Fears over Tottenham regeneration plans

by Flora Drury Monday, August 20, 2012
7:00 AM

Trustees of a sports centre which helped gold medalist Nicola Adams to glory fear Tottenham’s Olympic legacy will be the centre’s closure to make way for a new-look High Road.

The trustees of Tottenham Community Sports Centre (TCSC) –which houses more than 70 groups including Haringey Police Community Boxing Club, where Adams spent four years training for glory – are worried Haringey Council has earmarked it for closure after seeing regeneration proposals for the area.

Secretary Kevin Lincoln believes the council, owner of the ex-Territorial Army premises in the High Road, intends to move the charity off the site which it has rented for the last 43 years.

Fears were raised when the trustees came across plans at a regeneration workshop where the centre was listed for improvement.

Mr Lincoln said: “They had three options they were putting forward for discussion. They had even got the models built to show what they wanted to do.

“If we have interpreted the regeneration plans correctly, it’s sad to think that in Olympic year, Tottenham’s Olympic legacy may well be the closure of our valuable resource that has served the area through the good and the bad.”

The council have dismissed their fears as “scaremongering”, adding there were no plans to make the sports centre leave its premises and it was simply looking for people to come forward with ideas “to transform north Tottenham and enhance facilities”.

“It is disappointing that rather than enter into a meaningful dialogue with the council the TCSC have chosen to issue misleading statements,” the spokesman said.

Yet the trustees are not the only ones who have been worried by the council’s vision for regeneration up to 2025, outlined in its Plan for Tottenham.

The Love Lane Residents’ Association is worried one of the blocks on the estate, near White Hart Lane station, will be bulldozed to complete Tottenham Hotspur’s Northumberland Park Project.

Secretary Tony Flint said: “The estate has been here 50 years this year, but if Spurs have their way at least one of these buildings will be coming down just to make a walkway for their supporters for nine months of the year.

“It’s going to completely change the area. A lot of people want to stay on the estate; they were born here, they raised their children here.

“I suspect the plans are a lot further advanced than what we are being told. Tottenham needs and deserves to be regenerated but for people to lose their homes - I am sure the council can get round that problem.”

But a council spokesperson said there were no definite plans for the walkway, with the final master plan influenced by local people. “As made clear in our Plan for Tottenham, we are committed to improving Tottenham for everyone who lives and works in the area, and we are eager to ensure that local communities are fully involved in those improvements.”