people committed to public service, or talentless people promoted to the level of their own incompetence who wouldn't survive a day in the real world. Sadly Waltham Forest Council seem to have a quite a few of the latter.
Sigi from Walthamstow, Walthamstow Village says...
11:12am Tue 5 Aug 08
Remember last year?
Residents were asked in a public consultation exercise what they wanted on the Arcade site. Local people did NOT want an 18 storey tower block.
Therefore any planning permission process will meet with a lot of local residence, maybe even law suits, which in turn means more costs and more delays for St Mowden.
I suggest to create a beautiful "Garden of Memory" for the many civilians who died along the High Street in the Second World War.
This garden should be dedicated to the basics of democracy and freedom, which could be represented by sculptures.
There could also be sculptures representing some sins too:
greed, arrogance, mismanagement and ignorance spring to mind.
Your sayYour Guardian
Add your comment
Register for a FREE East London and West Essex Guardian Series account and you can have your say on today's news and sport by adding comments on articles we publish. The best comments may even get published in the paper.
Please register now or sign in below to continue.
Cllr Terry Wheeler admitted the Arcade plans may change to meet 'market conditions'
In this section
- EPPING FOREST: Bursaries on offer for talented youngsters
- EPPING: Men terrorise shopkeeper in raid
- WANSTEAD: Christmas begins early in Wanstead
- WANSTEAD: Man arrested in smuggling investigation
- WALTHAM FOREST: Council apologises for payment delay threat
- WALTHAMSTOW: Special needs child locked in bus for hours
- REDBRIDGE: £1.2m siezed during drugs raid
- HIGHAMS PARK: BNP link to sex slur election pamphlet
- HIGHAMS PARK: Lib Dem fury over sex slur leaflets
- WALTHAM FOREST: Christian group member 'should not be elected unopposed' to crime forum
Sponsored Links
Around the site
The House Directory
Q. I am looking for a small table that can be mounted on the wall and folds down when not in use.
Acting talent spit out Pinter classic
DRUNKENNESS seems to be the main driving force behind Harold Pinter’s classic 1974 play No Man’s Land.
Ricky’s ready to be the romantic hero
He may have made the successful transition from Slough to Hollywood, but you won't catch Ricky Gervais losing his head over fame and fortune. As he makes his first lead debut in Ghost Town, the British funnyman reveals why he plans to stay grounded.
The Players’ Choice will be the right one
Henry Hobson runs a successful bootmaker's shop in nineteenth-century Salford.
Fright night fun
questions@thehousedirectory.com HTML color chart Halloween falls in half term this year and it promises to be one of the biggest scarefests yet. JAMES MURPHY finds the best places to go
Picture this
Walthamstow’s photographic society, founded in 1894, isn’t just one of the oldest in the country, it’s also one of the most successful. Its free annual exhibition is on this week at St Mary's Welcome Centre in Walthamstow village: weekday evenings and all day Saturday 1 November.
E-editions
Local Information
Enter your postcode, town or place name
Technomist, Walthamstow says...
11:21pm Tue 29 Jul 08
As he is now admitting that the plan the public have been consulted about is not the one that will be reflected in the real planning application, can't he just admit that the whole process is flawed and they should start seeking the public's views from scratch?