• WHAT Mr Justice Jay and the planning committee have done is to turn the planning system on its head.

According to them it is perfectly acceptable for the council to vote through a scheme which makes it £100million better off. Elsewhere this is called “insider trading”.

When a council decides an application not on its merits but to make money it abandons its duty to take a balanced view based on the need to protect local interests. It has effectively become a speculative developer gambling the futures of prospective tenants and school children on the volatile behaviour of markets. To these we may add council tax-payers, who will be landed with the bill if any part of this deal falls through.

Camden is harming those it should represent. No neighbourhood or estate in Camden is free from the threat of speculative development spearheaded and led by the council.

In the case of Somers Town Camden is acting as both developer and judge. It is using its specialist knowledge and its function as a planning authority to produce a different result from what might have been the case had money not been the prime goal.

There has now been a number of cases where opposition to large schemes has been brushed aside. The council should immediately review the isolation of the planning committee from cabinet/ executive, get its scrutiny committee (with external help) to investigate its Community Investment Programme and revisit the relationship between officers and members. This should be seen as just the beginning of a process to renew social democracy.

Any review will find Somers Town a good point of departure.

JOHN MASON, WC1