"Chinese government has role in £500m Crystal Palace scheme"

Link to 'Inside Croydon'

"The major financial backer behind the ZhongRohn Group, which wants to build a £500million replica of the Victorian Crystal Palace as a hotel and entertainment complex, on public open space at the top of Sydenham Hill, is the Chinese government.

"And according to sources working on the development, Ni Zhaoxing, one of China’s richest men and the property magnate behind ZhongRong, is unusual among successful businessmen, because he is unconcerned about getting any profit from his half-billion expenditure on the project.

"... The Crystal Palace Park Community Stakeholder Group has already written to complain about a 'drop-in' consultation event staged by Arup at the start of December, which was so poorly publicised that 'only a small part of the community knew about it' – a classic developer’s ploy in paying lip-service to the requirement to 'consult'. [Can't think where they might have learned that technique from.]

"With the £1 billion Westfield and Hammerson mega-mall being planned for central Croydon just a few miles away, a £500-million shopping venue at Crystal Palace – which is not known to have the best of transport links – could be a strategic planning shambles." [Can't think where they might have seen that elsewhere.]