MartinW
09-11-2006, 02:45 AM
<H5>PLANS to build a museum celebrating Lotus and their legendary mechanic Colin Chapman in Hornsey have been given the nod by Haringey Council.
John Scott-Davies, a chartered housing manager and car enthusiast, dreamed up the idea to build the museum on the Cranford Way Industrial Estate - on the exact spot where Mr Chapman designed and built his grand prix-winning Lotus cars.
And last Monday the planning committee approved the plan.
Mr Scott-Davies, 55, who lives in Surrey, said: "It's been a tremendous amount of teamwork and I get a big kick out of the teamwork.
"A lot of my life has been about patronage and traditional patronage sometimes doesn't extend to the little people and the thing I like about the museum is it's a chance for the little people looking in to get involved."
He added: "I want to make the museum a vehicle to many programmes of education and training and work experience for the community. As a result of newspaper coverage local people have already come forward.
"If students can get work experience at the museum then they overcome this fear of doing it somewhere else."
Mr Scott-Davies is now looking to set up a charitable trust to run and oversee the project.
He is holding a public meeting in the Wishing Well pub, in Tottenham Lane, at 7.30pm on November 20. If all goes to plan - and they manage to raise sufficient funds - the museum could be up and running by spring 2008.
Mr Chapman was raised in Hornsey - he lived in the old Railway Hotel - and used to test drive his cars round Alexandra Park from his workshop on the Cranford Way Industrial Estate. He died unexpectedly, aged 54, in 1982.
</H5>Link (http://www.tottenhamjournal.co.uk/content/haringey/tottenhamjournal/news/story.aspx?brand=HCEJOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newstwgj&itemid=WeED08%20Nov%202006%2010%3A51%3A44%3A500) from here.
John Scott-Davies, a chartered housing manager and car enthusiast, dreamed up the idea to build the museum on the Cranford Way Industrial Estate - on the exact spot where Mr Chapman designed and built his grand prix-winning Lotus cars.
And last Monday the planning committee approved the plan.
Mr Scott-Davies, 55, who lives in Surrey, said: "It's been a tremendous amount of teamwork and I get a big kick out of the teamwork.
"A lot of my life has been about patronage and traditional patronage sometimes doesn't extend to the little people and the thing I like about the museum is it's a chance for the little people looking in to get involved."
He added: "I want to make the museum a vehicle to many programmes of education and training and work experience for the community. As a result of newspaper coverage local people have already come forward.
"If students can get work experience at the museum then they overcome this fear of doing it somewhere else."
Mr Scott-Davies is now looking to set up a charitable trust to run and oversee the project.
He is holding a public meeting in the Wishing Well pub, in Tottenham Lane, at 7.30pm on November 20. If all goes to plan - and they manage to raise sufficient funds - the museum could be up and running by spring 2008.
Mr Chapman was raised in Hornsey - he lived in the old Railway Hotel - and used to test drive his cars round Alexandra Park from his workshop on the Cranford Way Industrial Estate. He died unexpectedly, aged 54, in 1982.
</H5>Link (http://www.tottenhamjournal.co.uk/content/haringey/tottenhamjournal/news/story.aspx?brand=HCEJOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newstwgj&itemid=WeED08%20Nov%202006%2010%3A51%3A44%3A500) from here.