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NIGEL WESTAWAY
& Associates

environmental facilitation
and conflict resolution

e-mail: nwestaway@compuserve.com

CRYSTAL PALACE PARK

 

Record of the Main
Group Meeting

Saturday 14th May 2005

 

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The meeting was facilitated by Nigel Westaway & Associates and The Environment Council. This report is a typed transcript of the flipchart record written (in open view of all the participants) during the meeting.

To make the record more intelligible, some explanatory notes have since been added by the facilitator. These are shown in bold italics. All other wording is as agreed by participants on the day, apart from minor grammatical corrections and clarifications.

Comments recorded are made by individuals and these views are not necessarily shared by other participants.

Any agreements reached by the whole group are boxed like this.

Because the record is inevitably cryptic in places, it is recommended that it should not be used to brief people who did not attend the meeting without a full explanation from a participant.

 

CONTENTS

Attendance List

Nigel Westaway

Independent Facilitator

Rhuari Bennett

Independent Facilitator

Sarah Graham

The Environment Council

Jen Anderson

Independent Facilitator

Schia Mitchell

Independent Facilitator

Derek Newman

LDA

John Greatrex

PCPCP

Lee Hosking

Arup Associates

Alan Freeman

West Beckenham Residents Association

Nick Goy

Local Resident

Pat Palmer

CPDT

Joyce Bellamy

Metropolitan Public Gardens Association

M Warwick

Member of Public, Local Resident

Jo Gibbons

J & L Gibbons

Richard Francis

Roger Frith

LDA

John Canvin

C P Councillor

Leo Held

Norwood Society

Peter Austin

Norwood Society

Fred Emery

C P Campaign

Sue Nagle

Triangle Traders

Melvyn Harrison

Crystal Palace Foundation

G Wood

LFOSR

Norman Edgell

LFSR/SCASA

L. B. Ballcombe

Local Resident

Sue Wardryan(?)

Friends of Crystal Palace Park

Iain Killingbeck

LDA

Jim Williams

Karen Moran

Green Party

Rosemarie Falaiye

CPCA

John Bellcly(?)

CPCA

Malcom Woods

English Heritage

Ray Hall

Crystal Palace Charitable Trust

Ruth Locke

Sydenham Society

Kevin Marriott

Crystal Palace Renaissance

John Marsh

MEB People & Places

Ray Sacks

Crystal Palace Campaign

Theresa Connoily

Friends of the Earth, Southwark

Vivien Day

Crystal Palace Campaign

Rachel Ward

Boycott UCI Group

Paul Hudson

CPCA

Katriona Ogilvy-Webb

Boycott UCI/Local Resident

John Payne

CPCA

Suzanne Elkin

CPP Action Group

Patrick Brooks

Nigel Hawkins

Sharon Baldwin

Town Centre Manager

Alan & Barbara Thomas

Residents

Kathleen Tower

Longton Avenue Residents Association

Emma Blagg

Sydenham Society

Noel Winter

ASA

Audrey Hammond

CPCA

Joseph Figueira

Martha Ward-Figueira

Virginia James

Bromley Forum of older people

Julia Heard

Abdel Ouhla

Young Persons for Wildlife

Doreen Heath

Lambethans' Society

Adrian Hill

Dulwich Society

Ian Payne

CB Croydon (Cllr.)

David Mackay

East Dulwich Society

Seneka Weeraman

Resident

Jim & Stephanie Lodge

Southwark Friends of the Earth

Pat Trembath

Sydenham Society

RJ & HJ Jarrett

Sydenham Society, Friends of Mayor Park

Philip Goddard

Norwood Society

Craig Richardson

Friends of CPP

Andrew Simpson

Friends of CPP

Irene Baker-Hunt

Resident

Anthony Kendall

RUHCH Christian Ministries

Eilena Rushbrook

Mee Ling Ng

Tessa Jowell's Office

Julia Farr

Sydenham Society

Janet Clifford

To Contents

Map Of Crystal Palace with locations of Main Group Participants

Apologies

Darren Johnson
Gareth Compton
Alan Munday
Jacqui Lait
Gary Wasniewski

 

Objectives

- Update Main Group members on latest developments re park & National Sports Centre (NSC)
- Update MG members on the work of the Task Group

Assess support for a range of park options (& add more if required)

- Agree a way forward

 

Agenda

 

The following agenda was agreed by the meeting.

