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Brill Place, the three-acre site (highlighted in white) behind the British library |
What now for Brill Place?
Hopes that PM’s commitment to social housing will save site from private developers
CAMPAIGNERS fighting an eleventh hour battle to keep a multi-million pound chunk of prime land in public hands have pinned their hopes on the housing promises of Gordon Brown.
Developers had until today (Thursday) to submit their interest in the three acres of undeveloped land behind the British Library, known as Brill Place, which is up for sale to the highest bidder by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), despite pleas from Somers Town residents for local facilities rather than offices or yuppy flats.
More than 150 property companies are known to have contacted estate agents Cluttons and Atis Real for details of a site that has provisional planning clearance for a mixed development which could include retail, offices, and flats next to stations, Euston Road and the burgeoning King’s Cross Development, and is expected to net the government at least £10m.
Although the DCMS has hitherto dismissed pleas for the site to be used for social housing or community facilities on the grounds that it has a duty to get ‘best value’ from the sale, protesters are hoping that the instructions of new PM Gordon Brown, that every empty government plot should be reviewed as a possible location for housing, will provide a second chance.
Camden Cooperative party chairman Alan Spence has called in this newspaper for the land to be used for a mixture of housing and sports facilities with council and national government support.
He said on Friday: “It’s the people at the poorer end of society who are not getting housing and who suffer the worst in terms of health.
“This review could give us an added impetus for a project that was something like the Swiss Cottage development [of a sports centre and flats]. If that were transferred to Somers Town it would help to improve the environment generally and bring huge benefits to local people’s health.”
Frank Dobson MP – who is adamant that the site should be used “for the benefit of humanity, rather than some office block” – responded by immediately questioning housing minister Yvette Cooper in Parliament over DCMS’s responsibility to help find land for the three million new houses pledged by Gordon Brown.
Mr Dobson believes the sale can be stopped. He said: “It would be bizarre for it to go ahead given this announcement [by Brown].
“They could stop it up to the moment contracts are exchanged. It should either be a housing site or something useful more generally.”
In Somers Town, residents are strongly opposed to any development that would not enhance an environment dominated by housing estates and lacking sports grounds, community centres and affordable shopping, according to Helia Evans, chair of Ossulston tenants’ and residents’ association.
She said: “We should be included – it should not be used exclusively for the developers or for people coming in. The council should consider the planning brief again because the last one was written in 2003.”
When the New Journal reported the sale in April, DCMS press officials said that the land had been dedicated to the British Library on condition that any surplus property was returned to them at the conclusion of the project.
Although the sale had been delayed while the surplus land was leased to its current tenants, the administrative offices of companies building the Channel Tunnel Train Link (CTRL), it was always intended that it would go ahead when the builders leave in August.
Last week, a DCMS spokeswoman said: “I can confirm that we provided details to communities and government as part of the review.
“We are in the initial stages of the sale process and are seeking expressions of interest in the land with a closing date of August 2.
“The sale process is still going ahead and we will review it at set points.”
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