The current recycling site in Regis Road

A NEW plan for the borough’s biggest recycling centre will cause a spike in pollution around homes and schools, say residents.

A development outlined for the £1bn redevelopment of the Regis Road industrial estate in Kentish Town is currently under consultation with developer Yoo Capital aiming to build a new film studio campus on the land.

It is currently home to a mixture of food businesses, the post office, builders merchants, mechanics and delivery firm UPS.

The scheme would also include housing, and a new recycling centre on a car park behind Holmes Road police station.

The choice of location for the latter has led to a petition calling on the Town Hall and Yoo Capital to go back to the drawing board and choose somewhere else.

After lobbying from the Inkerman Area Residents Association (IARA), Camden has agreed to take comments up to July 11, giving people an extra two weeks past the official deadline.

Residents in the Holmes Road area are now seeking to rally opposition to the plans via a petition.

Petition organiser Paul Aikkila told the New Journal the car park site would affect homes and a school.

His petition said: “The Kentish Town police station site is surrounded by a quiet residential neighbourhood. It is less than 200 metres from the town centre of Kentish Town Road and its cafes and shops. Several schools and community assets are on Holmes Road.

“Relocating the Recycling Centre on the police station site would negatively impact the quality of life and the overall attractiveness.”

He added the plans would bring noise and air pollution up to people’s front doors and stymie further green regeneration in the high street area.

The IARA said the plans had been buried in a planning document published in March.

It was not the subject of any explicit or precise public consultation during the November and December consultation,” the association said.

“It is causing huge concern. There is general support for recycling on the Regis Road area, and this has been the subject of discussions over many months in meetings with Camden and with Yoo Capital, but the planned relocation is hugely problematic. The current location is embedded in what is a semi-industrial area some distance from the conservation area and people’s homes – and the environmental impact is acceptable.”

The Association said heavy lorries frequently collected and delivered giant metal skips.

“For that environmental impact to be brought southwards, right onto Holmes Road and immediately alongside family homes is unacceptable,” the objection said.

The proposed location is directly opposite Saint Patrick’s School.

A letter from the Town Hall to the IARA states consultations showed people wanted the centre to remain on Regis Road.

In the email, seen by the New Journal, planning officers said: “When we consulted on the draft guidance one of the main pieces of feedback was to emphasise recycling is to be re-provided and provide  details about its proposed location.

“Whilst the guidance indicates the police station site as a proposed location the environmental, amenity and health and safety impacts have undergone an initial review and will need to be thoroughly tested and assessed.

“The new recycling centre would be a modern, enclosed facility and would face and be accessed from Regis Road not Holmes Road. Holmes Road would have a residential frontage.”

Developers Yoo Capital are due to hold public meetings and consultations in July.

The draft plan confirms that the recycling centre should remain open throughout the development, and have the same capacity as the current one.