Community campaign group #saveourtown have slammed a statement from the owners of The Mall shopping centre justifying a proposed legal challenge to Luton Town Football Club’s Newlands Park regeneration scheme.
Capital & Regional have long been the major objector to the mixed-use development at junction 10 of the M1, which was given planning permission by Luton Council in March and then effectively waved through by the Secretary of State.
A letter sent last week to the local authority by a law firm acting on C&R’s behalf, announced their intention to apply to the High Court if the council did not review its decision to grant planning consent, claiming it to be ‘unlawful’.
Newlands Park has permission for offices and hotel and entertainment facilities, but it is the one-third of high-end retail element that C&R have long objected to, despite assurances from 2020 Developments – the Hatters’ property arm – that it will be a completely different offer to The Mall, designed to complement existing town centre retail, not compete.
Crucially, the development adjacent to the motorway, will help finance a new 17,500-seat football stadium at Power Court, plus a 1,800-capacity music venue, bars, restaurants and other facilities.
Together with Newlands Park the regeneration projects are projected to bring 10,000 new jobs and inject £250million per year into the local economy.
A further media statement released by The Mall owners yesterday reiterated their intentions and stated: ‘Capital & Regional remains entirely supportive of the plans for the new Luton Town stadium on the Power Court site in Luton town centre.
“We have repeatedly offered support to 2020 Developments in this regard, which has yet to be taken up.’
The statement went on to add: ‘Our legal advice is that the way this consent was delivered was legally flawed. We are entitled to exercise our legal right to challenge this.
‘There are plenty of ways to fund the new stadium without building an inevitable rival to the already struggling town centre. It is just a matter of record that no out of town retail/leisure development has ever saved a struggling town centre.
“Only town centre investment can do that and that is what we do at Capital & Regional, invest in town centres in line with national and local government planning policy.”
Last week, #saveourtown warned that defending a Judicial Review could cost Luton taxpayers in the region of £500,000 and in responding to yesterday’s latest statement from C&R, Andy King, Vice Chairman of the community group, said: “We see that Capital & Regional are embarrassingly sticking to the same old ill-informed nonsense!
“We were there at the two planning decision hearings, when C&R did not even bother to turn up. We all heard what their ridiculous so-called offer of ‘support’ was and why it was rejected out of hand by 2020 Developments.
“It’s handy that the hearings were also broadcast live on the internet and can still be viewed, so people can quickly expose inaccuracies for themselves.
“The point, that C&R repeatedly fail to grasp, is not that they ‘are entitled to exercise our legal right to challenge this’, it’s that an overwhelming majority of Lutonians (a UK planning record), our elected representatives and central government all support these plans, so who are they challenging this for?
“The answer has always been, for C&R’s shareholders.
“Shareholders who evidently do not live in Luton and do not care about our home, our neighbours, our families, our friends, our prosperity and our future.
“They certainly do not care about investing in our town centre because they’ve been custodians of The Mall since 2006, yet only 2020 Developments have put forward, not only a credible plan, but one that has been approved and is widely supported.
“C&R do care about two things, however. They care about what profit they can extract from Lutonians, and this continued crusade to ruin Luton’s dreams of a bright new future.
“They are the enemies of our town, not the demigod saviours, they seem to have misguidedly cast themselves as.”
C&R’s statement, came soon after BBC Three Counties Radio ‘doorstepped’ the company at their London headquarters yesterday, in a bid to speak to their chief executive Lawrence Hutchings.
Reporter Justin Dealey, saw the retail boss walk into the building from the street, but when asking at reception if he could then speak to Mr Hutchings, he was told that Australian was not at the offices.
Then followed a farcical situation where they refused any requests from the radio station but sent a statement instead to The Luton News.
You can hear Justin’s efforts on the Roberto Perrone Drive Time show (fast forward to 1 hour, 9 minutes and 20 seconds).
Luton South MP, Gavin Shuker, has also criticised Capital & Regional in a Parliamentary letter and a series of media appearances, including this one on BBC Three Counties.
BOYCOTT THE MALL !!
THATS THE ONLY LANGUAGE THEY UNDERSTAND !!
THEY ARE ONE DIMENSIONAL ,PROFIT PROFIT PROFIT ONLY !!
THEY DONT CARE A HOOT FOR LUTONIANS OR REGENERATRION.
SO CAN SAVE OUR TOWN THREATEN TO CALL A COMPLETE BOYCOTT OF THE MALL UNLESS THEY WITHDRAW THEIR SELF CENTRED ,PROFIT MOTIVATED, MONOPOLIST STATUS QUO , LEGAL CHALLENGE .
MAKE A MASSIVE APPEAL NOW TO LUTONIANS TO BE ON RED ALERT STANDBY MODE TO BOYCOTT UNLESS THE LEGAL CHALLENGE IS ABORTED.
TWO CAN PLAY THE THREAT GAME ,BUT WE ARE LUTONIANS ,THEY ARE FACELESS, UNCARING ,UN EMPATHETIC, CORPORATE GREED FAT CATS .
DEMOCRACY MEANS THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE NOT CORPORATE GREED PREVAILS !!