• THE West Kentish Town Estate ballot result means Camden must find £300million to fulfil the mandate to demolish the estate and build 851 flats.

At the Wendling Estate nearby £300million more will be needed to build 712 flats after demolition; £600million is a lot of public money.

Meanwhile, the Community Investment Programme (CIP), which all the schemes cited here are part of, is £100million in the red, (Council investigation begins into Camden’s ‘North Sea Oil’ property deals, January 31 2020).

Near to West Kentish Town Estate is the Bacton Low Rise redevelopment where Camden is years behind schedule.

In phase one, Camden built 67 flats. To complete the project, it must build another 260. In Maitland Park, 112 flats will be built when demolition begins later this spring five years after Camden gave itself planning permission.

The CIP began in 2010. Ten years later in Gospel Oak, Camden has demolished 99 homes and built about 80. The total under consideration across all the projects mentioned here is about 1,940 –1,200 will be for sale with prices starting around £500,000.

Camden took 10 years to build 80 new homes; how long to build 25 times that number? What are the implications for life in the neighbourhood from so much development?

Astonishingly all the projects Camden has planned for Gospel Oak were conceived and promoted without an area plan.

As the biggest landlord in the area, Camden has licensed itself to proceed unencumbered by a neighbourhood plan for 10 years with no end in sight. Kentish Town next door has two such plans.

Gospel Oak must be understood as a neighbourhood and not just a Camden housing district. It has clear boundaries, identity-defining spaces, buildings and institutions, and many inhabitants who care for it.

But it has chronic problems: unemployment, poor health indices, insufficient green space, community “infra­structure” and workspace, as well as concealed housing problems. Plenty of data about these matters is available.

It’s obvious a neighbourhood plan is needed to address them rationally and frame the neighbourhood’s future life in a balanced way.

Yet the largest landlord in the area has consistently obstructed what is the right and progressive thing to do.

With close to £1billion to be spent on construction in Gospel Oak, local councillors must stand up to their executive bosses and demand an evidence-based neighbourhood plan to properly reconcile Camden’s landlord interests with those of everyone else.

TOM YOUNG
Bassett Street, NW5