We are disappointed with the Conservative Council’s decision to ignore the concerns of 1657 residents who signed the petition regarding the future of Croft playing fields.
Pictured: Councillor Nadine Watts and local campaigner Bob Cretchley
We are disappointed with the Conservative Council’s decision to ignore the concerns of 1657 residents who signed the petition regarding the future of Croft playing fields.
They also disregarded the views of many residents who attended the Full Council meeting back in the summer. Labour Councillors believe that the Croft playing fields and car park should have been taken out of the lease.
As the Conservative Councillors were not prepared to take the fields and car park out of the lease, we had advocated adding extra safeguards to the lease to ensure the long term future of the facility at Croft but sadly this was ignored.
We can take small satisfaction that the Conservative Councillors did listen to ours and local residents’ calls to not lease Croft Leisure Centre for 99 years and the lease has been reduced to 25 years with a keep-open clause of 10 years. The Council's aim is to transfer the 6 leisure centres including Croft to Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) in November.
We share many residents' concerns regarding the long term future of Croft and will do all that we can to protect the open green space.