Secrecy Descends Around Future Clapham

11.14.00am GMT Wed 19th Dec 2007

Labour have kept this office block empty for 18 months. Now they want to decide its future in secret.

Lambeth's ruling Labour administration is holding an emergency cabinet meeting on Thursday 20 December to discuss its Future Clapham project. Liberal Democrats have been astonished to learn, however, that Labour intends to make a key decision on Clapham's future while keeping much of the report secret from members of the public, press, or opposition councillors.

The special Cabinet meeting of Labour's top brass is apparently running scared of any open involvement with community partners in the run-up to making a crucial decision on a major regeneration project which it claims was also a vital part of its election victory in May 2006.

Due to the extreme sensitivity of the expected decision, the meeting is also being held just days before the start of the Christmas and New Year Holidays. A good time to bury bad news?

Future Clapham is a project originally conceived and started by the Liberal Democrat-led administration between 2002-2006 to replace run-down Council-owned offices (Mary Seacole House) with a state-of-the-art swimming pool and leisure centre, a brand new library, a modern drop-in point to access all Council services, and much needed new homes.

The Lib Dem proposals would have meant that Clapham's much loved but outdated swimming pool could have remained open while its replacement was built in Clapham High Street on the empty Mary Seacole site.

Since Labour took over the project they have carried out a series of high profile if aspirational public meetings while at the same time engaging with secret meetings with private developers. Even though a preferred developer and final scheme is already thought to have been chosen, Labour Town Hall politicians have taken the unusual step of keeping all supporting paperwork being presented to the cabinet secret.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Brian Palmer said, "I am at a loss to understand why the supporting paperwork or the name of the successful developer has to be kept secret. You would think that Future Clapham is something that Labour politicians would want to trumpet. After all they made all sorts of promises at the last election. Residents deserve better than being offered Secret Clapham."

Cllr Palmer added, "I think it is of the utmost importance that local people are given their say on the final proposals - after all, they are the ones who will have to live with the results. All this secrecy shows that Labour does not trust the people it claims to represent. If they renege on their promise to keep existing swimming facilities open, for instance, we will call for a major public meeting to hold them to account."