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Derelict: The golf and tennis school in Regent’s Park |
Golf and tennis school is set to be pulled down
Bulldozer threat to park’s sporting centre despite big campaign
A POPULAR golf and tennis centre in Regent’s Park that has been derelict for two years is set to be bulldozed, despite park bosses finally ditching plans to build a sports complex on the site.
Royal Parks Agency bosses are under pressure to reopen the Golf and Tennis School, near London Zoo, after five-a-side football giant Goals Ltd confirmed it was no longer interested in building in Regent’s Park.
A spokesman for Goals said they “will not be making a revised or new application for the provision of a sports facility on the Holford House site or elsewhere within Regent’s Park”.
The 100-year-old golf and tennis school was closed in March 2007 as part of plans to build the football centre, along with a licensed bar and car park, in a four-acre public meadow known locally as Holford House.
But the Goals scheme was thrown out by Westminster City Council planning chiefs later that year following a heavyweight campaign from 1,200 members of the Friends of Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill group, Lord Levene, Baron Claus Moser and human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC.
The school’s owner Chris Meadows, now a golf correspondent for the American Cable News Network (CNN), said: “The whole episode is totally bizarre. They just closed it on a whim and now they won’t reopen it – despite a real shortage of sports facilities in London.
“There needs to be a proper inquiry.”
A Royal Parks spokeswoman told the West End Extra the proposals were based solely on advice from Dame Jennifer Jenkins, the widow of Lord Jenkins of Hillhead, in a report published 16 years ago.
The campaign to save the school ended in tragedy when – on the night the planning application was rejected in December 2007 – popular Russian tennis coach Yuri Ouvarov, 53, took his own life outside the court he had worked at for 16 years.
Campaigners were due discuss the closure with culture minister Barbara Follett at an annual meeting yesterday (Thursday).
Friends of Regent’s Park chairman Malcolm Kafetz, who led the campaign against Goals, said: “While we are very disappointed with the results of our efforts to save the golf and tennis school, we must rejoice in the fact that Goals have confirmed they are not interested in building anywhere in Regent’s Park.”
A spokeswoman for the park added: “We have concluded that the previously stated aim of re-incorporating the redundant site back into the park remains the most appropriate action.
“We will discuss plans in more detail over the summer.”
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