January 2010:
We Are In!
As of January
2010 we now have a gymnasium of our own at Milton Grove
N16 and can now offer a range of gymnastics classes. Thank
you to all who assisted us in our campaign establish a
permannent venue for our club.
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.
| 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:
