• CAMDEN Council has just launched a public consultation on its draft document, Key Principles: Euston Station’s Planning Brief, and is keen that residents complete the questionnaire at www.eustonareaplan.info/get-involved/.

The Camden Civic Society is asking people to treat this with caution. Behind the proposed Principles lies the intention to promote, together with HS2 Ltd, Network Rail and a so-far-unidentified property company, a very dense and partly high-rise commercial office development to the south-west of the current station in order to fund the rebuilding of the non-HS2 part of Euston station.

In the consultation, however, this is not mentioned, nor the negative impact on Camden residents, especially on our environment and visual amenity.

This lack of transparency is particularly apparent at draft Principle 7 in the questionnaire where the sentence “Recognise the amenity and historic value of Euston Square Gardens and consider how best to reinstate them” refers to the intention, as stated in our previous letter (It’s astonishing Camden Council seem to have taken up the idea of reorientating a historic square, March 30), to “flip” the historic outline of the gardens north/south instead of east/west in order to open up highly valuable development plots directly on Euston Road.

Any positive responses by residents to these very imprecise draft policies could be used in the future as our acceptance of this and other hidden intentions.

The Camden Civic Society therefore recommends that anyone completing the questionnaire writes along the lines suggested below in the “Comments” boxes and does not click on the circles labelled “Strongly agree” etc:

Principle 1: The purpose of Euston station as a transport hub should be the guiding principle behind any Masterplan.

Principle 4: As in Camden’s own planning principle document, the Euston Area Plan (page 49), any proposal should demonstrate that it ‘does not unacceptably impact on strategic and local views’.

Principle 5: A bus station should be retained close to the station’s main entrance and enough space left for any future developments in local transport, including Crossrail 2.

Principle 7: Euston Square gardens must be maintained in its historic east-west orientation, maximising the retention of mature trees and minimising the blocking of sunlight.

DOROTHEA HACKMAN
Chair, Camden Civic Society