Giving the lie to Tory and RUG lies about the Riverside

11.46.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 23rd Oct 2009

• [Oct 21] Cllr Serge Lourie writes: IT'S time to expose the lies the Conservatives and the Richmond United Group have been telling about the proposed Council development on Twickenham Riverside.

We have a vision for Twickenham Riverside, the opponents do not agree among themselves. We want to see a state of the art river centre supported by Sir David Attenborough and Vince Cable MP, a lot of new public open space for the first time, an improved playground, parking moved away from the river to behind the site and a better café together with substantial improvements to the embankment all worth £4m and all paid for by the housing. In addition to the lies and bullying from the Conservatives, I have been very concerned by the lies we have heard from some representatives of the Richmond United Group. I stress some of them have behaved honourably and told the truth but many have not.

• At the recent meeting of the Overview Commission, opposition leader, Cllr True, denied that he had ever sent a letter to developers "frightening them off". A few minutes later, he admitted shamefacedly to questions from Twickenham ward councillor, Michael Wilson, that he had given a letter to officers of the council to send to developers. Cllr True was clearly trying to mislead the commission. He had a letter sent to the developers by officers of the council but denied that he had ever sent a letter. It is not behaviour we would expect from an experienced councillor.

• They said the café would close. We want a better facility in the river centre.

• They said the land was given to the old Twickenham Council for "pleasure grounds". In fact the land was purchased for road widening and for new municipal buildings such as a town hall.

• They said the playground would close. We intend to move and improve it.

• They said we are going to sell off the whole site and cover the embankment with housing. In fact we are proposing to build housing with gardens on 26 % of the site. 74 % will be retained by the council

• We have been accused of proposing a luxury development that local residents cannot afford. In fact the flats and houses are designed by local Eel Pie architect, Clive Chapman, and will have comparable prices to properties in Twickenham some of which were designed by the same architect.