Dear Glyn
Many thanks for your email and letter of 18th December and apologies for not replying to you sooner. I have read this very carefully and whilst I agree with many of the points you are making, there are others where I do not share your view. I will try to respond point by point, and on those items where I don't know the answer I will try to find out for you.
I agree with your general observation that we are being repeatedly asked to trust a Council when its previous track record on York Hall and the Leisure Contract for LBTH would suggest that this was foolish. I have spent considerable time over the past months applying considerable pressure on the Council to engage the community in planning the future of York Hall and to release information to us at various points along the way when officers' tendency has been to hide behind a veil of secrecy or commercial confidentiality. I do not have as much experience of you of being asked to put faith in officers. However, in their defence (and in particular of Paul Martindill in charge of the Leisure Contract), most of the current group were not around when the admittedly distastrous CCL contract was let, and I dont think they can be blamed for the far longer period of deterioration of York Hall. In other words I have been prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt and will continue to do so. This is not to say that I wont continue to exert pressure and influence on them to respond to user and community views.
I agree with you that the work of the Consultative Group has not been an entirely satisfactory process. More (lukewarm) heat than light being generated over a considerable number of months. Nevertheless, the process and, I believe, the outcome have been far more constructive and positive than things we have experienced (e.g. Hillier Parker) in the past. Of course things could have been better. However, as you well know there was a sense back in April that the campaign to save York Hall had succeded and a lot of the good will and energy then, quite understandaly, dissipated. You warned me then that the Council's proposals for a Consultative Group would buy off the community and sap our energies and to an extent that might have happened, but I honestly do not see it quite so starkly as a "them" and "us" sutuation. This may be niaivety; I would prefer to think it was optimism.
As for your specific points:
1. I will find out this information (costs of the Consultative Group) for you by way of a Member's Enquiry.
2. I agree with you about the tendency of consultants not to ask the people who really know! I will also make enquiries to establish why, if these health and safety repairs are so urgent, they havent been addressed before now.
3. My understanding from working on the Consultative Group and of the nature of the plant and systems at York Hall is that a phased refurbishment whilst possible to an extent, cannot avoid a certain period when the facility would temporarily need to be closed. It will be up to a properly constituted User Group working closely with the new leisure contractor and the Council to ensure that the closure was time-defined and that there were penalties built in for any overrun. York Hall will not be a Poplar Baths 2.
4. You and Jan Bros may be right about the development potential of Mayfield House and that the report underestimates this. However, the community representatives on the Group took advice from property specialists and this is what is reflected in the options presented. The development footprint on the whole site would have to be significantly enlarged (from the current size of Mayfield - ie up as well as laterally) in order to generate anything like the level of investment needed to fund York's Hall modernisation.
5. £600k are These are the fu
6. I agree with you about the supposed costs of relocation of the Somali Centre and will ask for clarification of this figure.
7. I agree that the Funding Options paper is poor. Though I share the paper's general pessimism in terms of the accessibility of significant levels of grant funding for York Hall given the current climate and trends (lottery, EU, regeneration etc).
Turning to your helpful and sensible suggestions:
a) I would like to explore the possibility of taking YH out of the borough wide contract and running it as a separate entity; this was what lay behind my trying (ulitmately without success) to get the Council to let us meet the prospective contractors. I will make further enquiries on this point. However, I would be more confident of YH's succeeding as a venue if one of the contractors were to be invited to take it over and kept YH within the leisure contract.
b) We have asked for this repeatedly. My conclusion, incredibly I know, is that the Council only has partial financial data/management information on this.
c) I could see some value in doing this, but not beyond getting the Council to pay . . .
d) and e) contain possible ideas which the Group have looked at in the Report.
You are right to stress the urgency of this now. The Cabinet of Tower Hamlets Council is due to take a decision on York Hall and the letting of the new Leisure Contract at its meeting on 11th February. I will make sure that the User/Campaign Group has deputation rights and can speak at the meeting. Ahead of that it would be good to convene a meeting of the User Group to discuss specific tactics. I will call you to arrange a meeting which we probably need to hold in the next couple of weeks.
I hope this is helpful.
Cheers
JOhn
Cllr. John Griffiths
(Bethnal Green North Ward)
134 Old Ford Road
London E2 9PW
(Bethnal Green North Ward)
134 Old Ford Road
London E2 9PW
----- Original Message -----From: GlynRobbins@...Cc: Yorkhall@...Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2004 3:04 PMSubject: [Yorkhall] WIll appreciate a reply......to my letter on York Hall, sent to you by email on 18th Dec. Doesn't need to be a line by line response, but I would like to know what's happening. Am very conscious that crucial decisions re. York Hall are being taken soon.
Best
G
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