SOS would like to provide a brief update of the current position regarding our campaign to bring back greyhound racing to Walthamstow Stadium.

We are delighted to report that our recent local media campaign was hugely successful. This culminated in many thousands of letters being sent to the council in support of our aim to protect Walthamstow Stadium under planning law. It also gave us the opportunity to meet with the public and further cement the overwhelming local support that our campaign enjoys. We would like to thank all SOS supporters that helped with this.

We are also pleased to advise that matters are progressing positively ‘behind the scenes’ and we have handed matters over to the financiers.

As a gesture of goodwill to London and Quadrant and to help facilitate a potential deal to be made, SOS are suspending their campaign and we are making no further press comment until further notice.

There’s a photography exhibition on at Vestry House Museum, Vestry Road, E17 which documents the staff and stadium in the run up it’s closure. The exhibition by Katherine Green, mixes photography and oral histories. There’s also a book available online from Blurb.

Please find attached to this post a press release from Save Our Stow with regards to the recently issued Walthamstow Greyhound Stadium Urban Design Guidance.  Also attached is a copy of the draft letter we would like everyone to print out and post to Waltham Forest Council

Press Release 24-07-09

Draft Letter supporting Walthamstow Stadium

Draft Letter supporting Walthamstow Stadium

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Although L&Q seem to want to convince everyone the residential development of Walthamstow Stadium is a done deal this is far from the case. Waltham Forest Council has called for public opinion on how land in the borough should be used as a final stage of their preparation of the new Local Development Framework (LDF) which will guide future development until 2026.

They have called for (Via their borough newsletter) the public to tell them about ‘Sites you think should be protected – for example open space for recreational use, or an employment site that you think should be protected to provide local jobs etc.’

Clearly the Greyhound Stadium scores high on both the recreation and local jobs issues.

This is a perfect opportunity to let the council and the planners know how important the dog track is to the people of Waltham Forest and to London as a whole.

Please write to the address below and state your opinion. Individual letters carry most weight, particularly from residents of the borough The Council does however, have to take account of London wide issues in this LDF and anyone in the capital can have a say on this.

We also provide below a draft letter you can add your name and address to and send on if you are not quite sure how to make your point. Feel free to add your own comments should you decide to use our draft.

Please send (before 27^th August 2009) to

By email

planning.policy@walthamforest.gov.uk

There is a ‘call for sites’ form on the council’s website (www.walthamforest.gov.uk/ldf) that you can use if you like

By post to

Yesterday, Nick Budimir, was named as the businessman leading a substantive team of investors who intend to make an offer to buy the Stow. Budimir would like to meet L&Q at the earliest possible opportunity with a view to buying the stadium and returning it to greyhound racing. Walthamstow’s Labour MP Neil Gerrard and Liberal Democrat deputy leader of Waltham Forest Council, John Macklin will help broker the meeting.

See the video of Ricky Holloway’s speech on Vimeo: SOS 4 July 2009 from Stow Judge

Thanks to all who turned up to support Save Our Stow today, here a report from the local paper and there’s a report from the BBC and Sky to follow.

Save Our Stow protetst rally this Saturday 4th July. Meet outside the stadium at 12 noon, to make sure it’s heard loud and clear that we haven’t forgotten about our track, we want it back and we’re fed up of L&Q and the Council’s lack of action! Please spread the word and we look forward to seeing you all.

 Mr J Geoghegan
Group Director, Development
London and Quadrant
Osborn House
Osborn Terrace
London SE3 9DR

24 June 2009

Dear Mr Geoghegan

WALTHAMSTOW STADIUM

I am disappointed to note that our broker Richard Leach has not received a reply to his letter of 14 May 2009 in which Richard suggested a meeting to discuss leasing and outright purchase options relating to the Stadium.

I am aware of your conditions before you would consider any bid to purchase the stadium outright.

My disappointment is levied at your unwillingness to consider a lease of the stadium. Richard’s letter detailed interest in leasing the site at an annual rent of around £750,000 with a security deposit of around £1,000,000. The sum of £750,000 per annum equates to a return of 4.17% on your £18m investment which is extremely attractive in today’s market. If you require proof of funds in respect of the £1m deposit, we would be very happy to provide this to you.