09.30

Introduction, agenda etc.

Task Group report

NSC Update

Park options:

  • background
  • presentations
  • options assessment

11.00

BREAK

Options assessment (continued)

12.00

LUNCH

Options assessment

Way forward

14.30

CLOSE

To Contents

Ground Rules

The group is working to the following ground rules, agreed at previous meetings:

 

Clarifications

To Contents  

 

National Sports Centre Update

* However, most here in this meeting feel we should build upon the consultation results, rather than re-examine the process *

 

Glazed Escarpment

 

The LDA introduced the idea of the glazed escarpment - an earth sheltered structure that could be built into the top terrace.

 

To Contents

 Report from two Task Group Members

Task Group Presentation

The one thing that was abundantly clear from the consultation was that actually people's expectations for their park were really quite basic. Rather than huge expensive visionary concepts and ideas, people really just wanted a safe, attractive, well managed park with basic amenities and adequate activities for children and teenagers. We found an element of disappointment that under its present management, facilities such as the zoo and the farm had been removed with no sign of any replacement activities and there was a fairly universal wish to keep the heritage aspects which had given the park its name. As for the top site some wanted commercial development and some didn't. It possibly surprised some that people were not as adverse to development as it may have previously seemed. The strong caveat being that the local area and its people benefited from it rather than suffered from it.

As you have heard we used the consultation as our primary source of information. Having studied it carefully we are fairly confident that we now have a comprehensive list of people's options, suggestions, hopes and aspirations for the park.

In order to do this we split the park up into eight sections. We used postits to display all the suggestions that people had made. When we were confident that we had covered all the options resulting from the consultation data, we then checked to see if we could think of anything had been missed.

This process has enabled us to put in front of you today a cornucopia of options and ideas for your consideration. Obviously we can't say if they are possible or indeed viable and clearly we may not be able to or in fact want to achieve all of them. It is a park and some people may be cautious about putting too much into a park but Crystal Palace Park is a large area, often underused. You may feel that introducing a few well designed facilities would entice more people, of all ages to use the park and enjoy the peace, quiet and nature so often missing in their lives.

It's all a question of balance and hopefully here today we can begin to get that balance right.

Crystal Palace Park and National Sports Centre - Task Group Update

The result of the London Olympic Games bid will be known by July. The London Development Agency who will be responsible for the lease of the National Sports Centre from March 2006 has made a commitment to bring the sports facilities up to 21" century standards. They are due to present a Planning Brief (or framework) for the future of the whole park and Sports Centre to Bromley Council in September. Speed is therefore quite clearly of the essence.

At the last main group meeting Nigel outlined his desire to cut the size of the strategic working group down to a small task group size. This group was to use the information gathered at the park consultation event to outline all the suggested options for the park. These options are being presented to the Main Group to consider today. In the future the Task Group will look at these options from a financial standpoint considering deficit funding and viability in an effort to find a "best fit" solution for the park and National Sports Centre. The Task Group will then work to refine the issues which will be put to you all at a further main group meeting before the presentation of the planning framework in September

A full public consultation will be held for two weeks in the autumn. This time it is intended to hold the consultation at least two venues within the park.

A further Main Group meeting will take place after this to consider the results of this second public consultation.

All members of the task group have committed to work together in an impartial and focussed manner. Obviously there are differing views within the group. We have however used the results of the September 2004 public consultation report as our primary source of information. We have carefully studied all the data in order to achieve a comprehensive set of options that meet as wide a range of needs as possible.

At times the LDA and the relevant consultants felt that we would benefit from seeing sensitive information or data. At these times they asked us to agree to a certain degree of confidentiality. This has not happened often. We feel that we have been very thorough and have recorded as many options as possible. However if anyone here feels that something has been missed then please tell us.

Park Options

The facilitator introduced the list of draft options for the park, displayed on the meeting room walls. These were drawn up by the Task Group, with the intention of reflecting the full range of views expressed in the September '04 consultation. These were grouped in sections for different areas of the park, plus one list of "whole park" options. Participants were also given the same list on A4 for ease of reference.

After some discussion of the list of options, each participant was also given 40 green and 10 red sticky dots. They were asked to stick their green dots next to the options, which they most liked, and their red ones next to the options~ which they felt, they could not live with. They were also asked to put no more than one dot next to any option. Additional comments could also be left on post-it notes under each section.

The results are shown below [next page, Ed.].


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