MP Appeals for 'Bolder Vision' for Twickenham Riverside

4.28.28pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 28th Jul 2003

Vincent Cable MP for Twickenham

This Thursday the council planning committee is due to consider a planning application to demolish buildings on the Twickenham baths site.

The application will be opposed by proponents of a comprehensive and new approach to the riverside such as the Riverside Terrace Group, which already has planning permission for its proposals and the backing of thousands of local residents in a petition.

MP Vincent Cable has joined the debate and called for a "bold vision for developing the site as a whole. Without trying to attribute blame, it is a disgrace and an embarrassment to Twickenham that this site has remained derelict for 20 years."

"The new administration came to power with a clean slate and a strong mandate for almost any half decent proposal which ensured community use of the site. I cannot believe that, a year later, the best idea they can come up with involves leaving 70% of the area boarded up and derelict indefinitely and involves merely tinkering with the edge of it."

"It is easy to understand why even those groups that want to see something done are opposing demolition, until there is an alternative strategy in place".

"The time has surely come for the council to come up with a new vision for 100% - not 30% - of the site, linking it to the regeneration of Twickenham. If the ideas were presented in a constructive spirit I am sure there would be a willingness, across party lines, to give the council the benefit of the doubt, breaking the paralysis over the site."

"But the prospect of most of the site remaining, unused, behind fencing, for the foreseeable future is deeply disappointing".