Crystal Palace CampaignR101

(R101) Crystal Palace Campaign - NEWS BULLETIN 16 October 2004

NEWS BULLETIN

The main reason for sending out this newsletter is the impending public consultation on the future of Crystal Palace Park. The date for this critical event has been set to start on the 20th October 2005; we'll explain…(complete timetable> > > )

MAIN GROUP MEETINGS

The stakeholders' forum, which was initiated by the Campaign, has been running for three years. All the participants of that meeting with some subsequent changes have been known as the Main Group. This consists of representatives from a variety of organisations including Local Councils, the London Development Agency (LDA) and some local residents. It's been a long hard battle but the result of the perseverance by the majority of the participants has been a gradual removal of much of the antagonism left over from the Multiplex Battle and a build-up of trust particularly between the 'community' and 'authority'.

There is a vociferous minority who, for reasons which are difficult to fathom, do not see this process as fulfilling their particular aspirations &endash; but this flies in the face of the numerous efforts at finding out the desires of the wider community. The results of those consultations, debates and discussions are reported on our website.

The consultation: There has already been one event which was the result of the LDA's participation , the "Exhibition in the Park", commissioned principally from Arup, Prince Research and J & L Gibbons. This was well-attended and provided very useful feedback. The next consultation event is taking place at the end of another long period of work and debate within the subsidiary groups set up by the Main Group &endash; the Working Group and the Task Force.

This is crunch time! Now the proposals and ideas are much firmer and costs have been investigated. A firm pointer as to what we want in the park is essential if we are to see the park restored to something we can be proud of and which will serve adequately the needs of our community and, indeed, much of south London.

The exhibition will spend about a week at the Penge Gate (as before), then it will move to the Ornamental Gardens at the 'top' of the park. It is also planned to have a moving 'road-show' at several locations around the park and some places further afield.

Here is the best information, at present, on the timetable:

10 a.m to dusk (except 20 October, which starts at 2 p.m.) at…

Penge Gateway: 20 October - 24 October

Ornamental Gardens ('top' of the park): 27 October - 31 October

Other venues: no firm dates yet but location proposals are Upper Norwood Triangle, Penge Town Centre, Elmers End Tesco, Sydenham, West Norwood, South Norwood, Dulwich.

Don't miss the opportunity to see for yourself and make up your own mind about what is being proposed. These are exciting times for our park and we can continue to influence what happens there! We have the prospect of a new National Sports Centre with a 50m Olympic Pool and the net increase of 25 acres of newly accessible parkland. Further there is the possibility that some improvements can happen very quickly. The Campaign fought long and hard against devastating proposals for the park, we now want to continue the positive way forward that the stakeholders' forum has helped to produce.

THE CAMPAIGN

We have often been asked what the purpose of the Campaign is since our principle aim has been fulfilled i.e. stopping the multiplex. Our core principles, recorded on our website, show that we still have one ambition which has not yet been accomplished and that is a way of having a permanent voice for the community in park affairs. Many of our supporters say that they would like us to maintain a "watching brief" in the meantime; we propose to do just that. We would certainly like to hear your views on that and any other topics.

EMAILS

We have recently tidied up our email list and will keep you informed via email and via the website. Let us know if you do not wish to receive further newsletters or if you know someone who either wants to be on the email list or who can only be reached by post.