There has apparently been a failure of negotiations between the Dulwich Estate and a company named Citygrove Estates over the future of the Herne Hill Velodrome (see page 3). This may in the end be seen to be fortuitous. When negotiations, which descended into wrangling, between the original parties connected with the Velodrome; Southwark Council, the London Velodrome Trust, British Cycling, Burbage Road Residents Association and the Dulwich Estate were going on, there seemed little chance that the 2012 Olympic Games would be held in London.
All has now changed. If we are to give substance to the London Olympic bid team's claim in Singapore, that the Games should inspire Britain's youth involvement in sport, then the Herne Hill Velodrome, should and must, have a role in supporting this vision. The Olympic velodrome on the East London site which will be used in the Games will not be ready for some years, meanwhile, Herne Hill; the venue of the 1948 London Olympic Games is ready and waiting for the intensive training necessary and is the only such facility in London and the south of England, the nearest being in Manchester. It can also become a focal point again, in encouraging young people to take up the sport.
The stadium was underused; there was a failure of Southwark Council and many schools to use the facilities including the running track, the mountain-bike circuit or the expensively improved surface of the cycle track itself. The three year lease now granted to a cycling consortium by the Dulwich Estate gives a valuable breathing space. At the end of this lease, and four years before the Games open, the velodrome is likely be regarded as a national facility until the new London track is ready. The costs of such a facility are unlikely to be able to be borne by the consortium and it would be essential for the Greater London Authority to become directly involved as they have done over the Crystal Palace National Recreation Centre.
Commendable flexibility has been shown on the future for cycling at Herne Hill by the Dulwich Estate, much as their predecessors did when the track was first laid out by a small private consortium in 1892. To assuage the concern of local residents, covenants need to be included which would minimise disturbance, such as an agreed limit on major events, control of public address systems, the banning of motor-cycle paced events and a requirement no to let the stadium out to third parties. On the other hand, residents might have to accept the need for the track and some other areas to be floodlit.
Reg Collins
As the Newsletter was about to go to print we heard the sad news of the death of our Vice-President Reg Collins. Reg was Chairman of the Dulwich Society from 1991-1995 and had been its vice-chairman from 1989. He had also been chairman of transport and planning committees in the 1980's. We extend our sincere sympathy to Sigrid.
