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Camden New Journal - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 26 July 2007

Coin Street achievements could be the model for the British Library site

• WE write on behalf of the Camden branch of the Co-operative Party which at two recent meetings discussed prospects for the development of the seven-acre site behind the British Library in Somers Town.
Our branch noted recent reports to the effect that there is an 11-year difference in life expectancy between Somers Town and affluent Hampstead and considered for a start, that facilities such as swimming pools, football and cricket pitches and indoor tennis courts should be provided in any future development of this site; students of rocket science will readily demonstrate that all these contribute to people’s health.
From that beginning, we moved on to a comparison of the Somers Town site with the remarkable Coin Street development of the South Bank, which began as a neglected site owned by the Borough of Southwark in the early 1990s.
Somers Town is owned by government – the Department for Culture, Media and Sport – and has become surplus to its requirements.
Could not a Somers Town Trust, operating as a local
co-operative with national and local government assistance be formed for the development of this site, for the public benefit of all instead of the profits of the few?
Its brief would include the provision of sports and cultural facilities and social housing on the lines now envisaged by the Labour government.
What was achieved at Coin Street by following these principles could be a model for a Somers Town Trust development.
We hope that all those with power and influence in these matters will consider a solution of this kind.
ALAN SPENCE , Chairman,
Alan Brownjohn,
Secretary, Camden
Co-Operative Party, WC1

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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