Ice Land (Lambeth Liberal Democrats)

Lambeth Liberal Democrats <office@lambethlibdems.org.uk>

Ice Land

June 15, 2010 10:59 AM

Will Labour move Streatham's Ice Rink to Brixton?

Given the huge PR puff put out before the May elections from Labour saying that they'd saved the doomed Streatham Ice Rink at the last minute, things have gone remarkably quiet down at the Brixton Kremlin about this seemingly amazing eleventh hour deal.

Of course, being Labour, you had to read the fine print before discovering that the 'fantastic' deal in fact meant giving the green light to Tesco for an even bigger superstore, demolishing all the existing buildings in one go and building a temporary ice rink on Streatham Common. What?

Yes it took a while for everyone to consider the sheer stupidity of this proposal and for the combined forces of local mums, environmentalists and others to get together to oppose it. But oppose it they have. And so did we.

Then somebody noticed that there's a brilliant plot in the middle of Brixton owned by the Council that's been on ice, so to speak, for at least a year while somebody ponders what to do with it. In case you don't know, we're referring to the crumbling Pope's Road multi-storey car park.

Eureka moments don't come often - not in Lambeth anyway. But the hints that this might provide an ideal location for the temporary Ice rink have certainly caught the mood of the time. So this looks like a winning move by Labour to square an awkward political circle with only the market traders' noses put out of joint.

There are those, however, whispering darkly that all this might all be a sinister ploy by Labour to keep the Ice Rink in Brixton for good. After all why go to all the trouble and expense of building and running a temporary Ice Rink when you could build a permanent one? They only committed to continuity of ice provision, didn't they? Not continuity of ice provision in Streatham.

You can see the logic - nice new Ice Rink gets built right next to Brixton Recreation Centre. Everything vaguely sporty that anyone could wish for all in one place - and right in the centre of the cultural and Labour political universe, too.

Brixton gains: Streatham loses.

With no Ice Rink in Streatham and possibly no swimming pool either they save themselves a big headache and heaps of running costs too. The three Labour councillors stranded down in Streatham South are hardly going to rock the boat are they?

Maybe this particular scenario is a little lurid even for a rumour mill running at full chat. But with the current lack of any hard evidence about anything, the rumours will fly.

Perhaps the Council Leader, Steve Reed, needs to make a clear and unambiguous statement on what exactly is happening and when - and now possibly also where.

You showed us plenty of sauce before the election Steve - now show us the beef.