Friends of Central Park   Plymouth

News

Keep up with the news - visit local papers and search for their coverage on Central Park Plymouth:

Evening Herald - http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/

(Mostly) Evening Herald coverage on Central Park and the Life Centre during the Consultation period December 2007 - February 2008:

Added 20 February

WHAT SORT OF CITY DO WE WANT TO BE? - 19 February 2008
we are on the brink of building a sports centre which will be something to be proud of, as it will be one of the best in the country. ... The money raised from the ribbon development at the edge of the park will be spent on improvements to the park itself, not on the new sports centre.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133188&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133171&contentPK=19914473&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

MISCONCEIVED - 19 February 2008
.... these are the same financial plans that were rejected by the Lottery, as reported in the Herald. If the Lottery felt they were unsustainable then, how can they remain the same but have miraculously become sustainable now? Additionally, how can building on greenfield sites and destroying mature hedgerows ever be termed sustainable?
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133188&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133171&contentPK=19914470&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

CEILING ON LIFE CENTRE COSTS - 19 February 2008 The £44 million cost of the Life Centre in Central Park will not be allowed to rise, councillors were told yesterday.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133188&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133171&contentPK=19914279&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

COUNCIL'S PLAN FOR £632M ASSETS - 13 February 2008 Plymouth has £632 million worth of assets, excluding the housing it owns, according to the latest figures from the city council, writes Political Reporter Keith Rossiter. Some of these assets are to be sold off to pay for big projects in the city over the next three years, and to help to pay the city's running costs.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133188&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133171&contentPK=19858411&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

BETTER FACILITIES WILL BENEFIT US ALL - 13 February 2008 Sport and physical recreation touches tens of thousands of citizens in Plymouth and is used positively to engage and inspire our young people as team players and leaders. It is used as an engagement tool in social inclusion, as a preventative measure in health and obesity and as a means to a better lifestyle. The Life Centre proposals have at last the sense of reality after many failed attempts in securing much-needed quality sport and leisure provision for the city. Planning has for the first time engaged with sportspeople to ensure the new facility has the focus to provide the highest possible specification across a broad range of facilities.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133188&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133171&contentPK=19858407&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

ATHLETICS IS BEING ALLOWED TO DECLINE, CLAIM CITY CLUB - 06 February 2008 Officials at Plymouth's leading athletics club have criticised the city council, claiming their Brickfields base has been allowed to become second-rate.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133188&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133171&contentPK=19785494&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

Added 12 February

£3.1M BOWLS PLAN FOR LIFE CENTRE 4 readers have commented on this story. 12 February 2008
Plymouth's new Life Centre will have bowls facilities worth £3.1 million, after bowlers sought help from a lecturer at UCP Marjon in drawing up a business plan.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133194&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133188&contentPK=19848589

FIGHT TO SAVE CENTRAL PARK TAKEN TO GOVERNMENT 20 readers have commented on this story. - 12 January 2008
A protest group is to appeal to a Government inspector as part of its campaign against multi-million-pound proposals to build on Central Park.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133194&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133188&contentPK=19528213

HUNDREDS OPPOSE CENTRAL PARK PLANS AT PROTEST 28 readers have commented on this story. Herald 11 February 2008
Hundreds of people signed a petition against Plymouth City Council plans for Central Park on Saturday.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133194&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133188&contentPK=19831046

BIG RESPONSE TO CENTRAL PARK PROTESTS 26 readers have commented on this story. - Herald 11 February 2008
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133188&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133171&contentPK=19837491

SELLING OFF THE FAMILY SILVER - Western Morning News - Neil Young - 9 Febrary 2008
Poor plymouth - not only is it blighted by the dead hand of the Ministry of Defence, which claims civic pride for turning a city of 250,000 people into a nuclear dump site, while MPs and council leaders cheer from the sidelines. But something else is happening that will further impoverish our public life. The family silver is being sold off, piece by piece.It's a calamity that is taking place nationwide, except that here it is pronounced. Plymouth looks and feels like a city in the throes of a political experiment. And the beneficiaries will be? Not the many, but a select few. Most of all they will be the developers who are somersaulting each other for a share of the loot.
http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=247715&command=displayContent&sourceNode=247705&contentPK=19822302&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

Last Chance to Save Your Park - letter from Pat Robinson 8 February 2008
: I would urge the people of Plymouth to protect their heritage in Central Park. The freedom to roam and exercise in the park will be significantly curtailed if these plans go ahead. http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133188&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133171&contentPK=19812889

Letter from Peter Towey, Secretary of Plymouth Civic Society 8 February 2008
(Link?)

