Ice Age Retreat (Lambeth Liberal Democrats)

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

Ice Age Retreat

July 23, 2010 3:17 PM

Glacier Geologists tell us that the last great Ice Age was 20,000 years ago but for many Streatham residents the wrangling over when a new Ice Arena will be built there seems to be taking just about as long.

Now a new and worrying factor has emerged - just where will the new Ice Sheet finally emerge?

Just before the May Elections, the Lambeth Labour Leader announced with a flourish that a new deal had been made with Tesco that would guarantee that a new Leisure Centre would finally be built and built sooner.

When the fine print was finally digested, not only had Cllr Reed agreed to let Tesco flatten the whole site and build a store that was 50% bigger but to keep the promise of continuity of ice he'd also agreed to let them build a temporary ice rink on - er -Streatham Common.

The outcry that followed has led to an equally rapid rethink - and the Ice has now retreated north to Brixton. The case for a supposed temporary ice rink in Brixton is to be put to Cabinet on Monday 26th July and has not stopped many Streatham folk from smelling several brown furry rodents.

One concern is that Brixton is - well - not Streatham. Another is that once secured in Labour's heartland the ice may never return to sunny Streatham. And of Labour's commitment to residents swimming again in unfrozen waters south of the South Circular, there is currently no word at all.

Thankfully Streatham's new Labour MP was on the case and convened a Public Question Time meeting on this very subject on 22nd July - only a rat's whisker away from the Cabinet Meeting set to decide the issue.

On the panel was the officer in charge of regeneration in Lambeth who had a somewhat tenuous grasp on the history of the Streatham Ice Age (Rink) and seemed to think there had been no previous agreement to open a new leisure centre before the supermarket opened its freezers, and a Labour Cabinet member for Culture & Sport - and seemingly Brixton - who had little to add after being only two months into the job.

At the other end of the table was an amiable Tesco Corporate Affairs Manager who claimed that the well-known grocer really did not know much about running Ice Rinks but clearly, some observers opined afterwards, knew exactly how to run rings around Lambeth Council.

Residents were pretty clear that they did not want the temporary Ice Rink on Streatham Common and that they didn't want it in Brixton either.

Most wondered quite why the Lambeth Labour Leader had agreed to Tesco demands to clear the site that had led to this awkward conundrum in the first place. But of him there was no sign.

The first MP's Question Time provided no real answers, either. So it is left for another night and another venue to see where Streatham's fast retreating ice might eventually end up next.