Minutes 7th March 2006

Minutes of Meeting on 7th March 2006

CRYSTAL PALACE & NORWOOD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
HELD AT 1ST FLOOR, LORENZO'S RESTAURANT, WESTOW HILL

1. Present
Honorary Chairman - Mervyn Hing - Silk Route Dry Cleaners
Honorary Secretary - Andrew Parfitt - resident
Kevin Carleton-Reeves - transport Consultant
David Chen - Paradise Gold
Yemi Dada - Palace Estates
John Greatrex - Great Exhibition 2001 Ltd.
Ray Hall - People and Places International Ltd.
Frank Lissimore - Amphlett Lissimore
Sue Nagle - Triangle Traders
Sharon Parry Baldwin - Town Centre Manager
Alpen Patel - FinancialManagement UK ltd
Dr Amit Patel - South Norwood Chiropractic Centre
Daksha K Patel - Sefgrove
Kirit Patel - Sefgrove
John Payne - Crystal Palace Community Association
James Slattery-Kavanagh - Quotes

2. Apologies

Peter Austin - The Norwood Society
Kennex Kanagarajnam - Pizza Express
Lorenzo Nargi - Lorenzo Restaurant
Peter Runacres - Thornton Springer

3. Minutes of Previous Meeting

Peter Runacres should be added to the apologies.

John Greatrex said that he was aiming to have the Crystal Palace Corner project opened on 10 June (not 20 June) to coincide with the anniversary of the opening of the Crystal Palace. Further details will be given on the website:
http://www.crystalpalacefoundation.org.uk/events/

The minutes of the 7 February meeting were formally adopted.

4. Matters Arising

None.

5. Crime Prevention Measures and Liaison with Police

Mervyn Hing expressed the Chamber's deep regret at the deaths today of two people near Beulah Hill.

Mervyn said that an unrelated recent incident involving an air-rifle at his shop had led him to inform his staff not to challenge assailants.

Sharon Parry Baldwin said that the Safer Neighbourhood Team, a joint partnership between Lambeth, Croydon and Bromley, was temporarily housed at the Salvation Army Hall. It was beginning to establish itself and was keen to meet local business interests. In an emergency, however, traders should still dial 999.

Mervyn and James Slattery-Kavanagh had both spoken to the police, who would be happy to give a short presentation to the Chamber if a written request were made to Inspector Richard Hall at the Gipsy Hill station.

6. Crystal Palace Park development

6.1. LDA and related meetings since 28th February

Mervyn said that the LDA had held three meetings in the past week about the future of the Park.

Sue Nagle said that the Triangle Traders who attended the meeting with Nigel Westaway expressed strong support for lobbying for a car park within the consultation process. The main group meeting on Saturday favoured constructing a car park underneath the piazza. They gave unanimous support for providing an attraction on the top site and for commercial development to occur, subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment.

6.2. Traders' views and taskforce activities

Sharon said that the LDA's public consultation on the future of the park had aimed to target as many people as possible. Housing remained the most controversial issue: although the proposal no longer envisaged residential development at the Triangle entrance, housing was still planned at the Sydenham and Rockhills gates, as these were considered to be too remote for non-residential development to be viable.

The overall cost of the project was £100 million. An events manager would be appointed in the early summer to reinvigorate the park in the short-term, for instance through concerts and the return of the ice-rink. In the longer-term the aim was for the park to become a centre for recreation and quiet enjoyment for all parts of the local and wider community.

John Payne said that £50 million of the total cost was for the Sports Centre, the remainder for the park. He highlighted the failure of the LDA to demonstrate the requirement for spending £50 million on the park or the need to sell parkland for housing, noting that the £11 million cost of refurbishing Battersea Park had been entirely met by public funding.

John added that he was concerned about the consultation process, in particular the participation of certain groups in stakeholder dialogues. The CPCA was opposed to housing still being in the plans. The CPCA did, however, broadly welcome the piazza-style development proposed at the Triangle entrance, subject to further detail.

