• I WAS impressed by the effort made by the Camley Street community to promote its regeneration proposals by publishing a full-page appeal in the September 5 New Journal.

I won’t go into detail because these are complex planning matters that are fully explained on the community’s own website; but as an architect with a strong interest in urbanism and “the death and life of cities” (to quote the title of a world-famous book by Jane Jacobs), I think it would be a pity if the community’s proposals for the regeneration of the Camley Street site were to be set against the Camden Council proposals in a kind of political stand-off.

However I must say I do see a very great difference between the standard finance-centred approach that the council has been applying indiscriminately to all sites, no matter where they are and no matter what their intrinsic characteristics are, and the site-specific, tailor-made, approach that is being so carefully taken by the Camley Street community, acting on the advice of Britain’s best planning experts and designers.

As we approach a general election, with the prospect of a Labour government completely rewriting the rules on local government funding, it is to be hoped that Camden Council will see the benefits of taking the lead on this by embarking on a new way forward that conserves valuable communities, keeps them together, and supports them.

Here is a golden opportunity for Camden to show a progressive, ground-breaking approach. I say to the decision makers at the council: don’t throw it away! This is the moment to conserve and enhance the life of Camley Street – or condemn it to death.

TOM MUIRHEAD
Address supplied