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What the Councillors and council staff say
In order to create
an overview of how things are progressing, we have started collecting
answers from Councillors and council staff:
Hackney gymnastics club - the BBC to run story!
From: susanne gustavsson
Sent: 24 June 2009 12:53:09
To: mischa.borris@hackney.gov.uk
Dear Mischa Borris,
I am writing about the NELGC gymnastics club, which as you may know, is
in danger of closing down due to lack of premises:
NELGC is a well established Hackney non-profit community group, its'
manager Lara Everall was awarded the "Sports Coach of the Year 2008"
award by Hackney Council, they get good competition results, they cater
for children from all walks of life between 1 and 19 years old, and they
have a waiting list of over 500 children - and could offer a place to
all these and perhaps more, with a permanent home.
The club has now found a suitable building, the old ZoomAround building
on Milton Grove, which is the only building in the area with the
required double height ceiling necessary for a gymclub, and they
desperately need to move, as the current premises, a rented hall in
Stoke Newington School, will close down in a few weeks.
The BBC to show the story:
The BBC is coming in Thursday June 25th, to do a documentary on the
clubs’ situation, and we wonder if you would like to attend to show your
support?
Online Petition:
Also, the NELGC started an online petition on friday, which already has
more than 520 signatures, and the story hasn't even run in the papers
yet! It will be in the Hackney Gazette this week, and we hope to get
coverage in more newspapers soon.
Publishing replies on the NELGC website:
In order to keep everyone informed, and to speed up communication, we
are in the process of collecting all the answers sent to us by
Councillors, Hackney property services and everyone else we are in
contact with, and putting them on the NELGC website, so that everyone
can get an overview of how things are developing.
Please let us know immediately if you do _not_ want correspondence from
yourself shown on the website.
Many kind regards,
Susanna Gustavsson
Local gymnast parent and volunteer.
www.nelgc.org
From: Mischa Borris (Cllr)
Sent: Thu 25/06/2009 13:37
To: Sudeshna Chakraborty
Subject: Zoomaround premises/NE London Gymnastics Club
Dear Ms Chakraborty,
I refer to my previous email in support of the North East London
Gymnastics Club's bid for a lease of these premises.
I reiterate my strong support for this. It would be an extremely popular
decision and would be a very good use of this space, for a purpose which
would be of great benefit to Hackney children and adults. An
organisation which aims to provide non-profit making services for local
residents, which aims to improve their physical and mental well-being,
is just the sort of tenant that we should be welcoming into Council
premises.
I am aware that there has been an on-line petition and lots of messages
of support. Such a groundswell of opinion shows what support the Club
does have. I do not know the identity of the other bidders,and I take
the point that other voluntary groups will also undoubtedly have good
cases to make. A shame that there is such a shortage of space in the
borough. But, a gymnastics club cannot move into any old premises - they
need to meet its particular demands for a suitable large space. These
are very rare, which is why the Club has had such trouble finding new
premises. If it forced to close, who knows if it will ever be able to
start up again. What a loss that would be!
I understand that the Club is offering a commercial rent, so the Council
will not be losing out commercially. And if there is a commercial bidder
which is proposing a higher rent, then I would argue that the Club
should still be given the lease, because of the benefit that would give
to Hackney.
I would also be interested in knowing the criteria that is used in
assessing the merits of each application.
I am aware that the shortlist closes today and await hearing further.
Yours sincerely,
Mischa Borris
Subject: RE: Hackney gymnastics club - the BBC to run story!
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:49:43 +0100
From: Mischa.Borris@Hackney.gov.uk
To: Susanne Gustavsson
Dear Ms Gustavsson,
Thank you for your email. I hope you have seen my further one to
Property Services (I wrote last week as well to them). Unfortunately I
cannot come for the BBC story today. Certainly you can put my responses
up on your website.
Regards,
Mischa Borris
Green Councillor, Clissold ward
FW: Zoomaround premises/NE London Gymnastics Club
From: Mischa Borris (Cllr) (Mischa.Borris@Hackney.gov.uk)
Sent: 26 June 2009 09:35:10
To: Mischa Borris (Cllr) (Mischa.Borris@Hackney.gov.uk)
Hello all,
Very pleased, but not surprised really, that the Club has made the
shortlist. Here is the email I received yesterday from Property
Services. It also sets out the criteria for assessing each Bid, which I
was asked about.
Regards,
Mischa
Mischa Borris
Green Councillor, Clissold ward
(the above was a response to this mail:)
From: Sudeshna Chakraborty
Sent: Thu 25/06/2009 15:57
To: Mischa Borris (Cllr)
Cc: David Hawkes; Derek Victor
Subject: RE: Zoomaround premises/NE London Gymnastics Club
Dear Councillor Borris,
Thank you for your email.
Property Services definitely appreciates the good work of the NE
Gymnastics Club and also accepts that they have provided a commercial
business case to support their application. But as referred to you in
our earlier response, the Council are obliged to follow a standard
procedure in awarding the tenancy which would allow transparency and
equal opportunity to all the applicants.
In the process of short listing we have used three basic criteria for
judging the applications these are listed below:-
a) Ability to pay rent and all other outgoings for the term of the lease
(not just for the first year).
b) A strong business case indicating why they need to be in that
property.
c) Illustrate what additional value they will add to the local and wider
Hackney community.
I can advise that the Gymnastics club have met the above criteria and
they have accordingly been short-listed. The club will be formally
notified as soon as the time and date for the interviews for the next
stage of the process has been confirmed.
We will keep you informed of the process but if you have any further
queries regarding the process you can directly contact our Senior
Surveyor Mr.David Hawkes on David.Hawkes@hackney.gov.uk who is the key
officer responsible for this property.
Yours Sincerely,
Sudeshna Chakraborty
On Behalf of Property Services
Corporate Property Services & Facilities Management
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