‘Bias’ charge over Europe’s biggest building project

ONE of Camden Council’s most senior politicians faces the sack following claims of bias against the massive King’s Cross redevelopment.
Brian Woodrow, a Labour councillor for the past 15 years, has been banned from chairing planning meetings concerning the area’s giant facelift – Europe’s largest building project, worth more than £2 billion.
The action came in a legal warning from Borough Solicitor Alison Lowton and included a five-day deadline to respond which runs out tomorrow (Friday).
It follows mounting concern among senior council figures that Councillor Woodrow – the Town Hall’s planning chairman since 1998 – has spoken out against applications submitted by developers Argent Limited.
Cllr Woodrow must now decide whether to accept the advice from the council’s lawyer and withdraw from meetings on the redevelopment, or fight the action and face a possible Standards Board probe. He has declined to comment
A list of gripes drawn up by council bosses includes an article published by trade magazine Architects Journal late last year in which Cllr Woodrow made disparaging comments about the scheme’s planning brief.
The comments bemoaning the size of project on land behind King’s Cross and St Pancras stations led him into direct confrontation with Labour leader Councillor Dame Jane Roberts.
She was so angry that he failed to respond to the article that she filed a clarification in a later edition herself – warning that suggestions in the original article could prove dangerous to the council’s position.
In a clearly fraught letter, she described her fellow party member as simply ‘Woodrow’, without using a title.
Relations between the two Labour members are understood to have remained stressed with contact kept to a bare minimum. Other concerns which led to the shock legal warning were repeated calls made by Cllr Woodrow to English Heritage in a bid to convince them to oppose the applications and public claims that there was something wrong with the planning brief.
The Town Hall had hoped to keep a lid on the controversy with council chiefs keen to avoid appearing muddled when dealing with the biggest planning application they have ever received.
But after the New Journal uncovered the legal unrest, press officials were last night (Wednesday) forced to confirm the position. A statement said that the council feared Cllr Woodrow could not be or could not be seen to be “impartial”.
It added: “Cllr Woodrow has been formally advised that that he should not take part in any discussion of the King’s Cross planning application. It is Camden Council’s belief that any continued participation by Cllr Woodrow could bring the council into disrepute and would be likely to place him in breach of the Member Code of Conduct.”
Cllr Woodrow refused to comment on the legal warning and insisted that he would not answer any questions on the King’s Cross project. It is understood that Cllr Woodrow has taken his own legal advice and confided only in a circle of close confidants within the Labour group.
A senior Labour source told the New Journal: “Brian has been a diligent chairman of the committee but the council has got to take any concerns seriously. It will be up to Brian to respond as he does.”
Labour organisers insisted their had been no political attempt to gag Cllr Woodrow and that the process was strictly a legal procedure.
“There is no bitterness,” said one source.
The row will not stop Cllr Woodrow taking the hotseat for a crucial planning meeting tonight (Thursday) when several major applications are due to be discussed – although none in King’s Cross. A council press statement said: “Camden Council has been concerned about Cllr Woodrow’s position in relation to the King’s Cross planning applications for some time.”
The New Journal contacted Argent Limited, who have employed an outside firm to handle press enquiries, but representatives failed to return calls.