Added 5 Feb 08:

5 February 2008 -COUNCIL BUDGET: MILLIONS EARMARKED FOR NEXT FIVE YEARS
outlines spending for the Council involving selling off £90m of community assets.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=181429&command=displayContent&sourceNode=229968&home=yes&more_nodeId1=133174&contentPK=19775801

4 February 2008 - LIFE CENTRE TO BRING THE BEST
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133188&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133171&contentPK=19763986&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

01 February 2008 CASE IS WEAK
The Life Centre will not save the NHS substantial sums of money
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133188&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133171&contentPK=19738083&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

30 January 2008 - ASSET-STRIPPED
Martin Edmonds writes: "Yet again Central Park is facing death from a thousand cuts and public land is being sold off for private profit."
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133188&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133171&contentPK=19710673&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

19 January 2008 - Letters in the Herald, (weblink not found)

Weak Vision
I recently questioned the ethics and wisdom of spending such a vast sum of public money (£44million ) on the Life Centre, but at the same time refusig to support something vitally mportant to the economy of this city - the airport.
With the above views in mind, I wrote to Alison Seabeck and she replied, 'The Life Centre can potentially be very good value for money if it achieves just one of its aims, which is to make the Plymouth population healthier. It can and should be able to save the NHS quite substantial sums in the long term".
You couldn't make it up, could you? Does Alison Seabeck not undersatnd that for £44million you could build two extra swimming pools, and supply every citizen of this city with a pair of trainers amd a slkipping rope, if you wanted them to get fit, and still leave £40 million to invest elsewhere, such as our airport?
I believe the whole matter of the Life Centre has been railroaded through, firstly by Tudor Evans and now by Vivien Pengelly with precious little consultation, and only now, after the council have approved it, are they asking for the public's opinion. Is this to satisfy the Government inspector? I thin it's a done deal in anyone's language.
If you feel as I do about the wastge of our valuable assets, then make your views known, either through this paper or directly to the council.
Sid Anning, Crownhill
I had a vision last night. I saw the Life Centre in Central Park; it was up and running. It was named 'The Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson Building'. Older readers may remember that they came second in the 1959 Eurovision song contest: that is, they were the winners of the losers. The song, by the way, was called Sing, Little Birdie! How about making my vision a reality?
Ray Buckley Morice Town.

14 January 2008 - LIFE CENTRE FACTS OUT
Labour Group leader Tudor Evans says the 'facts and figures' behind the £44million Life Centre plan for Central Park should be not be kept hidden. http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133188&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133171&contentPK=19542950&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

14 January 2008 - SECRET FIGURES ON LIFE CENTRE FUNDING WILL BE SHOWN TO COUNCILLORS 12 readers have commented on this story14 January 2008
Secret figures about how Plymouth will pay for the £44 million Life Centre are to be made available to city councillors at a crucial cross-party meeting later this month. http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133194&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133188&contentPK=19543043

12 January 2008 - FIGHT TO SAVE CENTRAL PARK TAKEN TO GOVERNMENT 18 readers have commented on this story.
A protest group - [Yes, Friends of Central Park!] is to appeal to a Government inspector as part of its campaign against multi-million-pound proposals to build on Central Park. http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133464&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133158&contentPK=19528213&folderPk=78031&pNodeId=135635

11 December 2007 - 'YOU LIED TO GET ELECTED' 16 readers have commented on this story.
Labour councillors have accused the Tories of lying about the future of Central Park. http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133188&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133171&contentPK=19222952&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

8 January 2008 - Reject focus on the sporting elite, letter in the Herald
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133188&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133171&contentPK=19479256
Paddy Ryan of the Plymouth Civic Society questions the focus of plans for the Life Centre on the elite. He writes that PCC's decision to build a £44million lifestyle project in Central Park, the largest single complex of its kind in the area, must be viewed within the context of the Director of Public Health's recent report on rising alcohol and durg absue by young people in Plymouth. He cites Glen Jordan, Cabinet member for healthy communities and leisure, who has said: "The Government agenda has changed from sport for all to elite sport, which fits in with the Life Centre's top-level facilities" (The Extra, December 20).

4 January 2008 - Park Housing, comment by John Hodgson
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133188&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133171&contentPK=19443984
During the PCC meeting on 10 December, Cllr Watkins stated that they were only replacing the houses that were bombed during the war. In fact the only houses that were ever on this site were the temporary prefabs built to help out the people of Plymouth left homeless due to the bombings, and as soon as new houses were built these prefabs were demolished and the site was turned back to parkland

2 January 2008 - Council set for housing battle, The Herald
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133188&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133171&contentPK=19418342&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

22 December 2007 - Tories slammed over park 'U-turn', The Herald
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133188&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133171&contentPK=19336609&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

Tudor Evans, the Labour leader, accused the Tories of breaking their election promises over housing development on the park and protecting playing fields.

19 December - Another Step for Life Centre, The Herald
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133188&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133171&contentPK=19301698&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

The go-ahead was given by Councillors to an increased budget of £44 million for the Life Centre in Central Park, to open in 2010/2011. Up from the previously-estimated £26.6 million in March 2007, the cash will be raised from 'already-agreed sales of council assets', and the project is expected to go out to tender next year. The report and recommendations will now go to the Overview and Scrutiny Commission. Councillors say the Centre will be 'one of the best outside London' - it will include an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a diving pool, a leisure pool, indoor bowling, an ice-rink, a climbing wall, a 12-court multi-sport hall, fitness suite, dance studio and health suite. The Mayflower Centre will be demolished and that area returned to open space.

