LAMBS   Wimbledon of Squash - Centre of Excellence in Olympic 2012 capital 1 Lamb's Passage, Islington, London, EC1Y 8LE
Save Lambs Stop the Chop       
A  true team effort in the best interest  of the game of Squash
  FLASH: PLANNING INSPECTOR RULES IN FAVOUR OF THE DEVELOPER - LAMBS LOOKS FOR NEW HOME 
  Campaigns by Lambs Squash Club members to save the Wimbledon of Squash from redevelopment retaining  it as a  centre of Squash excellence.   Launched Easter 2005

App.P052310

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Why save Lambs?

The 9 court facility in central London has been a centre of excellence for more than 25 years. Today a developer backed by the Duke of Buccleuch Scotland’s wealthiest landlord wants to turn it into a pedestrian 9 storey block of flats, depriving the local community of a strategic facility which can never be replaced. Squash ranks among the UK's top 10 priority sports. British players hold more Squash world titles and rankings than in any other sport. Government planning policy (PPG17) protects facilities that are not surplus to requirement. Lambs has more than 1100 members, some 50 leagues, two county teams, a vibrant squash ladder, and a thriving player and social community in the heart of the City. Some Islington planning officers think the Duke's flats are more important. We don’t.  Nor do local councillors. So we're fighting to stop the Duke.
Backing us are key national and local figures and bodies.   Join in if you care about the future of Squash in this country
details

  LAMBS INTENDS TO FIND A NEW HOME.  HERE'S HOW
  (More details are available to members, players and supporters here)
 

  Read the Legal Team's case for saving the Club

  To access buyback documents and business plan you need to register   then send us an email request

The formal Lambs Action Team objection to the latest amended application  Application No P052310 to redevelop the club site comprises several hundred pages in various documents and schedules. The Principle  Objection, Barristers Opinion and Schedules to the Objection, plus an index, can be downloaded in PDF format below.

  Our Barristers Opinion here

  Our Principle  Objection  arguments  here

  Point by Point analysis and rebuttal of the contentious Pan Leisure PPG17 assessment with which the developer hopes to persuade the council  to  approve  its  application  is  here

  Below are surveys, comparisons  and other documents submitted as Schedules backing the LAT objection  lodged with  Islington  local  authority  on April 13th   2006:
Index of  Schedule
Availability Survey   
Capacity Survey   
Catchment Survey    
Comparative Costs   
Distance Survey   
ODPM press release   
Planning Decision 
PPG Case Law  
Business Plan   

  Sport England,  a statutory  consultee in the planning process, has lodged a detailed and cogent 6-page  objection  letter    with Islington Planning Authority on the Applications. Read it here.

LAT would like to express huge  gratitude  to our pro bono legal team for the enormous amount of hard effort they put into this as well as to to our other paid advisors for their  very generous  time, advise  and  ongoing assistance without  which  none of  this  would  have be  possible

Sincerest thanks also to the financial team led by MK and JH for its dedicated efforts in developing a robust business plan that shows Lambs to be an emminently viable leisure facility in its present shape and form.

Once you've read the documents we know you'll want to redouble your objections please continue to file these.   These are all valid until the determination is made possibly in early November 2006

Join our action mailing list  include me in

Scroll down on the left  for  the Lambs Action Team

What members have done to help the campaign:

100s attended a planning sub committee meeting to show Islington there is great demand for Lambs Squash club in the borough. A significant number of City of London firms sent a letter to the Lord Mayor and Corporation drawing attention to the need to save the club as an important amenity for the City of London working community. Others made approaches to local schools and youth organisations about junior squash at Lambs and approached Corporation officials to discuss the importance of Lambs to the City. The Corporation has lodged a formal objection as a statutory consultee.   An important cross section of members lobbied the Islington South Labour MP and local councillors, to save the club. More than 50 members have so far signed and emailed a petition to the Minister of State for Sports calling on him to expropriate and preserve the facility for sports.   Many players rallied support from other clubs at which they play and from Middlesex and other leagues in which they participate. The squash community as a whole has given very welcome support to the campaign to block the application. More than 40 members and supporters contributed to the fighting fund to pay for the two consultants' reports .Teams and individuals have worked/continue to work on the business plan and financials for New Lambs Squash Club, volunteered legal and financial advise, offered ideas and contacts, obtained land registry and other public documents, pushed England Squash to help save the Club, met with Sport England to discuss backing for the campaign, written to Ministers, MP's, local authorities, Mayor of London, the Olympic 2012 committee, the World Squash Federation and similar bodies.   Others have designed ordered, sold and bought T-shirts, rallied local residents, created   databases etc. To you all a very big thank you