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'Greed'
wins day in King's Cross
Rushed vote gives okay for £2bn scheme
PLANNING chiefs late last night (Thursday) dramatically
gave the go ahead for the £2 billion overhaul of King’s
Cross following a marathon five-hour council session.
Developers Argent Limited finally secured permission for their
mammoth plan close to 11 pm at Camden Town Hall as councillors,
some looking drained by the proceedings, voted 9-6 in their
favour.
Objectors, who say that the 67-acre site is being filled with
too many offices and not enough affordable homes, immediately
pledged to appeal against the approval.
They hope that Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott might still
be persuaded to intervene or that the blueprint could still
be referred to a public inquiry.
Una Sapietis, from the King’s Cross Railway Lands Group,
which has scrutinised developments on the site for more than
two decades, said afterwards: “This is just an opportunity
for large profits and property speculators. For us it’s
a wasted opportunity. It could have had a lot more social housing
and community facilities. We are planning to appeal. We’re
asking for it to be called in.”
Other objectors warned historic industrial buildings would be
unnecessarily flattened by the new developments.
At the moment, however, Argent appear to have a winning hand
and are now set to begin work on the site behind King’s
Cross and St Pancras stations.
They have already begun consulting with groups and businesses
that may want premises on the land.
Chief executive Roger Madelin told the meeting that the Argent
had come up with the right balance of homes, office, shops and
leisure facilities.
He also told the meeting that there should be room on the site
for a casino to make it an “international place”.
Of the whole project, he added: “I think we have come up
with a damn good design. We want to create a place that people
want to visit, want to work in, want to live in. We would be
the first to suffer if we didn’t create a place like that.”
As members of the public and dissenting councillors left the
Town Hall – close to development site – there were
loud grumbles about the way the meeting was handled. Concern
that the huge applications were deliberated over just two planning
meetings were fuelled by a rushed final half-hour of last night’s
session in which councillors were repeatedly told to keep comments
short and reach a decision before time ran out.
Planning chairwoman Cllr Heather Johnson, heckled as a ‘bully’
by one protester, bore the brunt of the criticism and some councillors
were last night (Wednesday) even talking about filing official
complaints.
At one point, as councillors discussed a possible postponement
of a final decision, Cllr Johnson said: “If you’re
talking about deferral that means it comes back after the election”
– a comment that rankled with several spectators.
In the biggest planning meeting, either Camden or Islington
has ever seen, twenty-three deputations from both boroughs passed
through the Town Hall.
A section of the site – known as The Triangle – will
be decided by Islington Council later this month.
• Air your views at a public meeting at St Andrew’s
Church on Tuesday at 7.45pm. |
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