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Islington Tribune - by TOM FOOT
Published: 5 September 2008

Cllr Ruth Polling

SOBELL TO BE DEMOLISHED

Council under fire as consultation yields less than 3 per cent response

THE Sobell Leisure Centre, one of north London’s best known sporting facilities, is set to demolished – whether regulars like it or not.
Liberal Democrats were accused of pressing ahead with the plan without properly checking with the centre’s users and residents living nearby that they are happy with the move.
Only 2.7 percent of the 60,000 people the Town Hall asked about the scheme responded and council chiefs were warned they do not have a mandate to go-ahead.
Protests over the future of the sports centre in Hornsey Road, Holloway, were waved away as leisure bosses were accused of failing to treat residents like grown-ups.
Some opponents would rather see the crumbling sports centre refurbished rather than knocked down.
Under plans to be recommended at the council’s cabinet meeting next Thursday, the Sobell would be rebuilt with four new housing blocks on the site.
Fears the park surrounding the centre will be lost forever and that the credit crunch and crashing property prices will make the housing element unfeasible have not dampened enthusiasm for the project among the Lib Dems.
But the council is now under pressure to explain why it thinks its consultation programme – which saw only 1,500 people out of 60,000 residents in the north of the borough who were invited to give their views actually respond – justifies pressing ahead with the proposals.
Architect James Dunnett said: “It is all very well building more houses but not if it has a negative impact on the homes that are already there.
“I think the council should be looking more closely at refurbishing the building – that was not properly addressed in the consultation.”
The council will spend £12 million rebuilding Sobell and incorporating a swimming pool. It hopes to rake in £15 million through the sale of luxury and affordable homes in the process.
Gordon Kerr, a squash player and regular user of the centre, said: “The idea that we will lose a centre for two years is appalling. There is no concrete evidence whatsoever that the building needs to be demolished.”
Labour councillor Phil Kelly said: “I don’t think the consultation was satisfactory. It was not a dialogue.
“If they treated people like grown ups they wouldn’t have found this level of opposition. The council needs to include local people.”
Green councillor Katie Dawson said: “Islington don’t know the meaning of consultation. They haven’t even explored the refurbishment which would mean less disruption.”
But Lib Dem councillor Ruth Polling, Islington’s leisure chief who is managing the scheme, said: “It is true that people living nearby did not want there to be so many homes – and there were some that wanted refurbishment.
“But on the whole I think we are doing the right thing.
“This has been the largest consultation on a single project in Islington’s history.”
She added: “We have been very cautious with our calculations because of the situation with the housing market.
“The estimates are based on the absolute minimum yields from housing. We are regularly monitoring the market to make sure we are not being to bold with our figures.”

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OVER half a million people a year, many of them children, use the facilities at the Sobell. There are no alternative facilities anywhere near the Sobell. The building is basically sound and fit for purpose. It should not be demolished. It needs a little refurbishment. If need be, housing could be provided along the road frontages of the site, without demolishing the Sobell.
A. Marsh