Town Hall boss attacks ‘fusspottery’ in areas like Dartmouth Park

Cllr John Thane: ‘Let an area breathe’

THE drive for more conservation areas is increasing “fusspottery”, according to the Town Hall’s environment chief.
Labour councillor John Thane, who chairs Camden Council’s environment committee, said: “The practical problem with having so many conservation areas is that they slow down the decision-making process when the government is increasingly cracking the whip.
“The other problem is that it does encourage fusspottery and there is a lot of that in Dartmouth Park.”
Cllr Thane, who lives in Dartmouth Park, had earlier upset members of Dartmouth Park Conservation Area Advisory Committee (DPCAAC) when he called the area a hotchpotch. Many buildings were “crap” and deserved to be pulled down, he added.
Explaining his comments, Cllr Thane said: “There is a lack of precision in what a conservation area is. There is some interesting social housing here and generally this is a nice hotchpotch but why should that make it a conservation area?
“Roads like Twisden Road or Chetwynd, Spencer or Churchill roads or even Swain’s Lane are all perfectly nice roads but there is no reason they should be in a conservation area.”
But he added: “You could make a case for the earliest bits down Highgate Road. There are some vestiges of 18th-century housing like Little Green Street. La Sainte Union, the listed school building, is worth preserving.
“Lissenden is a decent little estate. On the corner there is some 19th-century housing of different periods, which is quite interesting. Certainly, central Dartmouth Park, the part behind Grove Terrace, first developed by the Earl of Dartmouth and the area from Dartmouth Park Road up to Croftdown is quite a good area.
“There is also a good case for the Highgate Newtown estate. In terms of architectural quality I don’t think it’s much but there is an interesting part of history there.”
According to Cllr Thane, the problem is defining areas of special architectural and historical interest.
He said: “What is special? Every area has something special about it. I don’t have much sympathy for the argument that says if Mozart lived somewhere for a while we should preserve it. It is a matter of degree.
“I am not sure, for example, that you need to resurrect the gasometers in King’s Cross because there are examples in other places. You don’t need to preserve every example of a Victorian workhouse, for example. Sometimes it’s absurd conservatism.”
Stephen Benson, chairman of the DPCAAC, said: “Conservation areas are not simply about preserving historic buildings or ones of outstanding architectural merit.
“They are about celebrating and sustaining the diversity and particular character of defined areas which make them good places to live and work in.
“In no sense does this mean preserving each and every building irrespective of quality, nor have we ever proposed this. We welcome and encourage good new buildings to this ‘hotch-potch’.”
There are currently 36 conservation areas in the borough, designated by the council to preserve and enhance their character and to control and manage change.
The council is consulting on the creation of three new conservation areas, which will include West Kentish Town, Camden Broadway and Harmond Street.