A RADICAL project to reintroduce a Victorian-style cable car system linking Highgate Village with Archway is to be discussed by a community group charged with working out how money collected by the council in planning deals should be spent.

Highgate Neighbourhood Forum is canvassing ideas on how to spend an estimated £20,000 a year, raised through the new Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) paid by developers.

Proposers of a ski-lift cable car suggest that it could be run by an electric motor in a sub-station in the village.

History books show a cable car  took passengers from Archway to Southwood Lane back in 1884. Sir Sydney Waterlow, who gave Waterlow Park to Londoners to use as a “garden for the gardenless”, was head of London County Council at the time and gave up some of his land to allow the road to be widened so the cable car system could be installed

Highgate Neighbourhood Forum chair­woman Rachel  Allison said:  “The CIL offers a unique opportunity for people  to have a say in shaping our neighbourhood. There have already been many great ideas, including major projects like a shuttle bus service linking Highgate with Crouch End, Muswell Hill and Hampstead, and smaller ones such as providing more trees or better signage to Highgate Cemetery and the Heath.”

She added: “One popular proposal is to commission a statue to honour Samuel Taylor Coleridge. A permanent memorial to one of Highgate’s most renowned residents in the heart of Pond Square is something I’m sure many people would support. 

“One of the more quirky ideas is to have a specially designed cable car chair-lift to carry people up the hill into Highgate and bring Archway tube that bit closer to the village. 

“It would certainly make the uphill climb to Waterlow Park much easier, but despite its Victorian precedent it may not be feasible. 

“It’s this sort of adventurous thinking that’s great for stimulating debate. So however outlandish it seems, I’d like to encourage all Highgate residents to vote on the proposals and post their ideas online.” The Victorians used two steam engines based off Highgate High Street to power the cable car.

Better Archway Forum pressure group chairwoman Kate Calvert said ideas on improving links between neighbourhoods were welcome. She said: “It would be rather entertaining, and certainly more fun than taking the bus up the hill. However, before we gave such a scheme support we’d have to see the details as to how it could work.”