• WHEN asked, West Kentish Town Estate voted for the option of demolition and rebuilding, based on promises of a low-rise construction.

Camden said “Absolutely no higher than eight storeys, would be built”. Even the brief given to the architects to guide us through the consultation was for, and I quote from their own website, “Working in collaboration, with the input of the local community, we have developed a landscape-led phased master plan for 890 new homes, along with new commercial and community spaces. Arranged as a series of mid-rise courtyard housing blocks and mews streets”.

After the vote we were “asked” again to help design our new estate, so we said in meetings that we would like our front doors to open to the fresh air as we have now. Our estate was remarkably free from Covid, we believe, because our front doors did not open to an enclosed germ-breeding corridor.

We asked if we could have exterior balconies. We asked if we could have roads running east to west to take full advantage of the sun. We asked for separate kitchen and living rooms. We asked for separate toilet and bathrooms, especially important to our Muslim community. We asked for community spaces and provision of a centre with space for a TRA meeting room. We asked for play areas for our children.

We were promised we would be able to choose the flats we wanted to move into and would not be made to accept something we didn’t like; and that all council tenants would be rehoused within five years of the start of demolition.

So what does the finished design provide us with? Cell block H’s of eight storeys tall, all with inside front doors. Four tower blocks of varying heights all well over eight storeys. Internal balconies taking valuable space off the one room kitchen / diner / living room. One-room toilet and bathroom. No community provision at all. No play areas. No commercial and community spaces. No mews streets.

The plan is that the phases will now take 20 years and the final council tenants will not move until 2043. The first- and second-phase tenants will only have the choice of moving into a 14-storey tower block built right next door to the existing University College London 15-storey block. They will be forced to move into the block or off the estate.

So, yet again, Camden’s idea of “consultation” and “community engagement” is an absolute farce. You can have any option you want so long as it is the one we have already decided to give you.

Remember Camden “asked us” to tell them and we joined in wholeheartedly making no demands, causing no problems, and believing we were working together to build a new estate that tenants, residents, and council could be proud of.

Just how stupid were we to believe that this council leopard could ever change its spots?

JILL FRASER, Tenant
ANDREW DOW, Leaseholder
West Kentish Town Estate