A cleaner, greener future beckons for Clapham

Clapham town centre is on the verge of an exciting new era with the announcement that Lambeth Council has approved the selection of Cathedral Group to deliver a £75 million regeneration programme. The area will be transformed into a state-of-the-art hub of modern, well designed eco-friendly buildings and facilities.

The council intends that Cathedral Group will deliver the £75 million landmark scheme to transform leisure services in Clapham. It will provide the borough with a leisure centre built to high standards of sustainability, a new library fit for the 21st century customer, a new GP surgery and high quality residential accommodation including 40 per cent affordable housing in partnership with housing association London and Quadrant. The development will also reduce carbon emission to 30 per cent below normal standards.

Cathedral has ten years of experience working on successful partnerships with the public sector.

A number of new and ambitious facilities will grace the transformed area, including:

• Clapham High Street - Mary Seacole House will be demolished and new facilities including a new library, GP surgery and joint service centre will be constructed on the site. Designed by Studio Egret West, the new library will be based around a spiral theme, connected to a new GP surgery, a café, performance space and community rooms. The new 'linked' facility will reinforce the community spirit of the development, and it is hoped that the number of people visiting the library will double.
• Clapham Leisure Centre - The new leisure centre, designed by specialists LA Architects, will be on the site of the existing centre on Clapham Manor Street and will feature a 6-lane, 25m swimming pool with movable floor, larger fitness suite, 4-court sports hall, climbing wall and community rooms.
• Old Clapham Library building – The community have told us what they would like, and we have listened. The final section of the development will be to develop a community-run centre within the Clapham Old Library building. One suggestion is that it could be a stimulating and welcoming place where people can actively engage with art and artists through a changing programme of exhibitions, courses and residencies. A budget has been set aside to renovate the building, and the Council is working with a local community group to develop plans.

The council is working on a package of measures to reduce the impact of the temporary closure of the leisure facility.

The entire development will be built according to the most stringent environmental criteria. Cathedral will work with some of the most experienced sustainability consultants to achieve results that will reduce carbon emissions to 30 per cent below normal standards, reduce normal water usage by 30 per cent and enable the development to generate 15 per cent of its own power needs from renewable resources. An additional exciting innovation in the scheme will be the appointment of a Green Guardian who will manage the day-to-day operation of the residential accommodation, encouraging people to live more sustainably, including managing a car club.

As part of the agreement between the council and Cathedral, will be constructed buildings at zero cost to Lambeth residents.

Cllr Paul McGlone, Lambeth Cabinet Member for Regeneration said: "This is great news for the people of Clapham. Local people and community groups have been asking for better facilities for their community and we have listened. With our partners we have come up with an exciting development proposal that covers all the bases.

"Best of all it is a self financing project and will therefore cost the tax payer absolutely nothing. We promised in 2006 to deliver quality and keep Clapham swimming, and with this project we have most certainly delivered."

Cathedral's Project Director Martin Wood said: "We are incredibly proud to have been selected by Lambeth to build these fantastic new community facilities. Libraries and leisure centres are right at the heart of community services and our ambition in Lambeth is to build the best examples in the UK."

Once the legal and procurement processes have been completed at the beginning of February, Cathedral hopes to submit a planning application for the first part of the Future Clapham development in April. The company expects to deliver the first stage of the development, the brand new leisure centre, in early 2010.

A public launch of the new scheme will take place in Mary Seacole House in early March. Visit www.lambeth.gov.uk/futureclapham for more details nearer the time.