• CAMDEN Council’s latest self-promotional publication (whoops! I mean “magazine”) was delivered with a four-page brochure extolling the virtues of Landsec’s proposed O2 Centre site development.

In other words, whatever residents say, Camden has made its mind up to approve the development. This brochure is so deceptive as to be hysterical, if it were not so serious.

The contribution towards Finchley Road improvements and local open spaces such as Billy Fury Way will do nothing to balance the huge impact on resources generated by the proposed development.

A contribution towards step-free access at West Hampstead Underground station will do nothing to enable passengers to access the platform when it is already so full at times in peak periods that people are being stopped at the top of the stairs, or presumably at the top of the lift.

Another 1,800 homes will increase passenger numbers to an unsustainable level. And what on Earth is “reproviding” key facilities such as a supermarket, gym and cinema?

It is up to the companies running those facilities to decide whether to return to the new development – and Sainsbury’s has already said it will not. In any case, the brochure says it will have a “community” supermarket, which means a small local store, not a full-size equivalent to the existing Sainsbury’s.

I could go on, but all I can really do is urge readers to not be taken in by Landsec and Camden Council’s PR speech. We will not be getting two new “parks” and I doubt very much if the 1,800 homes will be “marketed to local people first”.

And even if they are, you can bet your bottom dollar that the cost of the homes will be well beyond the means of the average worker.

MARCIA MACLEOD, NW6