WALTHAM FOREST: Pool & Track sale and Arcade site are "not linked" says Robbins (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

WALTHAM FOREST: Pool & Track sale and Arcade site are "not linked" says Robbins

11:55pm Tuesday 10th November 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(10)

COUNCIL leader Chris Robbins has said there is no link between plans to sell Waltham Forest Pool & Track and the latest development plan for the long-derelict Arcade site.

This is despite a council report in September stating that a new leisure centre on the Arcade site “is to be funded by an allocation of £10m from the disposal of either land at the Pool & Track site or alternative assets.”

But at a cabinet meeting tonight Cllr Robbins said: “The swimming pool [at the Pool & Track] will not be closed until a new one is open.

“There never was a link between the pool and the property on the Arcade site.”

Cllr Robbins was speaking shortly before the cabinet's approval of the authority's capital programme for 2009/10 to 2014/15, which shows £10m to be allocated to an Arcade leisure centre in 2011/12.

This, according to deputy leader Cllr Macklin, means there is no need to sell off any part of the Pool & Track facility, in Chingford Road, Walthamstow, to fund the development.

Cllr Macklin, whose Lib Dem group fiercely opposes the latest Arcade site plan said: “The money is there so we don't need to make difficult decisions about closing our sports centres at this particular time.”

Labour cabinet members decided in September that officers be instructed to start procuring a developer for the Arcade site, on the corner of Hoe Street and High Street.

A series of recommendations from a cross-party scrutiny committee, including that a financial appraisal be carried out, were rejected by Labour councillors.

Labour councillors also rejected further recommendations including a call for a feasibility study into whether a swimming pool could be an effective “anchor tenant” to attract business.

Cllr Bob Sullivan, chairman of the overview and scrutiny committee, branded the move as “damn reckless".