Your letter of 4 June 2009 to Neil Gerrard MP mentions that ‘we have had offers for temporary lease arrangements but again for a number of reasons these have not been sustainable’. On behalf of the residents of Waltham Forest and ex employees of the track would you please clarify precisely what you mean by this? The only reference you have made to us in this connection that we are aware of is detailed in your letter of 2 October 2008 in which you stated;

L&Q: We do not wish to be legally associated with the running of a greyhound stadium.
Our response : you are clearly willing to be associated with a derelict site costing many hundreds of thousands of pounds of partly tax payers money with your actions preventing the creation of over 500 jobs for the borough’s residents and an inexpensive night out that has been enjoyed by the borough’s residents for the last 80 years.

 L&Q: The offer was made unsubstantiated.
Our response: Above, we have offered to prove our ability to pay the deposit-what other substantiation do you require?

L&Q: We are not the owners of the car park which previously served the stadium and believe this would give rise to some serious legal, planning and public safety issues.
Our response: We appreciate that we would need to demonstrate to the local authorities including the police that there would be sufficient parking and safety procedures in place but we are extremely confident that this would be secured.

L&Q: We do not wish to divert our resources allocated to this scheme, from our primary aim of creating a mixed tenure residential stadium.
Our response : As mentioned above, you seem willing to divert resources to keep the stadium derelict rather than spend a nominal amount in legal fees etc to secure income of £750,000 per annum.

You state that you CREATE PLACES WHERE PEOPLE WANT TO LIVE. People in the main do not want to live close to a derelict site when the alternative is the creation of jobs and leisure facilities for the borough’s residents. We appeal to you to consider the views of the borough’s residents, councillors and local MP’s. If you wish to put this to the test we would happily take part in a phone vote organised by the local Guardian newspaper in which they ask the borough’s residents-do they want their dog track back now or the possibility of houses sometime in the future?

We wish to remind you that the iconic site has leisure as its use on the deeds and you will fail to get a change of use as this will be blocked at every stage.

Despite the reasons given we believe the real reason you will not lease the site is simple-you know that we will prove the viability of the site as a greyhound track, thus ruining your slim chances of developing the site.

You had previously stated that plans would be submitted during late 2008 and now it is clear that they will not be submitted for some years to come, if indeed ever. So we should be most grateful if you would reconsider our offer to lease the stadium from you for the ultimate benefit of the borough’s residents.

Yours sincerely

 Mr Richard Holloway

Cc Neil Gerrard MP
Iain Duncan Smith MP
Ms Stella Creasy
Cllr John Macklin
Cllr Matthew Davis
Cllr Chris Robbins

It’s now almost a year since the Stadium closed and both L&Q and the Council seem to have done nothing to move this fowards.

1. See the following letter from L&Q to Neil Gerrard MP, they have clearly changed their stance. They told us last year that plans for the buildings future would have already been submitted by now, they have not – now they talk about a ‘viable long term project’  – which means it will likely stay empty for years.
   

   click to enlarge

2. In this letter they mention ‘varied reasons’ why our lease offer is not sustainable – yet have not supplied or communicated any. We can’t think of any reasons why leasing could not happen and if L&Q care to communicate their ‘varied reasons’ for this not being sustainable, we would be happy to address this.
3. Meanwhile, Waltham Forest Council promised an independent study, by Urban Practitioners, about the use of the land by the end of 2008 – this still has not been published. Why is this?

Demonstration

In response to this total lack of action, we are organising a demonstration on Saturday 4th July, it will start at 12 noon and people should gather outside the stadium. We need to get this back on the agenda, get questions answered and get L&Q and the Council to address this mess!

Write to your Councillors

Remember – there will be a local election next year and your local representatives will need your vote soon, what are they doing about the ‘Stow and those 500 + jobs that have been lost. Writing to them takes 5 minutes using this automated site, www.writetothem.com, and you must insist they reply to you.

The Racing Post have a story today about potential moves forwards for L&Q and the consortium http://www.racingpost.com/news/greyhounds/