• CAMDEN Council are planning to sell, or have sold, the small site where the old Charlie Ratchford Centre is located, between Belmont Street and Crogsland Road, NW1.

A developer has applied for permission for 115 new flats to be built (planning ref. 2020/ 5063/P).

The proposed scheme is massive overdevelopment. The density is 396 flats per hectare, whereas a few years ago Camden advised that an appropriate density for an accessible urban area like this is 225 flats per hectare.

The scheme has only 23 per cent affordable homes and 66 per cent of the flats are one-bedroom, and only three have three bedrooms.

Camden must know this area desperately needs affordable housing, including homes for families.

The configuration of the building, with elevations on both Crogsland Road and Belmont Street, and the height of the blocks proposed, do not allow for meaningful green open space in between.

There is a very small amount of external space at the bottom of a narrow courtyard, overshadowed for the most of the day.

We should not permit development with such inadequate amenity space, particularly in a post-Covid-19 world.

At the north of the site is a 10-storey tower, with north east facing balconies, which will affect residents of Denton estate due to overshadowing.

Camden should be preventing development like this not enabling it. We hope people will respond to the consultation which ends December 5 (or November 30 – the Camden website is not clear).

NEIGHBOURS OF WEST KENTISH TOWN