The Planning Issues

Our aim is to try to reflect as closely as possible what the community tells us they want for Archway, so please Contact us.

Rebuilding or Regeneration

Who Should Develop the Site

Type and Scale of Redevelopment

Buildings and Open Space

Dominant Type of Accommodation

Types of Retail Units and Space

Other Types of Retail Unit (non-food)

Leisure and Community facilities

Public Transport

Road Layouts and the Roundabout

Strategic changes to improve the wider area

Leisure and Community facilities

At present there is a library and municipal swimming pool and gym. If these are demolished as part of a major redevelopment they have to be replaced; legally, a proportion of all development budgets have to be allocated for community benefits.

The official consultation questionnaire also suggests a sports centre/health club as a possibility, but does not specify whether these would be private (members only) or public facilities.

Redevelopment options	Pros	Cons
Demolish and rebuild as part of total redevelopment of the site	Could get new, state-of-the-art swimming facilities and a better library. The library is hidden away and possibly underused as a result. A more prominent location would mean more users. A new library could incorporate latest media/computer technology in a way that older buildings cannot.	The area would be without a pool or library for several years. The existing pool is very popular, indicating that its facilities are perfectly acceptable to users. Replacements might be smaller or have fewer facilities than the current versions. Several local schools use the pool. If it were not available for a long period (i.e. years) these school children would either not have swimming clubs/lessons or the schools would have to bus them to alternative pools (costly and time consuming).
Rework and transform existing pool and library. In a reworked mall, the entrance of the pool could be relocated so that it faced onto the public open space. A reworking of the mall and area below the tower could make the library feel less out of the way.	Any loss of use would be much shorter. The inside of the existing library could be transformed within its existing space.	There is room for improvement to both the look and the facilities of the leisure centre and this might be difficult to achieve with the limited budget involved in a reworked site. The library would not be enlarged.
Sports centre and health club	New facilities for the area. Could be better/nicer than what is currently available in the pool complex.	If this replaces the current pool, to fit more facilities into the same area could mean a smaller pool. If a private facility the cost of membership could make it inaccessible to a large proportion of the most local population. There is already a private sports centre and health club at the Holloway end of Mercers Road as well as a sports/fitness centre on Junction Road (near Tufnell Park station) and another on Archway island. These are difficult businesses to run profitably. Another one at Archway could jeopardise existing private centres.

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