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WALTHAMSTOW: Arcade site plan "an illusion"

2:55pm Monday 22nd December 2008 in


CONTROVERSIAL plans for the derelict Arcade site in Walthamstow have been “an illusion” for months, the council has admitted.

The site has been empty for nine years but earlier this year a controversial scheme was unveiled to build an 18-storey tower block, a multiplex cinema and a shopping centre by the end of next year.

However, the collapse of the housing market and a reported 69 per cent drop in developers St Modwen share price led to claims the scheme was no longer workable.

After months of insisting the scheme would go ahead “as originally envisaged”, Cllr Terry Wheeler, cabinet member for regeneration, was forced to admit the plans will now have to go back to the drawing board.

A leisure centre may now form the centrepiece of the new scheme.

At a meeting of full council last week, The Conservative group demanded to know how plans were progressing in the light of St Modwen’s “serious financial difficulties”.

As well as admitting the plans have been “an illusion” since the summer, Cllr Wheeler said there will have to be a wait of three to five years before retail can be introduced.

The site on the corner of Hoe Street and High Street, was described as a “blot”, a “carbuncle” and even compared to the Titanic by councillors from all three political parties.

Cllr Alan Siggers, who introduced the Tory motion, said: "We had a retail site in the arcade. It might not have been the best one in the world, but at least it was there. Now it does nothing apart from make us look foolish."

Cllr Wheeler responded: "We have to be very flexible in taking this project forward. Let's try and make the best of it.”

The empty site in a high profile part of Walthamstow town centre has been a long-running source of frustration for residents.

Previous schemes have failed and the future of the adjacent EMD cinema has remained unresolved.

Angry councillors said the site should have been sold off when the housing market was bouyant and many blamed Cllr Wheeler’s predecessor Simon Wright.

St Modwen’s development director, Nick Kay, admitted the current economic climate was making life difficult for developers, but said St Modwen was in a much stronger position than most.

“We are still very much on board with the regeneration of the arcade site. As a result, we will continue to evolve the scheme with our partners, Waltham Forest Council, which we hope might include a leisure centre that would be similar to one we have just completed at Edmonton Green and which was well received by the local community.”

Comments(27)

Walthamstow noob says...
3:36pm Mon 22 Dec 08

Perhaps the council could hire another magician to explain to us all how they kept this 'illusion' going?

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Technomist says...
4:16pm Mon 22 Dec 08

Sorry, but its no use the unnamed 'many' you quote trying to spin all the blame onto Simon Wright.

THIS YEAR we have been lied to. THIS YEAR the council was pretending that St Modwin were going to develop the site. They were taking active steps to deceive the public and their fellow councillors. In particular, as Walthamstow noob alludes, they were up to a fraud on the public and running a three card scam on Councillor James O'Rourke, who was being actively deceived when seeking information for his constituents. I well recall him being excluded from meetings when the truth would have been revealed and Loakes and Wheeler pretending the development was still on track.

Will councillors Loakes and Wheeler now resign from the council? No-one is ever going to believe a word they say again.

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AC1975 says...
4:35pm Mon 22 Dec 08

What a load of rubbish all this has been and will be. Someone needs to be made accountable for a) allowing businesses to disappear from the arcade and the loss in revenue for the last 9 or so years. b) for bulldozing something with no real forward thinking. c)having such a horrible mound as one of the main focal points whenever some discusses E17!

Anyway the arcade issue just demonstrates how ridiculous the whole local authority/councillor issue has become. There is little in way of retribution or punishment. Maybe if councillors are in some way financially responsible for such mistakes then there would be a real effort to get things done properly.
I laugh at suggestions that councillors should be paid a full salary - that should NEVER happen.
So the point is what is the next step?

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Touchwood says...
4:45pm Mon 22 Dec 08

I have personal experience of the deviousness of this Council. Don't expect any truthful explanation of this fiasco from 'Loakes and his Jokes'. Someone in the Town Hall is playing the violin!!

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Walthamster says...
4:47pm Mon 22 Dec 08

AC1975, Waltham Forest's 60 counclllors are all paid a minimum of £10,000 a year. The 29 of them who are on committees etc all get at least £26,000 a year. That sounds like full-time pay to me. Clyde Loakes is out in front on £50,000 a year.


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AC1975 says...
4:55pm Mon 22 Dec 08

Whilst I knew they got an 'allowance' I didn't realise they got that much! Anymore nonsense and I wonder whether it would be worth engaging in a class action against the council maybe on the grounds of possible negligence. That certainly would get good coverage. The law is there to be tested and I think this is the way forward in bringing back accountability to local councils.


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Walthamster says...
5:03pm Mon 22 Dec 08

In July 2008 Terry Wheeler was still promising that the development was going Arcade plan 'still viable' despite developer's losses, see Guardian story below.

What's the difference between and Illusion and an outright lie?


11:00am Tuesday 29th July 2008
Comments (6) Have your say »

By Carl Brown »

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.


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Walthamster says...
5:06pm Mon 22 Dec 08

In July 2008 Terry Wheeler was still promising that the development was going ahead. See Guardian story below.

What's the difference between an "Illusion" and an outright lie?



Arcade plan 'still viable' despite developer's losses
11:00am Tuesday 29th July 2008

By Carl Brown »

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."

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Redfox says...
5:11pm Mon 22 Dec 08

Agree wholeheartedly with anyone suggesting the Labour cabinet portfolio-holder's position is now untenable - he must resign.
Not only that but because of the outright deception the Lib Dems must end the luvvy-duvvy relationship PROPPING-UP the Labour side.
What is their leader John Macklin going to say about it??

ps Don't let's forget those immortal words of Cllr Chris Robbins in the 2004 Xmas WfM: "If they're not laying bricks down there by Christmas, I"ll be down there myself".
Perhaps he too will now also have the decency to resign!

