|
|
 |
| |
Revealed: Pressures on KX planners
Warning of threat to reputation
TOWN Hall chief executive Moira Gibb wrote to the Labour Party to spell out in no uncertain terms the risks involved if a decision on plans for the King’s Cross redevelopment was taken out of Camden Council hands, the New Journal has learned.
She sent a top-secret memo to former Labour leader Dame Jane Roberts explaining why Camden Council should do all it could to prevent the redevelopment application transferring from its planning committee to a full public inquiry.
The memo followed a meeting between the two women in which the same concerns were raised.
Interestingly, the highly-sensitive developments at the Town Hall came in the middle of an internal effort by Labour fixers to oust party colleague Councillor Brian Woodrow from his position as Camden’s planning chairman.
At the time – April 2005 – Cllr Woodrow stood accused of being biased against developer Argent Limited and its £2 billion plans for the site. He was cleared of bringing the council into disrepute after a Standards Board investigation last month. The existence of the memo was revealed during the probe into Cllr Woodrow’s behaviour.
Ms Gibb met Dame Jane on April 20, 2005 – five days before Labour councillors met to vote on Cllr Woodrow’s future. They talked about what would happen if the decision on Argent’s proposals was taken out of the council’s hands and how the Town Hall’s reputation would be harmed.
An outline of what was discussed came in the memo sent by Ms Gibb on May 6.
The memo was marked strictly confidential and labelled with a clear warning that anybody who saw it should treat it “sensitively”.
It said: “There would be significantly less opportunity for Camden to define and impose planning conditions. This would be the inspectors’ decision and we could only make suggestions.”
Possible drawbacks listed by Ms Gibb included an 18-month delay in starting work on site, the £300,000 cost of going to an inquiry and the loss of benefits likely to be gleaned from a planning gain agreement with developers.
Her memo added: “There are other less tangible losses to reputational damage and the loss of community leadership. We will have been seen to have lost control over this key process and failed to deliver an acceptable scheme or have established clear grounds for rejecting an unacceptable scheme.”
Some Labour insiders believe the memo was used by the party’s leadership as a warning to members that Cllr Woodrow had to be ousted at all costs, with the sub-text that his alleged bias could force developers to go straight to an appeal.
According to some protesters, the Town Hall fixation with retaining the decision on Argent’s application meant it did not get the scrutiny it needed before being approved last March.
|
 |
|
|
|
