• RESIDENTS of Highgate and readers of the New Journal will be well aware of Camden Council’s controversial programme to build a school extension on Highgate Road.

This plan affects several local schools through the La Swap group including William Ellis and Parliament Hill.

Readers will know that the council has pressed ahead with their plans despite strong local opposition from neighbours in Dartmouth Park.

They will know that many feel it is unfair for the council to serve as “judge and jury” in determining whether to go ahead with a planning project which they themselves support. They will also know that the project was supported by Highgate’s Labour councillors, Oliver Lewis and Sally Gimson.

We believe that it’s time to listen to the reasonable concerns of local residents before rushing in to a major building project.

This is particularly important given the development is situated alongside one of London’s most iconic open spaces – Hampstead Heath – and the Dartmouth Park Conservation Area.

The works will only add more traffic to congested local roads. And it will mean yet more big lorries and construction vehicles.

There are several key factors which lead us to believe that the council’s decision must be reopened.

First, Camden is planning to cut the budget of the proposed extension. We are concerned cuts will inevitably entail significant changes to the project. For example, the published designs from ASTUDIO Ltd included a “living wall”. Will there still be money to plant and maintain this?

Second, the project’s planners failed to consider an important water drain. They are therefore amending the structure of the proposed building works. We don’t believe that such changes are likely to be limited to minor amendments.

Thirdly, and potentially most significantly, there’s a new approved development in the area.

Last week Camden’s planning committee over-ruled the concerns of residents in Parliament Hill Fields and approved a controversial extension to a modern house in Lissenden Gardens.

The New Journal reported (Extensions plan snub for neighbours, March 23) that Labour councillor: “Sally Gimson called the project ‘greedy’ and added that with Parliament Hill’s School’s project due to start soon, the combination would leave people in Clevedon Mansions [on Lissenden Gardens] feeling boxed in”.

Yet that combination is exactly what Lissenden Gardens residents will now face. We presume that Cllr Gimson will now withdraw her support for the school’s project.

We all want our local schools to have the best possible facilities but we believe that given these three new factors Camden Council should reopen their planning decision for the Highgate Road project.

They should work with – rather than against – the Lissenden Gardens Tenants’ Association, the Grove Terrace Residents’ Association, and other local community forums.

The council needs to come clean about exactly what changes to the project they are proposing and let residents and a proper, fair planning process determine whether they ought to go ahead.

HENRY NEWMAN
JIM ORMISTON
& BEN SEIFERT
Highgate Conservatives