by Ian Leech
CROYDON POST, Wednesday, April 7,1999
THE planning applications into the leisure development at Crystal Palace Park were pulled from a Bromley Council meeting just hours before they were due to be heard.
And despite the cancellation last week hundreds of protesters at Bromley Civic Centre almost forced the development control committee meeting to be scrapped by chanting through the rest of the applications.
The Crystal Palace Campaign is claiming the credit for the postponement saying Bromley would be breaching a parliamentary undertaking in approving the plans before the Campaign's appeal against Bromley is heard in the House of Lords.
The meeting, which had already been switched to the centre's Great Hall because of the expected turnout, was watched over by a number of police officers.
John Payne of the Campaign said: "I had to point out to the council that it was absolutely impossible to ring a thousand people and tell them the meeting was off.
"These demonstrators were decent ordinary middle England men and women, they weren't any eco- warriors. "
Bromley would not go into the reasons for the postponement.
A spokesman said: "The application for the leisure development was withdrawn from this meeting to enable further clarification of various aspects of the proposals to be sought.
"Both items will now be put before a special meeting of the development control committee that will be held on May 6 at 7.30pm."
Bromley had a major knockback in its redevelopment of the park
when a grant bid of £7m to the Heritage Lottery Fund was not
included in its six monthly round announced last Wednesday.
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