Mixed reception to Crystal Palace masterplan (From News Shopper)

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Mixed reception to Crystal Palace masterplan

5:36pm Tuesday 30th October 2007

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By Gemma Wheatley »

The exhibition of the £67.5m Crystal Palace Park masterplan is due to end today.

More than 2,000 people have been to see the plans for the park, designed by Latz and Partner, at the Old Booking Hall at Crystal Palace station.

However, the masterplan has received a mixed response with many residents feeling their ideas and opinions, which they had offered to the London Development Agency (LDA), have been ignored.

Sue Nagle, chairman of the Triangle Traders' Association, said: "People are not stupid and they are so disappointed about this because they were led to believe by the LDA that they would have a choice when it came to the park but they have not.

"I have put four years into this and it was worth it then because it was important and we honestly thought we could make a difference, but just look what we have come out with. It is just a huge disappointment."

The LDA plans include building a new sports centre, creating a tree canopy to mimic the outline of the palace which burned down in 1936 and restoring the Paxton Axis walk.

Controversial proposals to build housing on two parts of the park have also been included in the plans, which are expected to take 15 to 20 years to complete if planning permission is granted by Bromley Council.

The masterplan will now be submitted to Bromley Council but it is expected it will take up to a year for officers to review the application.

If approved the LDA can then submit plans for other individual developments.

A spokesman for the LDA said: "Over two thousand people have visited the exhibition over the last two weeks, with many going on walks around the park with the masterplanners.

"Feedback from the exhibition has been very positive with many local people offering constructive comments and giving their broad support for the plans. Some people expressed concern at certain areas of the masterplan, such as housing, but many people's views have changed now they've seen the plans in detail.

"The exhibition has proved an excellent forum in which to communicate the detailed and accurate facts within the masterplan to local people. A full report on the comments received will be submitted to Bromley Council as part of our statement of community involvement."

Did you go to the exhibition? What did you think? Post your comments below.

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richard francis, thornton heath says...
1:00pm Thu 1 Nov 07

Yes, several times, in answer to the first question.

Not a lot, in answer to the second. What an unjustifiable waste of time (everyone's, during the years of "consultation") and public money!

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consultationed out, crystal palace says...
6:45am Fri 2 Nov 07

Yes I agree - how much has the Nigel Westaway consultation exercise cost? I am fed up with consultation after consultation on CP - the same old names- the same old objections from the same old groups. Perhaps we can hear from Mr and Mrs Average of CP who may well want the LDA to get on and finish the job.

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richard francis, thornton heath says...
8:03pm Fri 2 Nov 07

Yes, we have names and we are not ashamed of them. Talking to Mr. and Mrs., Master & Miss, as well as Ms.,
"Average", it is encouraging to note that they share many of our views. These are real people, with real names.

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sue nagle, crystal palace says...
12:27am Tue 6 Nov 07

The MAster Plan seems to depend on selling parkland for housing and begging funding bodies to help them. I am sorry but any other developer going to a council for planning permission on that basis would not stand a chance. Maybe the fact that they are bailing Bromley Council out over the sports centre has allowed them an unfair advantage and denied those of us who would have preferred the Crystal Palace our dream. This Master Plan is the lowest common denominator. A huge, tar and chipped walkway along the Parade with benches etc may have worked in Budapecht or Prague but in SE19 it is just going to be full of drunks, addicts and joy riders. Also the roots of the trees (400 of them) that they are to plant there will surely grow down into the foundations of the old Crystal Palace. I really think they should think again about these trees and their whole approach to the top of the park which I think they have got completely wrong on every level. I also am against the housing. It sucks.

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richard francis, thornton heath says...
8:04pm Wed 7 Nov 07

This analysis sounds about right to me - although Bromley and Ken (or his LDA) seem strange bedfellows. In the world of planning and high finance/politics, all is possible. In reality, the private housing developers have been gifted between £120 and £150 million clear profit, of which some will doubtless flow back into the Mayoral Piggy Bank - beyond the paltry estimated £12 million for Park improvements (alas, already spent, and more, on "consultation", minor works, etc.).
I totally agree that housing should never have been on the agenda.
As for the Latz Vision of the Park, it remains very continental in style, although some of the home-grown input, such as wild meadows, does resonate with Britain as we know it.
What will prove fascinating will be Bromley's response to the Masterplan, on the one hand, and their response to public objections, on the other.
This show could run and run, and probably will. Hopefully, "theatre critics" may be allowed to comment?
Certainly, the pantomime season will start early this year.

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Alastair Bayliss, Sydenham says...
11:13am Wed 14 Nov 07

I think the plans are very good. I live next to the park and run around it two or three times a week. This is a huge step forward.
I have no problems with the housing plans and think this has been blown out of all proportion. Bizarely the same group of people that object to a few flats are intent on plonking a giant conference and entertainment complex with steel (wasn't the Crystal Palace cast iron?) and glass fake crystal palace skin over a much larger area on the top of the site. I supported the contemporary floating pod proposal.
The consultation has gone on a very long time and progress is frustratingly slow, but I believe my views were heard.

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richard francis, thornton heath says...
8:59pm Mon 19 Nov 07

Glad to hear you have no objections to housing in/on parkland
(Alastair Bayliss from
Sydenham) and that you think the Masterplan is "a huge step forward". At least, the LDA has a supporter on these two major issues.
I don't know to whom you are referring, but I am certainly not one of them, since I despise the notion of a rebuilt Palace/Conference Centre every bit as much as I do that of nearly 200 housing units (not "just a few flats"). Maybe it is the contributor who wrote before my comments, before yours?

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hester, SE20 8TR says...
7:07pm Tue 5 Feb 08

I live in Anerley and am very pleased that there is a proposal afoot to rebuild the crystal palace. I appreciate that for many years now the future of the park has been in jeopardy and a lot of public money has been spent trying to resolve the ongoing funding issue. I do not believe that selling off park land for 180 private homes will solve this funding crisis. It is a one off payment which will not come anywhere close to the £67 Million the LDA are looking for to implement their plans. I would rather see the park make use of its historic and iconic status to ensure a sustainable income for itself and secure the park's future. The globe theatre has been rebuilt in sympathetic likeness to its forebear, the same could be done on the site of the old crystal palace. I feel that Alastair Bayliss is misinformed about the way the the plans for a new palace are being drawn up. admittedly they won't be using steel, but the architect has secured the use of the modules used in the original build from the V&A and so is likely to be extremely beautiful, and in keeping with the park's surroundings. If you think that the process has been slow already, think how much longer you will be waiting while the LDA come up with the required funding...I would like the park regenerated but do not see any details on how the how the LDA plan to pay for such works. We may once again be having the same debate in five years only by then the LDA's tree palace will be in place and the chance to rebuild the palace to secure the future of the park will have been lost forever.

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