• AS a member of the community who has lived happily next door to the West Kentish Town estate for 30 years, I read with interest the letter from Labour’s Haverstock ward councillors regarding its regeneration (Better homes, February 22).

The councillors focused on existing estate residents to the exclusion of anyone else; which begs the question why they sent their letter to the New Journal.

Their letter in a newspaper ought to have acknowledged Haverstock’s general public as well as WKT estate residents. Our councillors represent all the people living here and should be candid with them that WKT estate regeneration is a massive scheme that will inevitably cause considerable disruption.

It is also a huge opportunity for improvement in the area. Detailed thought at planning level is necessary to take full advantage of the potential to achieve long-lasting benefits for everyone.

It’s not just about flat lay-outs for existing residents and which architect designs them. Well-defined planning objectives should be discussed and agreed with the community before design begins.

They should cover the scale of new buildings, how local streets like Grafton Road, Warden Road, Athlone Street, Allcroft Road and Queen’s Crescent can be improved, and how to introduce a diversity of uses, including employment space.

How one can appropriately vary the style of the new buildings – to avoid the estate being completely recast in beige brickwork – and how we can keep some existing estate trees should be discussed too.

Hopefully West Kentish Town estate can be re-formed as a pleasant, well-integrated part of our neighbour-hood.

At the moment, there is a danger the regeneration process planned for Gospel Oak and West Kentish Town will repeat the pattern of piecemeal regeneration of 50 years ago, which was carried out estate-by-estate.

As Camden Council’s own consultants have written: “The estates themselves give the impression that each is a separate entity, completely isolated from its surrounding context, with little need to make any positive connection with the wider urban fabric” (Scott Wilson, Gospel Oak Options Review, 2010).

To avoid repeating past mistakes we must engage the whole community and involve planners in the process of drawing up a planning framework for the general area and west Kentish Town.

TOM YOUNG
Bassett Street, NW5