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Campaigning: Beverly Gardner, Celine La Freniere, David Landman, Peter Cuming, Szilvia Baranyak, in Talacre Gardens
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Genuine fears about future of open space
• I HAVE enjoyed the Talacre open space for more than 40 years.
Weather permitting, I still sit every day in the quiet area of the gardens with friends and relatives. For me and my family the park has been a lifeline.
Last year when we heard about the plan for a developer to drive a road across the park we were devastated.
This should never be allowed to happen. The council promised that it wouldn’t.
I attended a public meeting of Friends of Talacre Gardens on May 29 and eagerly joined them.
Stephanie d’Orey, however, seemed to have foreseen the problem ahead with registering Talacre Gardens as a Town Green and protecting it against any encroachment (Gardens can be our own green showpiece, June 14).
The council is refusing even to consider our application.
Residents are now living in genuine fear that the gardens are still under threat.
Why else would the council procrastinate?
The registration would cost nothing to the council and take very little time to process.
Surely no one believes a forthcoming by-election is the cause of this refusal to go ahead with the registration. No one seems to listen to what we want and need around here.
ELLEN KEANE
Athlone Street, NW5
• NO sooner had I read our acting chairman of the Friends of Talacre Gardens’ letter about the glorious future of Talacre Gardens (June 14) than I learned that the parks and open space department in Camden is now refusing to progress our registration of the Town Green.
The spurious reason given for such a blow to our community is that there is an embargo on moving forward with this registration because it might offend electoral law.
Has the coalition gone completely mad that it should commit such an act of suicide just before a
by-election?
The sure way of eroding the good will of the entire community and making this innocent, non-contentious act of registering the park a by-election issue is to announce that Talacre Gardens is not to be a Town Green after all and raise the backs up of a big number of voters.
The friends, especially the acting officers, have spent many hours of their precious time over this past month organising and publicising a public meeting, gathering votes from the local residents for the registration of the Town Green, paying from their own pocket to join the Open Spaces Society, drafting and agreeing a constitution and filling the form for the anticipated registration of the Town Green. This to no avail.
Why?
The acting committee has attracted a remarkable number of local residents, the like of which I have never experienced before in any community group. There are PAs who serve in local schools and in the city, a chief planning inspector, a scientist, a writer, a play worker, a caterer, a regular winner of horticultural awards, a volunteer for Home Start and even a coach for Olympic contenders. What we seem to be missing is a legal adviser to sort out our council.
Their obstruction to the friends exercising their statutory right to register Talacre Gardens as Town Green is clearly illegal, whatever the reason given by the council.
Any retired judge or lawyer willing to join the friends’ acting committee would be extremely welcome.
Sadly this community seems to need protection from its own council set on obstructing the wishes of a large number of people of Haverstock Ward.
DAVID LANDMAN
Fraser Regnart Court, NW5
• THERE is genuine dismay and anger among the regular users of Talacre Gardens. The plan to register the park as a protected Town Green is being frustrated by the Town Hall.
It would seem they have their own plan for Talacre Gardens and it certainly does not include insulating it from development.
Only a stamped and approved registration of Talacre Gardens as Town Green now would dissuade me and others from thinking otherwise.
JACKIE POTS
South End Road, NW3
• THE word is spreading like wildfire at Talacre Gardens.
The Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition has put an embargo on the registration of the park as London’s first Town Green. Yes. They have actually rejected outright any idea for the protected status of Town Green because, they claim, it would break electoral rules.
I have heard of excuses in my days, but never one so silly and insulting.
The truth can only be that this application would, in fact, be an embarrassment to a local government which has either already promised or sold off part of Talacre Gardens and does not wish to be detected before an important by-election.
It is now abundantly clear that our most precious assets are not safe in the hands of this underhand council.
D McMILLAN
Prince of Wales Road, NW5
• THE Friends of Talacre Gardens were informed that their application for a Town Green cannot be processed because it is apparently considered a contentious issue and this would break electoral law.
My family and I are devastated by this news.
By refusing to protect our Talacre Gardens the coalition has effectively eliminated its two candidates from the race on July 12.
This makes a non-contentious and non-political matter a very contentious and very political issue locally.
As far as we are now concerned, no Town Green equals no vote for the parties responsible.
What does the Town Hall have to hide about Talacre Gardens?
Have they or have they not sold off bits and pieces of the park behind our backs?
At this point, no one can be blamed for asking.
A NASSIF
Talacre Road, NW5
• CONTRARY to Peter Cuming’s letter (June 14) I hear with trepidation the news that our council is refusing even to consider The Friends of Talacre Gardens’ application for a Town Green.
This is a blow for all of us who have such an attachment towards this precious park and want it to be protected.
We had also hoped that Talacre Gardens would be London’s first Town Green, hence putting it on the map as a special place.
The Liberal Democrat/Tory coalition apparently says that this application is against electoral rule because it might possibly be contentious.
Hard to believe that our little patch of green in Kentish Town would be thrown into the same pot as the selling of old people’s homes or any such truly contentious issues.
There is only one way to resolve this one.
The coalition should ask all the parties running for the
by-election to agree to go ahead with the registration of the Town Green and then proceed as quickly as possible, so removing any doubt about the intentions of the parties involved about their desire to protect Talacre Gardens.
This would certainly be the wisest way to proceed.
Any others would cause unnecessary distress locally and raise fresh fears.
LIZ GOSNOLD
Gillies Street, NW5
• IF there is one dream and goal which is shared among local residents, young and old, it is that Talacre Gardens be protected through its registration as Town Green.
Peter Cuming and Stephanie d’Orey, who write (June14) about the Friends of Talacre Gardens’ positive intentions to see it grow in stature, speak for many local residents around here.
There is no excuse whatsoever for any delay or hesitancy about this registration.
If the council was sincere about Talacre being safe when it was announced in the press some months ago then it should follow up with positive action and show everyone that it meant what it said.
We look forward to receiving the news that Talacre Gardens – with the blessing and assistance of the council – is to become London’s first Town Green.
JOHN PORTCH
Wilkin Street, NW5
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