Cllr Danny Beales

• CLLR Danny Beales seems to think that Camden’s Community Investment Programme is all about him, but it started over 10 years ago before he was on the scene.

It is a programme pushed forward by council officers, working in a similar way as other councils around the country. There is nothing unique about Camden’s developer model for funding housing repairs.

CIP was started before Camden declared a climate emergency. As with the Edmonton incinerator, there needs to be a rethink in the face of the crisis we are in.

West Kentish Town estate has nearly 100 mature trees, and functions as a green lung for West Kentish Town, providing cooling of air temperature, removal of airborne pollution and capturing carbon dioxide.

Cutting down these trees, as proposed in the current plans for redevelopment of the estate, will harm everyone in the area and increase Camden’s CO2 emissions.

We have not been consulted and do not accept it is a responsible way forward. Planting new trees as promised by the council is worse than useless. We need these “ecological services” now, not in 40 years’ time.

Camden must find another way of raising money, in order to reduce the number of flats that need to be built on the estate.

That is the only way to save the trees and reduce harm to people. It is damaging in other ways to build an additional 550 new homes in an already developed area.

For example, it will result in at least 1,000 additional vehicle movements a week on already overburdened road network. Camden have not thought this through.

Residents of Grafton Road and those roads already suffering an increase in traffic following the Queen’s Crescent road closure will have to contend with much more traffic.

Unfortunately Camden Council overstretched itself in the 1960s and 1970s, when it compulsorily purchased a massive amount of land, particularly in West Kentish Town and Gospel Oak. It has never been able to manage the maintenance requirements of the buildings it has built.

Building a massive amount of new buildings now is only going to add to the problem in the future. Time for a rethink by our council in everyone’s interests.

AMANDA WOMACK
Malden Road, NW5