COUNCIL leader Chris Robbins has rubbished suggestions that he is attempting to “rush through” plans to sell off the Waltham Forest Pool & Track and procure a developer for the Arcade site sooner than expected.

A report to be discussed by cabinet members a week today will ask leading councillors to agree that the authority begins to find a developer for a leisure centre-led complex on the Arcade site, on the corner of High Street and Hoe Street in Walthamstow. The development, which will also include shops and a cinema, will be funded by selling the Pool & Track, in Chingford Road, and by borrowing £35m from the government.

Deputy council leader Lib Dem John Macklin and Conservative group leader Matt Davis are angry that the plans are being brought forward so swiftly.

Cllr Macklin is concerned that Cllr Robbins wants to push ahead with the sale of the Pool & Track ahead of a consultation on the future of the land surrounding the facility next month.

And Cllr Davis believes the council should wait until the economic situation improves.

But Cllr Robbins said the suggestion that the plans were being rushed was “nonsense”.

He said: “All this report does is open up the procurement process, it will still be two years before hard hats will be seen on the site.

“There will be plenty of time for consultation.

“At the end of the day we have waited and waited, and if we were to wait for the economy to improve, we could end up at the back of the list as that is what everyone else is doing.”

The report, which is still opposed by the Lib Dems, who hold four of the 10 cabinet seats, will be voted on next Tuesday.