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Walthamster says...
5:21pm Mon 22 Dec 08

Hohoho, I like that, Redfox. Don't get Chris Robbins to resign, Get him and some of those other overpaid councillors down there doing some work for a change!

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JackSpur says...
6:22pm Mon 22 Dec 08

While the credit crunch is on why don't they turn the site into a temporary park which would be of immediate benefit to the local residents.

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AC1975 says...
6:25pm Mon 22 Dec 08

GET WHEELER OUT

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Touchwood says...
8:54pm Mon 22 Dec 08

I once personally told Wheeler that I didn't trust him any further than I could throw him. That opinion has not changed, in fact he continues to prove me right!!

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annabel says...
9:43am Tue 23 Dec 08

this has really angered me - they could have had this site redeveloped years ago, now the credit crunch is upon us it will never happen and the space will be a blight on walthmastow for many more years to come. this council wants walthamstow to stay looking like a tip, god forbid people in that area should aspire to having anything decent in their area.

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Bert Small says...
11:13am Tue 23 Dec 08

Why don't the Council compulsary purchase it and develop it themselves and do the same with the EMD? Flats above the shops for the homeless and at least a shopping venue?

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Jon R says...
12:11pm Tue 23 Dec 08

The arcade site ought to be included in this hilarious collection of photographs of our cr*p borough:

http://crapwalthamfo
rest.blogspot.com/20
08/12/waltham-forest
-winter-wonderworld.
html

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Walthamstow noob says...
2:01pm Tue 23 Dec 08

Thanks for the link Jon R, I'm always on the lookout for Walthamstow related websites. It's a shame that so many are attempts to embarrass the council, and that they seem to have no effect whatsoever. If only I could find a site that would tell me where to get some decent fish and chips!

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Technomist says...
2:37pm Tue 23 Dec 08

There are a few chippies about in Walthamstow: Captain's at the top of the High Street, springs to mind,as does the Fish Bar on St James's Street and Bonner's, on Pretoria Avenue, which is one of my favourites because of the generous portions of good honest chips.

The problem with writing a local website is that as much as you want to keep local topics free of the local politics, ineptitude and corruption, it becomes virtually impossible, given the state of the leadership in our local authority.


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Walthamster says...
2:50pm Tue 23 Dec 08

Bert, the council promised years ago to compulsorily purchase the EMD and sell it on. They didn't do it, even when cinema chains wanted to buy it and reopen it -- so it wouldn't have ended up costing anything and we'd have had a beautiful cinema open again long ago.

Instead the council has offered to pay St Modwen £800,000 to include a cinema in the arcade-site tower block. A huge expense from the public purse and a heritage building left to rot next door.

There's never any logic, and as always it's our money being thrown away on projects that local people have clearly said they don't want.

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Walthamstow noob says...
3:49pm Tue 23 Dec 08

Hi Technomist, do you know if any of those places claim to use fresh fish & batter? I'm very wary of the low standards of some of these places. At the moment myself and the noobette are driving 20 mins to Faulkner's on Kingsland Road which has had good reviews online. We're quite partial to a good fish and chips but so far the more local places we tried (on or near the Lea Bridge Road) have all served some kind of soggy mess that may once have been a fish.

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Bert Small says...
5:12pm Tue 23 Dec 08

Hi Technomist, do you know if any of those places claim to use fresh fish & batter?

The Ark Hermon Hill Wanstead for eat in is the best for miles.

Woods in George Lane (Hermon Hill side of Station is fantastic and you get served by the original owners wife who is 98 years old and her son who runs around like a headless chicken being barked at by the old girl.

Apart from that you may as well give up in Waltham Forest as they all mainly use old frozen fish and 3" batter and some of the proprieters would not know the difference between a piece of cod and a skate.

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Technomist says...
5:45pm Tue 23 Dec 08

I tend to be a pie and chips man myself, but the fish at Bonner's seems to go down well. Its their chips I really like.

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Stowaway says...
8:46pm Tue 23 Dec 08

At least it looks like now the Council have virtually given up that anything will ever be built there, they have taken the forward thinking decision and look to be reinstating the bus stop at a position further back so traffic can actually pass by.

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maltesers says...
3:49pm Sat 27 Dec 08

Really interesting site, JonR; shame the owner a) doesn't allow comments or even emails b) doesn't have a link to something like fixmystreet.com so that the street problems s/he identifies can be reported and chased up

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TheLawMan says...
8:31pm Sat 27 Dec 08

I left Waltham Forest in 2003 and cannot believe that nothing was done with this place. Actually, I can, as all the experiences I had with the council showed nothing but incompetence. Some real leadership is needed and sadly most of the council (it seems) are more interested in themselves than the good people of the Borough.

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JonathanB says...
5:06pm Sun 28 Dec 08

There's a great Chipshop just off Pretoria road. Was a runner up for best Chippie in the UK a few years back.

The council once promised the EMD would be compulsarily purchased but it was all lies and smokescreen. Annoyingly there are two small chain companies (one is the screen on the green people) who have said they want to use it!

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Earle Martin says...
7:11pm Sun 4 Jan 09

maltesers - I've often wanted to leave comments on "Crap Walking & Cycling in Waltham Forest". We can but hope that the owner reads comments like ours, realises that the readers want to participate, and enables comments.

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