10 and 18 December - CPAAP adopted

The draft Central Park Area Action Plan was adopted by Councillors at a meeting on 10 December: 26 votes for and 23 against (3 abstentions, 5 absent - including the Vice-Chair of the Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel) . It was then discussed further at a Council Cabinet meeting on 18 December - the plans include 84 new housing units and loss of 8 allotments at Outland Road / Peverell Park Corner as part of a bid for funding under the New Growth Points initiative. The Council has committed to start work on the Life Centre before the end of next year. During the Council meeting it was claimed that the Plan led to an increase of 6 acres of 'open space' plus net gain of allotments.

See the PCC website at:
http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/homepage/environmentandplanning/planning/planningpolicy/ldf/aaps/ldfcentralparkaap.htm
.A draft version of the Submission Area Action Plan adopted on Monday 10 December 2007 at 2.30pm is at Full Council Papers 10 December 2007. "

9 December 2007
Letter from Colin Trier to Councillor Ted Fry and response over proposed Area Action Plan inclusion of housing development and loss of allotments.

07 December 2007 - Central Park Secrecy Claims, the Herald
The council's 15-year action plan for Central Park - which The Herald unveiled last Saturday - has been hidden from most councillors, claims the city's Labour Party. The document will be debated by a full meeting of the city council next Monday. But Tudor Evans, Labour leader on the council, said that only three of his members had been given a paper copy of the action plan. The rest had been told that their copies were in the post.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=181429&command=displayContent&sourceNode=181429&contentPK=19185761

27 November 2007 - Tory plan for homes on Central Park claim
Conservative councillors are rushing through plans to build housing on Central Park on grounds of urgency, the Labour Party claims.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=181429&command=displayContent&sourceNode=181429&contentPK=19082474

May 2007. Local Elections:
The current Council leader, Vivien Pengelly, stated that planned developments will not take up any larger area - 'footprint' - than the current Mayflower leisure centre site, and that there will be no land sold off for housing development. Steve Ricketts and Andy Fox also reassured residents that there would be no housing development on Central Park. See promises...

December 09 2007

Dear Colin,

Thank you for taking the trouble to contact me with your concerns. For the first time since the Thomas Mawson plan of 1928, Council will tomorrow consider a deliverable plan which should provide more green space and reflect public concerns, eg no housing estate on the Park. There are proposals for improvements to the open space of the Park, improving its quality, its facilities and its biodiversity so as to make the Park a truly enjoyable place to visit. A quality destination that the citizens of the growing Plymouth will visit frequently and cherish. Somewhere which is held in high esteem by future generations.

Incidentally, I am this evening working on my words for tomorrow's Council. Hope that you are able to attend.

Regards Ted Fry

December 08, 2007 3:58 PM
To: Fry, Ted (CLLR); Savery, Thomas (CLLR); Stark, David (CLLR) Cc: Keith Rossiter (krossiter@eveningherald.co.uk) Subject: Central Park Area Action Plan 29, Eggbuckland Rd, Plymouth, PL3 5HF 8th December 2007
Open Letter to My Councillors

I wish to express my concern over the manner that the Area Action Plan for Central Park is being carried forward. My understanding is that the all important Full Council vote is being rushed through BEFORE the consultation period opens to the general public to review the plans. Yet this meeting on the 10th December will seal the fate of the plan beyond which point only objections within a VERY NARROW framework will be permissible. I consider the draft Area Action Plan for Central Park to contain some very serious flaws and these raise further questions that require clarification.

1/ Several conservative councillors including Mrs V Pengelly are on record before the recent elections as saying that the Conservatives would not allow new housing on Central Park if they were elected. Many people voted for them because of this. The Action Plan is a betrayal of this pre-election promise. Please see http://www.friendsofcentralpark.org.uk/promises.htm for more details of these promises.

2/ The proposals for the Northern Development require the removal of 6 allotments (actually it is 8 if you include two more which are not currently used). The land confiscated from the allotments will be used for private gardens creating a perimeter adjoining the park for the proposed development. Although the Plan offers to replace these allotments with nine new allotments created out of the existing open land on Central Park, this is disingenuous.

The two fundamental issues that make this a bad and wrong decision are first whether there is a sufficient justification in taking away a part of the priceless common heritage of the city park for the short term benefit of raising cash. Once the precedent is established, the park potentially will continue to be nibbled away, to provide new housing opportunities, every time the council is strapped for cash. This major city park is a one-off asset; we cannot expect in a foreseeable future any scenario in which the city will buy new park land in or around its centre. Therefore, to erode this priceless asset is sheer vandalism. Second the plan confiscates and sells off an asset that currently can be enjoyed by all the citizens of Plymouth, in order to put it into the hands of private individuals for their own personal pleasure. This is immoral and wrong. If this is what we can expect when Conservatives gain power then let us all beware!

3/ Finally we have a right to know, if the assets of the city are to be sold off to a private developer, what price tag will this priceless asset be valued at? I would request that as my councillor you consider carefully before voting in favour of this development proposal. My wishes as a member of your electorate are that you vote against it for all the reasons stated above.

Yours faithfully Colin Trier