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Planners must insist that sports centre is replaced
• WELL done, Arsenal and Islington and all the other groups for the excellent cycling and sports fair that took place around the Emirates Stadium on Saturday – a brilliant and free day out for lots of people.
We should all recognise the huge contribution that Arsenal makes in our communities, including coaching in schools, the regeneration of football areas on estates and the provision of football facilities in parks.
The Sobell Centre has been a great boost to our borough for more than 30 years, with its gyms, climbing wall, courts, pitches and ice rink. It is clear that it requires refurbishment, and I hope that all its facilities will be retained and developed.
We should not, however, forget the loss of the excellent Arsenal JVC Sports Centre at the old Highbury Stadium. Islington Council accepted £1.8million from Arsenal to replace the centre’s facilities.
This, sadly, has not happened, and there are as yet no plans for a sports centre at Arsenal’s final development site in Queensland Road.
Come on, Islington! As the planning authority, you should defend the undertaking given to replace the JVC Centre, instead of, as seems likely, using Arsenal’s money to subsidise the Sobell redevelopment.
JEREMY CORBYN
Labour MP, Islington North
• I SPOTTED some misleading messages in your recent article and I fear some of your readers might have gained the impression that Arsenal’s plans for Queensland Road have been finalised and that the sports centre campaign has run out of steam (Blow to Emirates sports centre, June 20).
Not so! The Queensland Road plans seem over-ambitious and need to be re-aligned with the ever-changing real world. Earlier this month, some representatives of Arsenal distributed a glossy colour brochure containing computer-generated illustrations of how the area might look if the developers’ plans were approved.
No doubt these designs have been vetted by structural engineers and money lenders, but they might not stand up to scrutiny by crime prevention experts. There are no signs of any play areas, green spaces or community shops to balance out the high-density housing (700 new homes in a complex rising to 21 storeys).
A surplus-to-requirements cinema has been superimposed onto the perfect site for a much-needed affordable sports centre.
The latest plans do not include a sports centre, but the latest plans are not the final plans. And while there is scope for improvement in the developers’ plans, there is every reason for this campaign to continue.
The campaign’s audience might have changed. It is being championed by different people in different places, and its methods have evolved, with a change of emphasis. But the campaign is alive and well and it is here to stay.
When the final planning decision on a sports centre is made there will be two possible outcomes – everybody wins or everybody loses.
IAN SHACKLOCK
Monsell Road, N4
• THERE were some good points made about the Sobell Centre (Leisure centre or housing estate with swimming pool, June 20). People are waking up to what the Lib Dems are about – if it belongs to the people of Islington the Lib Dems will sell it off to developers.
The Sobell is 30 years old, has a leaking roof and lighting and ventilation need replacing so let’s demolish the whole building. What if we demolished every 30-year-old building that needed such repairs.
This is a land grab for luxury housing, under the pretext of providing new sports facilities including a swimming pool. Lib Dem councillor Ruth Polling talks about demolishing the Sobell as being radical and exciting for the 500,000 people who use it each year. When does demolishing something so popular become radical and exciting? Investing in refurbishing and maintenance would be radical and exciting.
Archway Pool, Islington’s only leisure pool, has been closed over the past couple of weekends at the height of summer due to staff shortages. This is another facility the Lib Dems want to demolish for luxury housing.
I question the Lib Dems’ commitment to sport and leisure and would not trust them to replace the facilities available now at either the Sobell Centre or the Archway Pool.
TRICIA CLARKE
Yerbury Road, N1
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