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| Supporters fight new threat
to topple Crown and Goose |
Battle lines re-drawn as developer
challenges Town Hall planners’ decision
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Redevelopment plan: Crown and Goose pub
Campaigners Russell Grant and Tess Read
Celebrity supporter Chas Smash
Celebrity supporter Phil Jupitus
Celebrity supporter Julian Clary
Celebrity supporter John Virgo
Pub backer: MP Frank Dobson
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PROPERTY developers have asked the government to intervene in
a heated dispute over plans to demolish a treasured Camden Town
pub.
Councillors ignored advice from their own planning department when
they ruled in February that the popular Crown and Goose pub on the
corner of Arlington Road and Delancey Street should be saved from
demolition.
It was the second time a plan to bulldoze the bar had been shelved.
Neighbouring New Camden Snooker Hall was also reprieved at a meeting
attended by more than 100 protesters.
But the decision to stop Piccadilly-based developer DE and J Levy
from demolishing the buildings and redeveloping the site with a
new restaurant and flats will now be put to the test.
The company, which was not represented at the decisive meeting,
has appealed against the ruling.
The issue will now be decided by a planning inspector, who will
then report to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.
At the planning inquiry, councillors will have to justify their
decision to ignore professional advice, which backed the development.
They will cast their minds back to a night of drama at the Town
Hall when their decision seemed to shoot down the latest bid to
redevelop the pub site.
It is not clear which planning inspector will handle the case and
inside the Town Hall it is felt that little progress on the appeal
will be made before Christmas.
But residents are already planning a fresh deluge of protest letters.
Their huge campaign earlier this year reeled in celebrities such
as Chas Smash from Madness and panel show gags man Phil Jupitus,
who drink in the bar, comic Julian Clary, a resident in Delancey
Street, and trickshot snooker ace John Virgo, who called for the
snooker centre to be saved.
Holborn and St Pancras Labour MP Frank Dobson also offered his help,
speaking out in favour of the pub.
Campaigner Tess Read said: “The appeal has come at the worst
time again, as we only have a month to make our representations.
“The planning inspector will only look at legitimate planning
rules and won’t be swayed by anything else. That’s fine
because to me I think the councillors made a strong case.
“We will be sending in new letters reminding them of the strength
of feeling around this application.”
Residents still fear that a super-pub, a large bar similar to those
found in Camden High Street, could be built at the pub site.
Minutes of the February meeting indicate the points on which the
unanimous refusal must now be justified.
They include the loss of valued buildings and the scale and bulk
of the proposed designs.
Russell Grant, a member of Delancey Street Residents Association,
made a stirring speech at the planning committee meeting.
He said: “It becomes a war of attrition in a way.
“They try to play the bureaucratic system, keep coming back
with applications and appeals in the hope they will wear you down
and get the result they want.
“There is no doubt the intention is to make this a bar and
that is not what people want. They have had enough.”
DE and J Levy was keeping its cards close to its chest this week
and nobody was available for comment.
A spokesman for the firm said in February that its proposed scheme
would not wreck the street.
He added: “It is a complete redevelopment but it fits into
the profile of the street.” |
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