WIMBLEDON PARK LOCAL AREA FORUM
Urban Design Task Force, Stephen Saul RIBA - latest report

Shoddy streets, dumped rubbish and tattered shop fronts are threatening a major economic decline for the whole Wimbledon Park area, residents warned at a packed Wimbledon Civic Forum work-shop meeting on 21 July 2000.

Now resident associations are calling urgently on the council to declare the Wimbledon Park centre an "urban village " - a step which would ensure the survival of the Arthur road shopping arcade as an everyday shopping centre able to meet the domestic needs of local residents. Opening the workshop session Mrs Pat Gomez chairman of the Wimbledon Park Resident Association said the nature of the whole neighbourhood had changed over recent years. "The quality of life has declined" she said. "We have suffered a severe loss of amenities including our bank and our library".

Resident Ian Simpson, who has assessed the priorities needed to re-dress decline in the area, said that though recent years had brought greater affluence to Wimbledon Park, the survival of shops in the arcade was under threat. It was essential that amenities were improved if new business was to be attracted to the area. "Empty shops are a blight on the arcade - they suggest decay", he warned.

Local architect Stephen Saul, who is heading the drive for urban village status, said that Wimbledon Park faced a difficult environmental and political climate. "There is a lot of hostility from people in the Civic Centre" he said. He complained of broken pavements and battered street furniture in the shopping area and urged that lessons be learned from re-generation in neighbouring Wandsworth. Indiscriminate rubbish dumping, he warned, had worsened the problems. He called for creation of an attractive streetscape, and urged existing shopkeepers to improve the look of their frontages. Working with architect Marcus Beale and a panel of design and town planning experts from the Forum's Urban Design Task Force, more than 80 local residents split into five working groups to produce their own blueprint for a new-look Wimbledon Park.

The meeting agreed that crucial to the area's future was the health and prosperity of the shops and businesses at its centre. Proposals included a call for an improved townscape for the area, including the removal of 16 bicycle racks set up in Arthur road by the council without prior consultation and an improvement in the present once-a-week sweeping of the Arthur road shopping parade. The residents also urged the creation of a new "community centre" to be managed by resident groups. It was proposed that the council should help create the facility by selling the presently derelict community hall in Arthur road to residents for a nominal £1. An annual prize for the best kept shop front is also to be established in a bid to smarten up the existing shopping arcade.

Said Marcus Beale: "It is important that we cherish the uses and enterprises that currently exist and through improvements in management and infrastructure help the community flourish. We will be taking forward the many excellent ideas expressed at the meeting and communicating them to the relevant decision makers in the coming weeks."

8pm 21 July 2000
Introduced by Roger Casale MP
Panellists: Iain Simpson - local resident and businessman
Stephen Saul - local architect and resident
Sue Tanton - Business and Sustainability partnerships - London Borough of Merton
Peter Smith - Development control manager - London Borough of Merton
Facilitators: Marcus Beale RIBA, John Merivale MLI, Colin Mendelowitz RIBA and panellists.

Click here for Wimbledon Park Residents Association's website

Results of Workshop One will be posted here shortly