RESIDENTS DEMAND ANSWERS ON DELAYED TOWN CENTRE DEVELOPMENT

Walthamstow residents have called on the council to lift the veil of secrecy from the town centre development after a similar scheme in Hertfordshire collapsed last week.

St Modwen, London Borough of Waltham Forest Council’s preferred bidder to redevelop the old arcade site on the corner of Hoe Street and the High Street, last week pulled out of a scheme to redevelop Hatfield town centre in Hertfordshire after funding for the project fell through.

Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council last week confirmed that plans for a brand new town centre would be scrapped after failing to attract £25m Government funding needed to make the project viable.

Fight The Height’s Barry Coidan said:

“All the economic and financial assumptions that underpinned the Arcade scheme have been shot to pieces. All we ask is that Waltham Forest Council tells its tax payers, in detail, with specifics, how the development of the Arcade site is affected by the current economic environment.”

Residents who have joined together to oppose the town centre development are now asking:
· By what date is St Modwen required to lay the planning application before Council?
· Is there scope for any extension?
· As a result of the current financial downturn are there any significant changes to the original outline proposal?
· If so what?
· If St Modwen withdrew what alternatives do the Council have in mind?
“We think these are reasonable questions,” Barry Coidan continued.
“Our councillors have no excuse for keeping us all in the dark.”
The Arcade site has been empty for a number of years and a previous scheme to build a library on the site fell though after a deal between Waltham Forest Council and developers collapsed.
Hoardings on the site claim that planning permission would be sought in Spring 2008 with work beginning a year later, but so far no application for planning permission has been made to Waltham Forest Council.Fight the Height argue that the planned 18 story tower block is unwanted and out of keeping with the surrounding area, and that current proposals for a huge Primark and multi-screen cinema will put independent traders out of business and destroy any hope of reopening the historic EMD cinema.