• AS the proposed development at 156 West End Lane reaches the planning committee tonight (Thursday), complete with a recommendation by the planning officer to approve the application, is it time to recognise that public consultations on large planning applications in Camden is little more than a farcical box-ticking exercise that is a total waste of everyone’s time and effort?

Over 1,000 objection letters were submitted by West Hampstead residents in total opposition to the proposals. Significant and detailed objections were also submitted by every local residents’ association, the Neighbourhood Development Forum, the conservation area committee and campaign groups. But to what end?

All objections have been either whitewashed over or ignored by planners. The only group professing support for the proposals are the Labour-dominated West Hampstead Amenity & Transport group, in synch with their party colleagues at the council.

Just five minutes will be given at the committee meeting for hundreds of objectors to make their deputations in regard to a massive over-development of 164 units, of which only 44 will be at “affordable” rents.

Perversely five minutes is the same time a resident opposing a neighbour’s small conservatory would be given. It appears to matter not that the 156 West End Lane application proposes an over-intensive over-development of a small plot of publicly-owned land, or that the density would exceed even the maximum population density specified in the London Plan.

As one local succinctly put it in relation to the many other current developments in West Hampstead, “You can’t keep pouring concrete into it without breaking the mould”.

Save West Hampstead Stop the Blocks! Campaign are considering utilising the small amount of time we will be allocated at the committee to protest by sitting in total silence, simply because it appears that the only thing the council administration listens to is the sound of money being deposited in its coffers rather than the legitimate concerns of the community it pretends to consult.

SAVE WEST HAMPSTEAD STOP THE BLOCKS! CAMPAIGN on behalf of many hundreds of West Hampstead residents