• ARE some of Camden Council’s policies and proposals even worth the paper they are printed on? Let us take that about green spaces and gardening.

Back in April 2015 the council gave itself planning permission to build on three small sites on Grafton Road, north of the railway bridge.

The sites were being nurtured by local people, growing vegetables and flowers. Three years later the council boarded up the sites, evicting the gardeners.

Numerous attempts were made to get further information on what was happening, but no responses. The boards are regularly graffitied, sometimes with gang tags.

We know that many local people want access to such spaces and that gardening activity is very therapeutic and helps community cohesion.

In response to recent questions on local social media, I emailed one of our councillors asking them to use a members’ enquiry to see if it would be possible to return the spaces, if only temporarily, to local people.

They replied that they were far too busy dealing with queries about Murphy’s Yard.

I drafted the enquiry for them and when I asked had it been sent, they said not as it had not been received. I sent it again.

It is now years since people have been denied gardening opportunities on these sites. So much for policies and visions as far as greening is concerned in Gospel Oak.

There is, of course, a huge site – Bacton Low Rise – derelict for almost a decade, which could have been used for small allotments, again on a temporary basis.

The art of some bureaucrats, elected and employed, is to do nothing and justify why. This certainly applies to these four sites.

MICK FARRANT
Oak Village, NW5