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by JOEL TAYLOR
 
'Give our kids space to play in'

Fear of Children's Centre sell-off

FAMILIES in Fitzrovia fear the council is preparing to sell off one of the few patches of empty space in the area.
For more than 18 months the Children’s Centre, in Whitfield Street, Fitzrovia, has lain empty while people who live in the area have tried to reopen the site.
But now they fear Camden Council wants to sell off the valuable piece of land just behind Tottenham Court Road to developers.
Max Neufeld, the chair of the Fitzrovia Trust, said the news that the council was seeking the advice of costly barristers suggested it wanted to sell the site. The council claims it is seeking legal advice because they have discovered the site is a 19th-century burial ground.
He said: “They want to flog it off because it’s valuable, the only reason the are talking to lawyers must be because they want to sell it.”
Their fears come despite approaches from Camden Council in April last year to the Fitzrovia Trust to see if they could come up with any proposals. By June the Trust suggested the site could either be reopened as a place for 0-3 year-olds, as well as a playground, or have an extension added, bringing it up to government standards for 0-5 year-olds.
Mr Neufeld added: “There was a worrying bit of silence afterwards, the council said they would make a decision in July.
“Then they said October and now they have deferred it. It is the only bit of space for children around here.”
And he said that the fact it was a burial ground could not be an issue as everyone in the area “have always known” it was a burial ground.
Councillor Theo Blackwell, the deputy leader of Camden and community development chief, insisted that they were only speaking to barristers to make sure that whatever decision was made is on the “right ground”.
He said: “There are legal issues which haven’t been resolved. We need to find out whether the fact it is on a burial site has any affect. We expect advice to come back. We want our decision based on this evidence.”
But he refused to rule out the council preparing to sell the site. He said: “It is not a question I can answer.”
 
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