Last Wednesday, Bromley council's Executive agreed to enter into an ‘Exclusivity Agreement' with the developer, ZhongRong Group. According to their press release:
“The exclusivity agreement, which is subject to the council's call in procedures, will be between ZhongRong Group and Bromley Council and will be for a period of sixteen months, until February 2015. The agreement follows a request by ZhongRong Group to allow time and investment to bring about the detailed plans required for a planning application……..The new palace would replicate the size and scale of the original, taking into account the current constraints of the site such as the television mast. The scale of the Crystal Palace, approximately the length of five football pitches and up to six storeys, offers the potential to accommodate many different roles, including public exhibition space and commercial uses such as a hotel.”
We have asked Bromley council for an explanation of the ‘Exclusivity Area' covered by the Agreement.
Following the Executive's decision to grant exclusivity, Mr Ni, the Chairman of ZhongRong Group, published “An open letter to The Crystal Palace Community” on The London Crystal Palace website, which we have pasted below.
We want to feed back your views to the Crystal Palace Park Management Board. Please do contact us at contact@crystalpalacepark.org.uk with any questions and thoughts on the initial proposals and suggestions on how you would like to see the community engagement process taken forward.
As soon as we have any further information we will be in touch.
With best wishes,
Crystal Palace Park Community Stakeholder Group
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An open letter to The Crystal Palace Community
22 October 2013
I am pleased that there has been positive feedback following the launch of our plans to rebuild Crystal Palace and to restore the Park. It is encouraging that people are excited about the potential of the scheme and the benefits it can bring to the local area.
Equally I am well aware that many of you want to know more details about the project and, in particular, to understand how you can both comment on the plans for new Crystal Palace and play an active part in contributing your ideas to it. Some people will of course have concerns and we are taking note of them. We want to listen and address them as best we can.
I want to reassure everyone that a programme of community engagement will be starting later this autumn. The planning is underway for this and we will set out the details as soon as we can in the coming weeks. As I said on the day of the launch the views of local people are important to me and I want to hear what you think. We have published the outline of the scheme but I recognise the desire for more information. Now Bromley Council has entered into an exclusivity agreement we can work up the proposals in more
detail.
I also want to emphasise one final point. The Crystal Palace holds a special place in the history of your country and in the heart of the local community. It was a symbol of imagination, pride and national confidence. That brings a special responsibility for me and for my company to listen and to learn from local residents as we seek to shape the next chapter of this special building. We will take that responsibility very seriously.
Mr Ni Zhaoxing
Chairman of ZhongRong Group
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