Petition updateStop the demolition of Kingston's Kingfisher Leisure CentreKingfisher demolition - The drowning out of Kingston's existing communities for gentrification?
Caroline ShahKingston upon Thames, ENG, United Kingdom
Sep 26, 2021

Thank you to everyone who has continued to sign and share this petition

The latest article by Ruby Gregory from My London News on the council's plans to raze The Kingfisher to the ground with no guaranteed or funded replacement focuses very much on damaging social and community impacts of the plans for The Kingfisher and the wider Cattle Market sites.

The Kingfisher must not be demolished, at the very least, because there are:

  • No firm plans for what facilities WILL be provided in an eventual new centre
  • No indication of proportion of new facilities that will NOT be freely available for general public use
  • No final cost figures for whatever MAY replace The Kingfisher
  • No FUNDING available for the unknown costs of building the unknown facilities
  • No COMMITTED amount of SOCIAL housing on the adjacent Cattle Market Site

In addition:

  • Kingston Council has been spending millions of pounds on mock "consultations" and architects "plans" with NO evidence of any community benefit to their plans because they may never be able to realise them
  • The millions of pounds already spent could have been used to mend the roof of The Kingfisher and reopen the Centre

Perhaps the most shocking fact is that, by demolishing the Kingfisher Leisure Centre BEFORE any plans for any replacement are agreed, not only are we - the residents of Kingston - at risk of being left with no or fewer facilities than previously, but we ALSO have to pay for the demolition

We pay the highest council tax in London and one of the highest or even the highest in England, and yet we are being asked to cough up to demolish a community facility that many people want to be re-opened. In this way, we are subsidising the profits of the developer who comes along to build their high-rises that will loom over us all with no guarantee that we will get a new pool and all the other facilities that The Kingfisher offers 

Lastly, how much will demolition of The Kingfisher even cost us?

We have not been told

Please keep sharing the petition widely. As the numbers of people who sign it rise, so do our chances of saving The Kingfisher from the hammer that our council has raised over it ready for the first strike

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