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Blair’s ex-spin chief in fight with builders
Alastair Campbell helps to stop ‘grotesque’ structure
FORMER Downing Street spin doctor Alastair Campbell joined the fight against developers who wanted to tack a contemporary new house with concrete fins and coloured windows onto the end of his Gospel Oak terrace.
He emailed Camden’s planners last week to protest against a proposal to convert an Old Dairy in Hodes Row, a cul-de-sac at the end of Estelle Road where Mr Campbell lives with his partner Fiona Millar, into a four-storey block.
Mr Campbell said he was “amazed” that the plans, which would close off the sleepy mews, had even reached a committee of planners and not been turned down at earlier stage.
In fact, planning officials had recommended the designs to be approved until councillors unanimously agreed to throw them out at a meeting on Thursday night.
Mr Campbell’s complaint, also filed in the name of Ms Millar, herself a former Number 10 aide, said: “This building is totally out of character with the street, will increase congestion and block the light of neighbouring houses. Like many of our other neighbours we are amazed that this application has got so far, given the fuss that is made by the planners over relatively small changes such as dormer windows.”
Residents reacted angrily when site owner Gary Hodes – the street is named after the landlord – submitted the application for the house earlier this year.
Melanie Cooke, who lives directly next door to the proposed house, was so distressed she went as far as writing to Prince Charles, in a bid to enlist his help. More than 50 of her near neighbours also wrote to the Town Hall to protest.
Simon Miller, Mr Hodes’s architect, told Thursday’s meeting that inspiration for his design came from a nearby church – and not the Victorian terrace that makes up Estelle Road.
He said: “This is an innovative design and not an unimaginative pastiche of the surrounding homes.”
Mr Miller said that his plan was in line with government policies of using brownfield sites to create new homes and would help tackle high demand for housing in areas like Camden.
But when a rudimentary sketch of the proposed building was flashed up on a overhead projector, there was chuckling from the public gallery as Mr Miller insisted a that the proposed building would not cause a detrimental effect. Opponents said that it was laughable to suggest that the design would fit in.
Conservative ward councillor Chris Philp told the meeting that the proposals were “grotesque”, adding: “It will spoil the area beyond measure.”
Councillor Mike Greene, who was among members of the committee who voted against the designs, said: “It would seem rude to the architect to hear sniggering when he was given his presentation but I must say that I too felt like sniggering at some stage.”
Ms Millar said: “Nobody in the street is happy about it as it is quite a congested site already, and it is not really in keeping with the street’s character. I would have thought it would break conservation area guide lines.”
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