• GIVEN the recent abrupt resignations of senior Camden councillors, objectors to the Pears Building patients’ “hotel”, apparently designed to mitigate the brutalist prospect of the Royal Free from the sensitive eyes of private patients with a co-opted view of the charming Hampstead Green, may reasonably be wondering what is going on in our council.

A key figure in the regeneration strategy has apparently found a safer haven with the Mayor of London’s technology department (no heritage issues there, we take it), while another has abruptly changed portfolios from planning with no explanation.

These member defections leave planning issues in the hands of unelected council officers. This is a worry, particularly when one senior councillor with planning responsibilities was recently overheard saying that “Hampstead nimbies” could expect no mercy from Camden.

Is it reasonable to hope that the current churn in Camden Council will settle down sufficiently to discuss the dangers to Grade I-listed St Stephen’s and the arrogant imposition of a vanity project on a sensitive site in a civilised fashion and in the public interest?

JEFFREY GOLD
Chair, Hampstead Green Neighbourhood Group