RADICAL plans to demolish a community centre and replace it with a new homes-and-centre development have been unveiled this week by Camden Council.

The council want to build 26 new houses on land tucked at the bottom of Bertram Street, and use the funds raised by their sale to rebuild the community centre on the same land.

The Town Hall say the current building is too expensive to run and the new centre will offer a state-of-the-art sports hall, new cafe, youth club and other rooms for the centres various activities. 

Based in a post-war block that had been used as a Territorial Army HQ and a postbag sewing factory staffed by prison­ers from Pentonville, the Town Hall claim they have to spend up to £100,000 a year on extra maintenance and that the centre means high bills for energy use. Officers say surveys show that keeping the current building and patching it up would be more expensive in the long-term than knocking it down and starting from scratch 

Designs displayed at an exhibition on Wednesday show two new blocks of purely private housing. The sports hall would be razed to the ground and a new one, which will be partially sunken into the ground, would be built sideways on the plot. The designs would mean the hall is a slightly different shape – and on the proportions for indoor football pitches set out by Sport England – but with a double-height ceiling for the popular trapeze and gym classes. A new route through the middle of the centre’s site would allow pedestrians to walk from Bertram Street  into Croftdown Road. The project could cost up to £15million to complete.

Previously, the Town Hall had planned to refurbish the centre’s current HQ and add housing. It would have generated a surplus of around £500,000 but now Town Hall number crunchers believe that is too slim a margin to risk, as the project must pay for itself completely. 

Critics of the scheme say the plans are over-development for a small site, and the council are trying to squeeze too much profit out of it. 

Ian Williams lives in a flat on the top floor of the centre with his partner Kate and two children. His landlord will be forced to sell the house if the plans go ahead – with the Williams family facing an uncertain future. 

He said: “Camden are making a plan which would see our house of 12 years destroyed. 

“As a family on a low income it is fair to suggest we would struggle to stay in the neighbour­hood where our children have lived all their lives. It is very sad to think that we might have to move away, to move our children from their schools. The idea that Camden would make families homeless in order to make money from new property seems wrong.”

He added that there had been a lack of transpar­ency.

Mr Williams said: “No figures have been made available regarding costs – a corner­stone of the council’s case for a complete rebuild. The impact to the area of this enormous enterprise at the end of a quiet, cobbled street appears to be inconsequential, as does the arrival of up to 100 new residents.”

Environment chief Labour councillor Phil Jones said: “We want to provide a sustainable future for the community centre and the Fresh Youth Academy. The buildings are in a poor state and are costly to run. Every year we spend between £50,000 and £100,000 on emergency repairs on top of general maintenance costs.

“We have been working with the community over the last 15 months to develop a proposal that reflects need, is financially sustainable and best delivers improved service.”

He claimed there was support from the scheme by centre users and neighbours, and that a new building was a “less complex project” than a refurbishment.

The proposals will go to the Town Hall’s cabinet for a decision in February.