(R57) CRYSTAL PALACE CAMPAIGN - IMMEDIATE MEDIA RELEASE - 21 & 22 April 2001

PRESCOTT URGED BY MINISTERS, MPs TO ACT ON
BRUSSELS’ COMPLAINT OVER
CRYSTAL PALACE PARK MULTIPLEX

Four Labour MPs, including three Ministers, publicly undertook at a mass meeting today to lobby Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to respond positively to the European Commission’s complaint that a key Directive has been breached by the UK authorities in granting planning consent for the Crystal Palace Park multiplex.

Tessa Jowell, MP, announced the initiative at a public meeting attended by over 450 angry local residents which questioned 10 parliamentary candidates. She spoke as local constituency MP (Dulwich & W Norwood) flanked by two Ministerial colleagues, Malcolm Wicks, MP, (Croydon N) and Jim Dowd, MP, (Lewisham W), as well as Geraint Davies, MP, (Croydon C).

In another blow to the multiplex announced by Ms Jowell, Lord Warner of Brockley (Lab) is to introduce a companion Bill in the House of Lords to one presented in the Commons on April 10 by Geraint Davies. Mr Davies’s presentation Bill would in effect halt the multiplex by legislating to take ownership of Crystal Palace Park away from Bromley Borough and give it to the Greater London Authority.

Mr Davies promised if re-elected to reintroduce his Bill in the next Parliament, and Ms Jowell, supporting its intention, described it as giving a parliamentary focus to the opposition to the multiplex voiced by tens of thousands of residents in the five boroughs adjoining the historic Park.

The Crystal Palace Campaign had put three questions to the candidates: -- to support a Bill -- to support revoking Bromley’s planning consent-- to support community involvement in an environmentally sensitive future for the Park.

Two Conservative candidates supported the proposals in a party split with the neighbouring Conservative MP, Jacqui Lait (Beckenham), who has denounced the Bill. Nicholas Vineall, Conservative opponent of Tessa Jowell, said that development on the park was a one-way street; the present open land had to be preserved. They had to “draw a line in the sand, this far and no farther”.

Breaking with Labour, Conservative and Green Party candidates, 2 Liberal Democrat candidates (Alex Feakes , Beckenham and Caroline Pidgeon, Dulwich & W Norwood}said local control had to be maintained and they opposed transferring the park to the GLA.

Note to Editors:

On October 20 2000 the European Commission sent a formal letter to John Prescott, as Secretary of State for the Environment, complaining of a breach of its Directive requiring a full environmental impact assessment (EIA) for large projects such as Crystal Palace. Bromley’s conclusion that no EIA was necessary was, the Commission suggested, flawed.

Four Labour MPs, including three Ministers, publicly undertook at a mass meeting yesterday to lobby Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to respond positively to the European Commission’s complaint that a key Directive has been breached by the UK authorities in granting planning consent for the Crystal Palace Park multiplex.

Tessa Jowell, MP, announced the initiative at a public meeting at Kingsdale School, South London, attended by over 450 angry local residents which questioned 10 parliamentary candidates. She spoke as local constituency MP (Dulwich & W Norwood) flanked by two Ministerial colleagues, Malcolm Wicks, MP, (Croydon N) and Jim Dowd, MP, (Lewisham W), as well as Geraint Davies, MP, (Croydon C).

But Ms Jowell's Conservative opponent, Nicholas Vineall, reacting to reports that Mr Prescott was rejecting the EC complaint, stated that the "government's response... is frankly outrageous and I have yet to hear it justified". Mr Vineall insisted the proposed multiplex "is not an appropriate development on open space".

In another blow to the multiplex announced by Ms Jowell, Lord Warner of Brockley (Lab) is to introduce a companion Bill in the House of Lords to one presented in the Commons on April 10 by Geraint Davies. Mr Davies’s Bill would in effect halt the multiplex by legislating to take ownership of Crystal Palace Park away from Bromley Borough and give it to the Greater London Authority.

Mr Davies promised if re-elected to reintroduce his Bill in the next Parliament, and Ms Jowell, supporting its intention, described it as giving a parliamentary focus to the opposition to the multiplex voiced by thousands of residents in the five boroughs adjoining the historic Park.

The Crystal Palace Campaign had put three questions to the candidates: -- to support a Bill -- to support revoking Bromley’s planning consent-- to support community involvement in an environmentally sensitive future for the Park.

A second Conservative (Simon Allison, Croydon N) joined Vineall in opposing the multiplex in a party split with the neighbouring Conservative MP, Jacqui Lait (Beckenham), who supports it, and has denounced the Bill.

Breaking with Labour, Conservative and Green Party candidates, 2 Liberal Democrat candidates (Alex Feakes, Beckenham and Caroline Pidgeon, Dulwich & W Norwood) said local control had to be maintained and they opposed transferring the park to the GLA.

Note to Editors:

On October 20 2000 the European Commission sent a formal letter to John Prescott, as Secretary of State for the Environment, complaining of a breach of its Directive requiring a full environmental impact assessment (EIA) for large projects such as Crystal Palace. Bromley’s conclusion that no EIA was necessary was, the Commission suggested, flawed.

Press Officer: Fred Emery 020 8761 0076 Mobile: 0794 117 202
All correspondence to: Hon Secretary, 33 HogarthCourt, Fountain Drive, London SE19 1U
E-mail: fred@syre.demon.co.uk Website: www.crystal.dircon.co.uk

21/4/01 Last updated 22/4/01