A Muslim charity is trying to halt the demolition of the closed Waterfront Leisure Centre in Woolwich because it wants to turn the building into a youth development centre.
The Ramolik Youth Coalition has submitted an application to have the site declared an asset of community value, which gives organisations the chance to bid for land if it is sold.
The Waterfront, which opened in 1988, closed on New Year’s Eve and was replaced the next day by the Woolwich Waves centre. Plans to demolish the Waterfront and replace it with housing have been in the public domain since at least 2012.
But the coalition, an arm of the Jam’yyat Lutfil-Lahi charity, which is based in Woolwich, has accused the council of “rushing in the bulldozers” to knock down the leisure centre.
It wants to retrofit the building into a youth development centre which would help ease “the acute shortage of dedicated, safe social infrastructure for young people in the borough”. There would also be residential accommodation, while the retrofit to fix the Waterfront’s ventilation issues would use timber.
The charity also wants to build a public walkway on top of the building with views towards the Grade II-listed Rotunda on Woolwich Common.
Jam’yyat Lutfil-Lahi’s aims, as listed with the Charity Commission, are to promote the advancement of Islam and public education in the religion, and the relief of financial hardship.
Its trustees said in a statement: “We are not an unproven group; we have successfully managed substantial operational budgets and poured over £200,000 directly into this local authority’s coffers over two decades.
“For the council to rush heavy machinery onto this site to flatten it before evaluating our viable, sustainable project is an administrative abuse of power. If the council forces our hand by ignoring our request for an immediate freeze, we are fully prepared to take this matter straight to the High Court for an urgent interim injunction to stop the bulldozers.”
A masterplan for Woolwich published 14 years ago envisaged knocking down the Waterfront, while this year’s draft Local Plan suggests that 310 flats could be built on the site. No definite plans have been published and the land remains in council hands, although the council’s cabinet approved plans to demolish and sell the site last year.
A formal demolition notice was published in June but was later withdrawn. Greenwich Council said the notice would be resubmitted when a contractor was appointed.
The Ramolik Youth Coalition said it had only recently became aware of the plans and had not yet sought talks with the council about its proposal.
“The council must not spend £3.5 million of scarce resources to demolish a building with no structural defect, which can be preserved and repurposed to provide a needed and useful space for the local youths with the same amount of money,” it said.
A Greenwich Council spokesperson said: “An application has been received from a local organisation to nominate the former Waterfront Leisure Centre as an asset of community value. The council will consider the nomination in accordance with the statutory process. No decision has yet been made on the application.
“Cabinet previously approved the demolition of the former Waterfront Leisure Centre building. The council is currently progressing the necessary arrangements and statutory processes associated with those works.
“The previous prior notification application for demolition was withdrawn to enable it to be resubmitted once a contractor has been appointed. Its withdrawal was not as a result of the asset of community value nomination.”
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