Former mayor of Camden Lazzaro Pietragnoli, who has resigned from the council

• MANY of us will not be surprised to learn Lazzaro Pietragnoli plays dirty, (Lazzaro Pietragnoli resigns from council over ‘abusive’ social media account, November 22).

Earlier this year he made a legalistic sounding threat against me for suggesting the existence of a deal between Camden and the buyer / developer of Camden land on Belmont Street is to the detriment of good town-planning and affects the judgment of Labour loyalists on the planning committee.

He was on the planning committee in question but I did not name him or single him out.

I wrote: “CIP from its inception has been bending planning and general decision-making out of shape in the London Borough of Camden.

“I am so grateful to both of you –Cllrs Parkinson & Cooper – for not joining in the ‘rubber stamp tendency’ during yesterday’s Planning Committee. I am grateful to Cllr Kelly for making such an impassioned plea to LP colleagues not to impose a terrible scheme on their neighbours in Haverstock.”

Pietragnoli replied: “Finally and more importantly, what I would recommend to you is not to question other people’s integrity or imply that I am are part of a ‘deal’ or that I am are simply ‘stamp rubbing’ decision [sic] taken elsewhere (especially in emails sent to a big group of people). Because next time, instead of replying to you, I will forward your email to the Borough Solicitor to protect my reputation.”

I stand by what I wrote. Pietragnoli’s right to privacy isn’t betrayed by exposing him here because he wrote to me with his threat as a councillor using his Camden email address.

By airily suggesting the borough solicitor is on hand to take up cudgels against me, Pietragnoli sought to “scare me off” from further criticisms of the planning committee’s decision-making.

There is good evidence Camden’s CIP leads to planning decisions which suit the executive rather than the cause of good town-planning especially in our neighbourhood of Gospel Oak / West Kentish Town.

Where to start? Building on estate open spaces (Malden Road, Godwin Court, Grafton Road etc), gross densification (trebling it on the three Gospel Oak estates against local wishes and conservation area policy), failing to replace workspace at Lawn Road, Camden Road, Vicars Road etc, as required by policy, pursuing CIP without a neighbourhood plan for the last 10 years in Gospel Oak / West Kentish Town etc etc.

TOM YOUNG, NW5