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WALTHAMSTOW: Council may 'panic' over Arcade site - Lib Dem leader

3:10pm Tuesday 5th May 2009 in


THE empty Arcade site in Walthamstow is having a “terrible” effect in the community, according to Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.

He also criticised the council for a lack of openness during the nine years the Hoe Street site has been empty.

A number of schemes to redevelop the site, which was cleared after the council purchased buildings on the site, have collapsed - much to the dismay of residents.

The council has now been forced to intervene and finance the scheme after developer St Modwen decided not to invest in a plan to build a tower, a cinema, a shopping centre and new homes.

Liberal Democrat members of the leading coalition voted against the £36million public bail-out, which has run into problems after it emerged the proposal would break EU rules.

During a visit to Walthamstow on Friday, Mr Clegg said: ““[The Arcade site] has been this great gaping hole in the middle of the community for such a long time.”

“This is made worse by the fact that there’s been such a lack of transparency about what decisions have been taken.”

He added that there was a risk the council could “panic” and rush to bring forward new plans for the site, causing further problems.

“It would be raising people’s hopes only to have them dashed,” Mr Clegg said.

“I think 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.”

Mr Clegg also said he would welcome the adjacent EMD cinema being reopened as a cinema.

“Like everybody here, I think it had great nostalgic value,” he said.

Comments(10)

JohnCharteris says...
3:16pm Tue 5 May 09

The EMD issue is not about nostalgia but having a truly unique cinema in Walthamstow - something an identikit multiplex could never be.

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Techno2 says...
3:43pm Tue 5 May 09

It is good of Nick Clegg to come and have a look at the hole in our High Street.

I wonder if Gordon Brown will ever come and see what the numpty Labour Party under Loakes and his Jokes have done to spoil our town centre.

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Seeing Sense says...
12:08am Wed 6 May 09

Last I heard it was a joint administration Techno2.


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Cllr Matt Davis says...
2:35am Wed 6 May 09

The LibDems are just as responsible for the Arcade debacle as Labour are, after all they have been in bed with each other in a joint administration for the last 7 years.

Clegg's visitation is just exploitative band wagon jumping of the worst kid and the Guardian's unusually positive coverage of it is yet further proof of the paper's well known and unpopular pro LibDem bias.

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Techno2 says...
7:55am Wed 6 May 09

Seeing Sense wrote:
Last I heard it was a joint administration Techno2.
It is supposed to be , but the inner clique Labour councilllors, particularly Wheeler and Loakes, have deliberately kept the truth about the fiasco from their colleagues. I well recall James O'Rourke complaining in this newspaper about the secret meetings the Labour clique were holding about the site without telling the elected Libdem councillors. Eventually Wheeler admitted he'd been lying to the public about St Modwen's involvement and then came up with his latest back-of-a-fag-packet scheme. He refused to accept LibDem advice about feasibility studies and due diligence and then found that his idiotic plan was against EU Law anyway. This is 100% a Labour scandal, which has gone on for years before there was a joint adminsitration.

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Techno2 says...
8:09am Wed 6 May 09

Cllr Matt Davis wrote:
The LibDems are just as responsible for the Arcade debacle as Labour are, after all they have been in bed with each other in a joint administration for the last 7 years. Clegg's visitation is just exploitative band wagon jumping of the worst kid and the Guardian's unusually positive coverage of it is yet further proof of the paper's well known and unpopular pro LibDem bias.
I agree the LibDems are accountable (as indeed are our ineffective local opposition), but I do not think they are entirely responsible. They certainly need to account for why they have been propping up an inept Labour administration. They did have the good grace to remove Rainer who entered into that deal. It's past the time, in my view, that they went a step further and pulled the plug on the partnership for the good of the people of Waltham Forest. If only, Matt, you had enough people with the ability to run things, the LibDems' choices would probably be easier, but at present the local Tories do not have the required talent, and survive on tribal voting in the north of the borough. For all that you are right and things could have been better, the responsibility for this particular fiasco nevertheless does pre-date the joint administration, and the active steps taken by certain Labour councillors to retain their unhealthy relationship with a series of developers while deceiving the public and other councillors puts the blame firmly in the lap of the Labour Party. I find it interesting that no-one ever asks the ordinary Labour members just what they think they are doing allowing this nasty clique to hold public office in their name year after year. The Labour Party used to have people with democratic principles in it, but you can't see any evidence of that any more.

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LarryTLemur says...
10:06am Wed 6 May 09

I think Techno2 is missing the point slightly. The same tribal voting that keeps the Tories in their safe seats in the north of the borough is also why Labour hold the majority elsewhere. I doubt 1 in 50 residents could even name their local councillors, let alone recognise them if they passed them in the street. It's not Labour members that keep them in power, it's ordinary voters, but that's democracy for you. It's the worst possible system, except for all the other ones.

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Techno2 says...
10:13am Wed 6 May 09

LarryTLemur wrote:
I think Techno2 is missing the point slightly. The same tribal voting that keeps the Tories in their safe seats in the north of the borough is also why Labour hold the majority elsewhere. I doubt 1 in 50 residents could even name their local councillors, let alone recognise them if they passed them in the street. It's not Labour members that keep them in power, it's ordinary voters, but that's democracy for you. It's the worst possible system, except for all the other ones.
Ture, there are places where the proverbial pigs bladder on a stick gets put up by Labour as their candidtae and voted in. On the other hand, if the Labour Party had any members left who cared, they would make sure that they have honest and capable representatives and the likes of Loakes and Wheeler never got to stand in the first place.

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Lucifer1 says...
11:05am Wed 6 May 09

Cllr Matt Davis wrote:
The LibDems are just as responsible for the Arcade debacle as Labour are, after all they have been in bed with each other in a joint administration for the last 7 years. Clegg's visitation is just exploitative band wagon jumping of the worst kid and the Guardian's unusually positive coverage of it is yet further proof of the paper's well known and unpopular pro LibDem bias.
Matt, there is not much to like about any of the three political parties with regard to the Arcade/EMD issue.
Labour appear resigned to the fact that they will be voted out next year, and seem to be acting out of pure spite.
The Lib Dems have belatedly started making more of the right noises on the issue (which I admit is a good start) but still need to state a committed position.
And what of the Conservatives? Despite David Cameron's promises of 'caring conservatism' the position regarding the Arcade/EMD seems to be the old-style Tory dogma of 'market forces rule, and to hell with what people want'.
Matt, it is all very well for you to criticise the other parties, but if you expect votes at the next election than you really need to come up with a policy that local people find attractive. So far, we have seen no sign of this.

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Walthamster says...
12:59pm Wed 6 May 09

As others have said: the Lib Dems would have a lot more credibility if they hadn't been propping up this lousy Labour-led council for so many years.

Of course they have no real power. Of course they are kept out of secret Labour meetings. So why go along with it?!

The Lib Dems have moral responsibility for this mess, but without having any real power. Surely the worst of all worlds?

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