• COUNCILLOR Gio Spinella is right to highlight the danger of Camden Council working too closely with developers, (Camden’s stance towards developers is high risk, January 19).

At the Murphy site in Kentish Town Camden Council set a planning framework in favour of over-dense development by requiring too many homes on a highly restricted site, benefiting the developer.

The council is planning the same at the Regis Road industrial estate, where they propose to “kick-start” development by selling off Holmes Road depot to a developer to demolish and redevelop, even though Camden has just spent several million pounds retrofitting the building for Camden’s service delivery.

If the council’s developer-led plans come to fruition it will result in a swath of high-rise development from Dartmouth Park to West Kentish Town estate, right across the northern half of the NW5 postcode. It will transform our area for the worse.

As with the O2 development, Camden seems intent to turn parts the borough into what will resemble the new high-rise areas in central London.

It is mystifying why leaders of the council are set on this path. Most of these homes will be unaffordable for local people and will not address the housing crisis in Camden.

It will bring more people into the borough and push up housing prices even further out of reach of those in need of affordable housing. We need a more enlightened vision.

SUE SHEPHERD
Savernake Road, NW3