I am pleased to read that Stanhope and Schroeders have come up with a sensible, and speedy, development plan for Dingwall Road (the cancer in the heart of Croydon).
Should their plans be approved, they claim that the site will be fully redeveloped by 2007.
There is one problem with this plan, it does not contain an arena.
Now, the lack of an arena poses no problem to me; nor indeed, I suspect, to the majority of the residents of Croydon. However, our beloved council (the same people who have brought us to the edge of bankruptcy) have an obsession with building a monument to their criminal waste of resources.
What better way to remind us of their incompetence, than to build a 12,500 seat arena; that will add nothing tangible to the Borough?
The council's preferred developer, Arrowcroft, have tabled plans for an arena. The trouble is, the land which they intend to build this folly on is owned by Stanhope.
This means that, if the council insist on pushing ahead with their wasteful and redundant plan, the development of Dingwall road will be held up for at least a decade; as lawyers for the various parties involved battle it out.
The citizens of Croydon will be emasculated spectators, wringing their hands as they watch the ongoing decay of the town centre.
Now is the time to tell the council to drop their ridiculous plan for an arena.
We want to see Dingwall Road redeveloped now, not in ten or more years time.
A date has been finally set for the public inquiry into Croydon's unitary development plan, the blueprint for the borough's development for the next 10 years. It is time for the people of Croydon to reject the absurd idea for the construction of an arena.
We don't want, or need it.
What we want is a speedy, aesthetically pleasing, redevelopment of the Dingwall road site.
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