Kirit Patel was concerned about the control of traffic flow. John Payne agreed: development would increase the volume of Westow Hill traffic. If the Park were a one-stop destination it would not necessarily benefit the local community. Sharon said that a traffic study would need to be carried out by the LDA on behalf of all the affected boroughs. The Mayor's plan gives a high priority to buses and rail: hence the attention given to the East London Line and Tramlink extension; cars and parking were way down the agenda.

James said that he had previously asked the LDA why none of the options involved moving the bus station from its current site. Sue said that the LDA did consider moving the station further north on the Parade, but concluded that this would be too bleak for passengers.

Sue Nagle was disappointed that, in her view, the CPCA's actions had contributed to the loss of a car park for the Triangle. She agreed with Mervyn's proposal that the Traders should make a collective declaration of support for a car park. Kevin Carleton-Reeves suggested that a possible site for a car park might be the area above the railway between Crystal Palace station and the tunnel.

Frank Lissimore expressed his concern about the continuing big divide between the business and wider community in Crystal Palace. Making the park work was critical and there was a need to strike a balance between different interests, which would involve some compromises. Mervyn said that it was healthy for people to be able to express opposing views at meetings of the Chamber. He emphasised that the commercial well-being of Crystal Palace requires the support of residents.

New Crystal Palace project

At the invitation of Mervyn, Ray Hill gave a short presentation on the plans for a new Crystal Palace on the top site. This would be based on the original design of 1851, at 22% of its size. It would be a centre of excellence for conferences, events and exhibitions. A designated charitable trust would divert any surplus income into the park.

Ray said that £30 million of private funding for the £60 million project cost was already in place. The proposal would provide the perfect opportunity for the Mayor's ambition for the transformation of the Park by 2012. The top site was a huge asset to South London and must be used positively. A new Crystal Palace would be fundamental to the vitality of the Triangle, and would benefit the wider area of South/East London.

Frank noted that there was an issue about whether people would come out of conferences into the town, rather than being restricted to the venue. Sharon agreed that this needed to be a feature of the development.

James said that the Westaway consultation could have given far more weight to proposals such as Ray's that already existed. Ray said that he would be happiest if all proposals could be given equal air-time together. Sharon clarified that the LDA were prioritising the consideration of more immediate issues such as the Sports Centre and the boating lake. The future of the top site would be considered later: the approach was to take one step at a time.

John Payne said that he would welcome an opportunity to present his ideas for the top site to a Chamber meeting. Frank agreed that this would be helpful.

6.3. Croydon Statement of Community Involvement

Mervyn circulated the draft Statement of Community Involvement from Croydon which James had given him:
http://www.croydon.gov.uk/environment/dcande/planning/ldsrep/draftscifeb2006.pdf

He noted that it is rather a dry document, but welcomed its aim of encouraging engagement with local people. Sharon recommended that the Chamber should register its interest.

7. One-Way System

Mervyn said that he had contacted the Coulsdon traders liaison group, who had been very badly affected by the new traffic and parking system. In Blackheath 100 traders had physically obstructed a road in protest at Lewisham's plans. He would continue to take similar soundings and asked for suggestions on what Crystal Palace traders could do in the run-up to the May local elections.
Sharon said that she had records of all debates of the Neighbourhood Partnerships and would give Mervyn the details. She had spoken to Ian Sim (Divisional Director, Urban Regeneration, Planning and Transportation, London Borough of Croydon) about the one-way system.
Kirit Patel noted that the long-promised disabled parking bays outside his shop had still not been created.

James recommended that there was a pressing need for the Chamber, as a representative of business interests, to ask the Council to take action. Mervyn said that he will ask the local leaders of the three main political parties to give their views on the one-way system and parking issues more generally.

It was agreed that Mervyn would also consider issuing a questionnaire to traders. Sue suggested accompanying the release of its findings with an article on the town in The Croydon Advertiser.

8. Any Other Business

Sharon had spoken to Morrisons and Legal & General. There was the possibility of enforcement action being taken if Morrisons did not maintain the lease conditions relating to the car park. On the sale of the site there was still no news, although the situation was looking promising.

James said that the Chamber's accounts would be presented at the next meeting, the AGM.

The meeting ended at 8.45 p.m.

Date of next meeting: Tuesday 4th April at 6.45 for 7 p.m., Lorenzo's Restaurant