• WEEK in, week out, we hear of developers making a mockery of council decisions and wrecking social lives (‘Property firm shut our booming pub’, February 23).

There is still a ray of hope for the King’s Cross community while the planning inspector absorbs the evidence, but I find it so depressing that companies like Mendoza feel comfortable with their disgusting approach to the law and the citizens.

Camden could not have made things clearer when it protected the whole of the Carpenters Arms building by declaring it as an asset of community value and when it refused permission for the hostile plans to gentrify the pub and its upper floors.

But this did not stop the developer from pressing on regardless. For me, the last straw was the request for the inspector to reschedule his site visit to fit around the tenants living in the pub’s function room. Mendoza has raised the bar for audacity to a spectacular level!

It could be argued that Mendoza’s agents are simply playing the game. After all, gambling with planning laws can be quite fun when the maximum fine is a fraction of a speculator’s profits and while our government is happy to crush and disempower councils.

But let’s spare a thought for the real victims of this game and it’s less funny.
An entire community has been robbed of its meeting place.

A trendy lock-up bar will never be a substitute for a proper, well-run community pub.

IAN SHACKLOCK, N4