Highline vision: an image published for the planning application process, a view of how part of the route could be used

• IMAGINE a couple with two or three young children living in a one-bedroom flat; over-crowded, cramped, stuff everywhere, little storage, no outside space, nowhere to escape when you want five minutes of peace.

This is the true reality for families living in social housing up and down the country due to an enduring housing crisis. Their quality of living is poor and parents and children struggle which then affects society wholesale.

Now imagine if there was a park across the road where parents and children could let off steam, walk, play, sit, enjoy, an extension of their homes, if you like, their own little backyard.

Residents at Camden Gardens find themselves in this situation.

We are two social housing estates which house around 140 people; 75 per cent of the homes are without private outside space but we do have the added bonus of a little green oasis right outside our front doors, the green space of Camden Gardens.

It is loved and used daily. A real welcome to our housing conditions.

Our housing next to the gardens is not a coincidence. Camden Council were abiding by their own policy, which only allows the building of social housing with adequate outdoor space within the proposed development or at a very nearby location.

Hence they would grant permission for the two housing estates next to Camden Gardens green space.

Now imagine a wealthy developer who wants to deprive families of this park, to build a tourist attraction with many thousands of day trippers traipsing through, especially on the weekend.

The noise, the litter, potential anti-social behaviour, the presence of strangers crowding up the space that once was used by tenants in relative privacy.

Hard to imagine such a callous move on behalf of Camden Town Unlimited, a business partnership whose aim is to encourage and protect business interests for a few.

You may have heard of the plans for their multi-million pound project, the Highline, which recently gained planning permission from Camden Council. The gardens, small in size, are to house a café, a large table and seating areas and a bulky staircase and lift.

For those who are not aware, Camden Gardens green space is a protected environment under the 1931 London Squares Preservation Act prohibiting development other than to maintain the gardens themselves.

Can Camden Council, Camden Town Unlimited or indeed anyone else make sense of this trashing of legalities and of hard-pressed tenants?

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED, NW1