Pete Wade

Streatham in the last 10 or so years is a story of the local authorities over-promising and simply not delivering. Having lived in different parts of Lambeth and Wandsworth in the late 1990s and early 2000s, we moved to Streatham about 6 years ago. Like many, we saw the attractiveness of relatively low cost housing (for SW London), tree-lined streets, and the promise of investment into local projects such as:
1. The Streatham Hub
2. The regeneration of the High Road (improved paving, lighting, and shops such as the Iceland façade, and the “dip” near Streatham station)
3. Improved facilities at the previously grand Tate library, enabling local people to better educate themselves
4. A turnaround of places (such as Streatham Leisure Centre) where everyone, but especially the young, could take part in sport, get fitter, and improve their social well-being
5. The regeneration of social centres to take people of the streets and have some fun, such as the development of the former Megabowl and Caesars Nightclub

The local authority, for one reason or another, has failed to deliver on any of these promises, and as a result it has failed the people who fund it and more importantly the people most in need who rely on it:
• Not a single stone has been broken in the development of the Streatham Hub despite promised completion dates dating back to 2003. If the buildings were as high as the promises and newspaper column inches that have been given by the Streatham authorities we would have a skyline to compete with some of the biggest and best cities in the world
• The High Road remains a place where people only shop when they cannot get an item elsewhere. While the central part of the High Road now does have some trees and the central brick bollards removed, the rest remains a deeply depressing place to shop. Moreover, the recent development highlights the broken local planning process: as the builders moved in to finally lay the paving, they found that the plans contravened safety regulations and had to go back to the drawing-board, costing more time and money
• The Tate library is falling apart and will soon be unusable
• The Streatham Leisure centre is now closed. On the way to Streatham station yesterday I found that it has now been completely boarded-up with notices saying that it is closed until further notice. There is no worse signal to the young people of the area who used the facility that its local government has deserted it. Is it any wonder that some of the young people in the area choose a life of crime rather than trust the empty words of the local council? The council will of course blame Tesco, other small vested interests, or the tight cost constraints imposed by the “Credit Crunch”. On passing the building I noticed that the foundation stone was laid in 1928. Most public buildings have a usable lifetime of around 60 years. There is no excuse for not planning and delivering on the replacement of this facility in those timeframes
• The development of the social facilities is beset by delays. It is clear that decisive decision-making is absent. The minority of people who fear that the Megabowl redevelopment is one storey too high are able to hold sway over the vast majority who just want better than an empty, boarded-up monstrosity on their high street

I love this area. I am passionate about making this area better for everyone. Much of the good things that I have seen happen in the past 6 years have not come from government or the local council. They have come from people willing to take things into their own hands: building a local nursery, tidying their garden, getting involved in local community projects. This post is intended to be a small push in that direction: to get like-minded people together to take the lead, and perhaps also (I hope) put pressure on the local council to finally deliver the bigger projects that this community desperately needs.
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