• FOR £5.2million Camden Council have now approved Essential Living’s (EL) unauthorised removal of the steps and ramp from the 100 Avenue Road entrance.

This enormous gift of full planning permission to EL, in advance of their gaining approval for the remaining legal agreements with the council, in particular the Construction Management Plan (CMP), means the developers are now no longer constrained by a legal time limit within which to start works.

The legal advice given to Camden was “a matter of interpretation” which boiled down to – because it was such a small part of the building that was demolished it wouldn’t affect how the main works would proceed.

Yet it was large enough to constitute a “material” operation, therefore, because the deed was done it constituted “commencement”, that is, the fact of the deed justified the deed.

Why the farce of a public consultation for EL’s application for retrospective approval when Camden had already granted EL’s demolition notice on November 8, one month before the partial demolition took place?

Camden’s issuing the demand for the £5.2m Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) on December 4 green-lighted partial demolition the next day. All of this before the application was even registered. The first instalment was paid before the final decision was given.

The law is certainly an ass if legal agreements that say “Not to implement or permit implementation of the development until such time as the council has approved (that condition)” can be so easily overturned just to enable cavalier developers to override time limits, which in turn allows building sites to remain fallow for years.

Despite this debacle we’ve been assured that no further demolition can take place until the CMP has been approved. Camden is still considering the community’s plea to scrap the developers’ proposals to route their huge 34-foot lorries over the Eton Avenue pedestrian area into the park, and instead to reroute all 100 Avenue Road works traffic to the A41 only.

Updates at: www.saveswisscottage.com – or email saveswisscottage@icloud.com.

JANINE SACHS
Chair, Save Swiss Cottage