The
3 and a half hour planning meeting last night at Walthamstow, of L&Q's
now approved Housing Application on the former greyhound site -
The Stow - started calmly:
'7:12PM The public have started to take their seats at Walthamstow Assembly Hall.'
'11:05PM [housing]Application is approved'
'11:06PM Furious scenes...'
'11:10PM Members of the crowd have gone up to shout at Councillors...'
A brief in-between:
6:20PM WF Guardian acknowledged the
petition against a return of greyhound racing at the 'Stow', which was verbally acknowledged by the Council Officer at 7:53PM after detailing the Housing Plans. GS delivered the petition to the Planning Officer and the WF Guardian earlier in the day.
Throughout the meeting WF Guardian
updated the live feed with reports of some of the 23 people who were listed to speak - a mixture of Councillors, pro-racers, resident association reps, L&Q reps etc,etc.
8:00PM The impartiality of Councillors was again strongly defended.
8:20PM
Pro-racer -
Ricky Holloway was given a standing ovation after speaking of wanting the[greyhound]stadium back and calling the Council rotten to the core.
8:35PM - onwards - the listed speakers were either applauded for speaking against the Housing Plans or heckled, booed and shouted at for speaking for the Housing Plans. Racing personality J. McCririck attacked L&Q and Council Officer D.Scourfield, resulting in the Committee Chair shouting back at J.McCririck on his impartiality accusations - and so the meeting went on, getting more heated and more appeals for calm.
'10:55 Loud heckling now and slow hand clapping.' The Committee Chair threatens to eject all members of the public.
'11:05PM application approved'
Whilst there has been varying concerns of the Housing Plans for 294 homes from L&Q, the
rival plans of Pro-Racing Millionaire, Bob Morton, to offer 94 homes and a re-opening of the greyhound track have been
backed by the
All-Party Parliamentary Greyhound Group - group of MP's with a purpose to 'raise parliamentary awareness of issues relating to the greyhound industry and to promote the sport' and who enjoy GBGB funded 'occasional race events'.
So now the pro-racing SOS campaigners
will head off to the office of London Mayor, Boris Johnson, to call for his intervention. Boris Johnson will either 'call in' the plans for further consideration, or do nothing.
Announcement is expected from Monday May 21st.
May 16th sees a planning meeting for a
bus depot and training centre, for the unemployed, on the former external car-park of the Walthamstow greyhound track, which the pro-racing campaigners are objecting to.
Meanwhile - Whittingham Kennels are looking for a home for 2 elderly greyhounds, who are ex-racing-casualties of the former Walthamstow greyhound track.
8 year old Owl & 9 year old Duchess, through no fault of their own find themselves back in kennels.
GS would like to thank all who joined the long
campaign to raise awareness to Waltham Forest Councillors, as to the plight of greyhounds, and for signing/sharing the
petition against a return of racing at the 'Stow'.
Action update
L&Q are now
keen to start building work but final approval rests with
Assembly Members of the Greater London Authority and
Mayor Boris Johnson.
Polite emails are now needed to Assembly Members and, again, to Boris Johnson
Please help to raise their awareness to the plight of greyhounds - to the inherent abuse they endure in order to sustain the racing industry.
Email addresses(copy block form and paste into 'to' box)
Boris.Johnson@london.gov.uk; mayor@london.gov.uk; tony.arbour@london.gov.uk;
gareth.bacon@london.gov.uk; john.biggs@london.gov.uk; andrew.boff@london.gov.uk;
victoria.borwick@london.gov.uk; james.cleverly@london.gov.uk; len.duvall@london.gov.uk;
roger.evans@london.gov.uk; nicky.gavron@london.gov.uk; darren.johnson@london.gov.uk;
jenny.jones@london.gov.uk; kit.malthouse@london.gov.uk; joanne.mccartney@london.gov.uk;
steve.oconnell@london.gov.uk; caroline.pidgeon@london.gov.uk; murad.qureshi@london.gov.uk;
navin.shah@london.gov.uk; valerie.shawcross@london.gov.uk; richard.tracey@london.gov.uk;
Roxanne.Williams@london.gov.uk; Joanna.Thomas@london.gov.uk
Please also sign and share this petition to the London Mayor.
Recent good and bad news for greyhounds, concerning other greyhound tracks, include:
Recent planning approval for housing for
Gretna's Flapping greyhound track was welcome news after the re-opening of
Westhoughton Flapping track.
Brandon Stadium, Coventry, was
re-licensed by the GBGB in April despite
opposition from greyhound advocates.
Towcester Racecourse face an
ongoing campaign against recent approval of a new greyhound track plan.
In Reading a
'Racino' had been granted planning permission, which includes a greyhound track, but as yet no building works have been undertaken and recent approval of a separate
casino plan may well see the Racino not being built.
And now with GRA part owned by Galliard building company and
plans for housing to re-place Wimbledon greyhound track what news will there be for their other tracks at Oxford, Manchester and Birmingham?
