A BARRIER as high as the Berlin Wall will be erected in Drummond Street for 15 years if Euston Station is demolished and rebuilt for HS2.

The four-metre-high wall will be just three feet away from the front doors of dozens of homes and cut off passing trade to the popular parade of Indian restaurants.

Camden Council leader Sarah Hayward, Green councillor Sian Berry, Lib Dem Flick Rea, Conservative Jonny Bucknell and departing MP Frank Dobson joined a wind- swept photocall at the corner of Drummond Street and Coburg Street on Monday.

It aimed to draw attention to the plight of resi- dents living next to the proposed HS2 Euston Station and the council’s launch of a petition call- ing on the government to ensure a “fair deal for Londoners”.

In rural places, residents living 300 metres from the HS2 rail line will receive compensation but in Camden even those living a few metres away will get nothing.

Council officials taped a yellow-and-black hazard-style line down the middle of the street roughly illustrating where the barrier will be.

Props are readied for the photo-shoot

On one side, the council says that a “new piece of city” will be built above a super-modern station that is a “once in a lifetime opportunity” for the local authority.

On the other side, residents will get no compen- sation despite living so close to a huge develop- ment site with “significant noise, vibration and unsightly views”.

In a statement handed out at the photocall, Sohail Miah, who lives in Coburg Street, said: “It’s going to be five to 10 steps away from my doorstep. I can’t imagine how my parents are going to sleep in the mornings or be able to function through the day without any sleep.”

The photocall itself was controversial – campaigners and community leaders were not invited to take part, in stark contrast of a similar PR shoot outside the Dublin Castle pub last year, when a huge crowd gathered outside the Park- way pub shortly before the government agreed to axe the hated “link” line part of the HS2 plan.

Conservative MPs Angie Bray, Nick Hurd and John Randall, Labour's Andy Slaughter, Frank Dobson, Stephen Pound and Hillingdon, Ealing and Camden councils have formed an “alliance” against HS2, a Town Hall press release said. A council spokesman said there was “absolutely no intention to exclude anyone” and a Department for Transport official said that compensation was fairer than previous schemes such as Eurostar.