Southwark’s Lib Dem/Tory coalition is “selling Elephant short” in its revised deal with developer Lend Lease, according to Southwark Labour’s Leader Cllr Peter John.

 The new deal doesn’t include any reference to the vast majority of improvements in local infrastructure that the Lib Dems originally promised as part of the regeneration. Demolishing the shopping centre, originally planned for the first phase of the project, has now been moved to phase six, with no fixed or even estimated date of completion.

In the Development Framework agreed by the Lib Dems in 2004, they pledged to build:

• A new leisure centre with swimming pool
• A new secondary school
• A new Library and lifelong learning centre
• A new Northern Line Station

None of those improvements appear in the Heads of Terms to be agreed by at the Executive meeting on Tuesday 24^th November.

Southwark Labour’s Leader Cllr Peter John said:

“This new deal with Lend Lease amounts to little more than throwing Heygate residents out of their homes and building new luxury housing which they won’t be able to afford. What are tenants and residents getting out of it? The Lib Dems are selling Elephant & Castle short and betraying the existing community.

“Demolishing the shopping centre and removing the roundabouts and underpasses is absolutely central to starting a new chapter for Elephant & Castle, but this new deal put those plans on ice. It doesn’t even include an indication of when the Lib Dems expect the core of Elephant & Castle to be transformed.

“Leisure facilities which made up such a central part of the original deal aren’t even mentioned in this new deal, and neither is the new school, library or Northern line station which were also promised. “