Letter: Gambling with Ally Pally

Gambling with Ally Pally

Sir: The Treasury Solicitor has emphasised the "risk" that Haringey has taken with its grandiose redevelopment of Alexandra Palace whose debt has spiralled out of control ("pounds 55m Ally Pally losses leave 20-year legacy of cuts", 27 May).

At the public inquiry into the scheme in 1982 Haringey promised that it would not put a penny on the rates. Confronted with the fact that the debt amounts to over 50,000 pennies for each rate payer, Toby Harris, the council leader, now declares that this ancient promise is "inoperative". Neither the Charity Commission nor the District Auditor, who should have put a cap on the debt years ago, can plead ignorance; they have been kept informed as the scandal has unfolded. But they too appear likely to escape unscathed.

Risk is unavoidable. If Haringey's gamble had paid off - improbable though that was given the evidence available at the time - they would have reaped the political benefit. But if there is never an equivalent penalty to be paid for getting it wrong, there is nothing to dissuade councillors from accepting the next one-way bet they are offered.

JOHN ADAMS

London WC1