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Protesters set for pitches battle
Campaigners opposing soccer complex development to march through park
BROADCASTER Sue MacGregor will lead hundreds of protesters through Regent’s Park on Sunday in a last-ditch bid to scupper plans to build a five-a-side football complex near London Zoo.
Ms McGregor CBE, who headed-up BBC Radio’s Today Programme for 18 years and played a key role in the fight against South African apartheid during the 1980s, will join the Friends of Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill for the demonstration at 11am.
They are mobilising over an application from Royal Parks Agency and Goals Soccer Centres that will see nine pitches, a fully licensed clubhouse and a car park built on a popular meadow.
The powerful lobby group, which has 1,200 members, is expecting “hundreds” to march ahead of a crunch planning meeting on December 13.
Malcolm Kafetz, chairman of the friends’ group, said: “This development will destroy more than 60 trees, the habitat of bats, tawny owls and a haven of tranquillity and transform it into a noisy flood-lit area of netting and artificial turf.”
He added: “We will meet at the east side of the blue Hanover Island Bridge 10.30am and will walk to Holford House for 11am.”
The Royal Parks Agency, who have increasingly been forced into using their green spaces for commercial gain after the government slashed their funding by £7 million, claim local schools will use the pitches for sport.
Regent’s Park manager Nick Biddle said: “The proposal will bring 400 hours a week of sports to the local schools and will provide badly needed space for sport and exercise, including five-a-side football, kwik-cricket, mini-hockey and touch rugby.
“Everyone is conscious about keeping kids healthy and out of trouble, and this proposal will make a vital contribution to some of the less privileged sections of our community. There have been a lot of poorly informed rumours about the proposed sports facility but we remain hopeful that the planning process will see the health and community benefits brought by the new pitches.”
The application, which has drawn more objections than any other in Westminster council’s history, has become a political hot potato.
Dominant Conservative councillors in Westminster have opposed the plans and last week accused the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and Labour MP for Regent’s Park Karen Buck, who are also now objecting to the scheme, of “jumping on the bandwagon”.
Locally, high-profile figures including journalist Sir Simon Jenkins, the leading QC Geoffrey Robertson, and Baron Claus Moser are opposing the plans.
Lord Coe, heading the build-up to the London 2012 Olympic Games, is backing the scheme.
Privately, Westminster councillors fear that although the application is unwanted by all local politicians and community leaders it will be passed because it complies with planning regulations.
It will be heard by planning officials in Westminster Council in City Hall, Victoria, on December 13 at 7pm. |
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