October 20th 2009:
NELGC's legal advisors and Hackney
Council are getting closer to an agreement, and things are moving
forward:
The squatters have vacated the Milton Grove Premises.
The council are in the process of carrying out the required checks on
the premises and clearing the building.
On the 14th Oct we received a revised Heads of Terms from the council.
Heads of Terms are to be signed by the 30th October.
The lease will be signed by the 30th November.
If this all runs to schedule we will start building work immediately
after signing the lease.
We still need a few more volunteers:
Tradesmen, electricians, plumbers, builders, decorators etc. as well as
enthusiastic amateurs! If you think you could spare a few hours before
January, please let me know.
We also need volunteers for finance/admin, fundraising, donations,
payroll - even if short term, to help us get up and running.
Once the full scope of the work is established we will have a clearer
idea of how long this should take. We are aiming to be up and running in
January.
Lara
September 17th 2009:
Squatters: The council won the case to
evict the squatters, and we expect they will be evicted any day now.
Lease: NELGC is currently corresponding
with the council, to get guarantor liability clarified, and as soon as
we have more info about how things are proceeding, we'll post news here.
September 8th 2009:
A number of you have been writing to the
council about our case, and today Mayor Jules Pipe responded with an
email that, unfortunately, has incorrect information in it, which
doesn't help speed the case up.
NELGC has had to respond:
Read it all by clicking HERE
August 28th 2009:
Re: The Milton Grove Site
Squatters
The squatters have now been given a court date of the 10th
September. This should hopefully mean they will be out of the building
shortly after this date. However, we won't know until the decision has
been made by the court.
Lease
Last Friday (August 21st 2009) we received the Heads of Terms
from Hackney Council. However there are a number of points in the terms
which we still need to negotiate before a lease can be issued. At
the moment Hackney are requiring 3 guarantors with unlimited
liabilities. They would also like us to pay there solicitors fees and
surveyors fees.
This would put
an incredible strain on the club, and we are taking legal advice on the
situation - we will report back about this issue in the next few days.
18th August 2009:
HERE WE GO AGAIN !!....
Apart from the major problem of not
yet having seen the lease, there is also a problem with...
THE SQUATTERS:
There are squatters in the building, and I have spoken to the
squatters but unfortunately they feel that their need is greater than
nearly 1,000 children being able to access a safe place to develop their
skills and have fun!
If we can't get them to leave peacefully, it will mean that it is down
to Hackney to remove them!
Hackney have been unable to do this, as they need to prove that they do
in fact own the building before they can go to court!
We hope to come up with an idea for how to get the squatters to leave,
if you have any ideas or legal knowledge that may be useful, please
email us by clicking HERE (enquiries@nelgc.org)
PLEASE CONTACT HACKNEY TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THIS SITUATION URGENTLY!
Your letters really do make a difference, as was proven when you helped
us get the lease in the first place.
The people to write to are:
Mayor Jules Pipe
Hackney Town Hall
Mare Street
London E8
jules.pipe@hackney.gov.uk
(more to come)
THE ISSUES to write to Hackney about - in short:
●
Hackney need to present the lease
●
Hackney need to remove the squatters:
Hackney council tax money are paying for the squatters, which would
have been avoided if
NELGC could have moved in and paid full rent
instead.
Currently, Hackney council tax payers are paying for the squatters to be
in the building and
to use both power and water utitilites!
●
NELGC can't move forward with their plans, for rebuilding, funding etc.
●
Valuable time has been wasted, NELGC and volunteers could have been
working all summer, but have been kept waiting.
●
Storage of equipment: The equipment has been stored free at Stoke
Newington school over the holidays, but will need to be moved out when
the school starts up again. The equipment then needs to be put into
storage, costing cash which is much needed elsewhere.
●
We have a team of highly trained and motivated coaches at North East
London Gymnastics Club and we are now in danger of losing them. They
will be unpaid for the time it takes to complete the building and
understandably, they may seek employment elsewhere.
●
The children are losing out - the current gymnasts are suffering a great
loss, and the waiting list of hundreds of children is growing daily,
there is obviously a great demand, and great disappointment that there
is no news of when they can start classes.
This is the ONLY gymnastics club in Hackney and surrounding boroughs.
●
We are involved in young leadership schemes and our coaches do vital
outreach work in local primary and secondary schools - opportunities
that are not being developed while we are waiting for Hackney to act!
We need to encourage the council to move swiftly to resolve these two
problems :
1) Remove the squatters as soon as possible so that North East London
Gymnastics Club can open the building to serve their community and
develop the potential of a large group of young people in the borough.
2) Expedite the presentation and signing of the lease so that we may
reduce our costs and use our money effectively to renovate the building.
Thank you,
NELGC
8th July 2009:
Success! We got the lease for the ZoomAround building!!
After much hard work and worry
we have finally secured a new home - many thanks to everyone for
your help and support.
* Click here to read what Cllrs and council staff said...
* Thanks to the
640 people who signed the petition - see them by clicking HERE...
|
Very URGENT support needed to secure a new venue for
NELGC |
17th June 2009:
STAND UP AND BE
COUNTED
CAN WE REALLY AFFORD TO LOSE THIS OLYMPIC SPORT IN AN OLYMPIC
HOST BOROUGH?
WE NEED YOUR HELP NOW!
As a result of imminent construction work now scheduled
to start on the 6th of July Stoke
Newington School is closing the sports hall. This gives
us just one week to secure this new site.
 |
North East London Gymnastics Club has found a building which would be suitable
for their purpose which is the old Zoomaround building in Milton Grove
N16, the only building in the area which has the double-height ceiling required.
We have offered to pay the full commercial lease on the building
and handed in a strong business proposal. We just need to cut through the red
tape and get a decision made. We are not asking for any money from the council,
all we need is someone to say YES. A short list of prospective tenants for the
building should be drawn up by the 25th June 2009 so please act now.
|
Please stand up and be counted and help us
cut through the red tape and resolve this problem. Hackney needs
this gymnastics club to keep delivering gymnastics to our community.
Let’s
ensure that this club is able to continue to deliver this Olympic
sport to your children, your future children and grandchildren
with this new home in Hackney. With this new facility we could not only
support the existing 300 children but also, offer this to the 500 children
on the waiting list. Giving more children the opportunity to be off the
streets and thriving in a sporting environment. If we shut 1500 school children
could also lose gymnastic in their school. Make your voices heard, please
write to:
