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Nick outside the defeated student housing site
Kentish Town has a unique character – it’s vital that we protect that. Cowboy developers are a real threat. I’ve been working with residents in Holmes Road and the Inkerman area to fight plans for a massive new student block.
We threw the plans out when they came to Camden’s planning committee but the developer decided to appeal that democratic decision. And we beat them again at the Planning Inspector’s hearing on Tuesday! It’s fantastic news for local residents!
I spent the first day listening to the evidence with the Labour Government’s Planning Inspector, who has the job of deciding the appeal. I was pretty worried – round here Inspectors have a bad reputation. They said it was OK to drive trucks up Little Green Street for three years! And gave the green light to developers who wanted to close the Torriano Pub.
We had Camden on our side – the Council officers had originally given 26 good reasons to refuse the application for 358 student rooms. We hoped that would make it tough for the developer. But I had cleared my diary for the day to make sure that I was there to represent resident’s views.
The first thing we heard at the appeal was that not only did the developers have the gall to say that this was a suitable development for the area, but they wanted to almost double the size of the basement. The brass neck! It would have meant loads of extra trucks during the construction – and the developers wanted to say this was a trivial change!
I pointed out that no one had heard anything about these proposed changes. And the Inspector threw out their application. From there on they were in trouble and it was not long before the developer withdrew their case. Victory for the residents of Kentish Town!
My main concern was that the community was in danger of losing a large, well-located and successful commercial site in the middle of the Kentish Town industrial area. This site is really important for local jobs. And over 350 more students – on top of 170 vet students – would really change the character of the area.
