Listen to the locals over Wards Corner say Liberal Democrats

12.00.00am GMT Thu 31st Jan 2008

The Bridge New Deal for Communities (NDC) must give the wider public a chance to appreciate local ideas about the development of Wards Corner, Seven Sisters, say Haringey's Liberal Democrats, in advance of Saturday's all-day conference on the NDC's future.

Under the plan proposed by Grainger's, whom NDC say are the only developers interested in the site, Wards department store would disappear, to be replaced with selected High Street shops and a gated development of 180 flats.

But the Wards Corner Community Coalition (WCC), formed by local residents and the market traders who have mushroomed there over the last two years, have raised £8,000 of their own money to suggest a radical alternative. WCC's plan shows how the site could be developed to preserve the familiar landmark, encourage local traders, and open it up with a people-friendly piazza, reminiscent of Covent Garden.

On Monday January 21st, Liberal Democrats called for WCC plans to be given "proper consideration".

Community Involvement spokesman Cllr John Oakes told the Full Council meeting:

"The WCC scheme is much more in tune with Haringey's 2004 planning brief for the site, which says Wards store has 'architectural merit, and should be preserved. That seems to have been thrown out of the window.

"But we say the NDC should enable WCC to get their plans properly costed, by a firm independent of Grainger's, in the same way that the NDC is offering £2 million worth of help and finance to Grainger.

"And Haringey must keep its December 12th promise of a meeting between WCC and Regeneration spokesperson Cllr Kaushika Amin well before the formal planning process starts.

"Grainger's should open their books on costs and quantities involved in their scheme, in line with the 'total transparency' also promised at the December 12 meeting between WCC and the NDC."