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Camden New Journal - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 11 October 2007

Social mix gives borough character

• COUNCILLOR Adrian Oliver and I would like to express our strong support for the call by the residents of Holly Lodge estate for Camden to invest in this wonderful public housing, rather than selling it off.
The estate is an invaluable part of our social heritage. It is also a wonderful, peaceful space, high above the city and close to the Heath. It is essential that we continue Camden’s proud heritage of quality public housing for residents in the most attractive parts of the borough. It is this social mix that gives Camden its character. We must not just recognise but act on the shortage of public housing in Camden.
Some of the estate blocks comprise bedsits with shared bathrooms, and are, rightly, not regarded as adequate today. But it costs only £2 million per block to give each flat it own bathroom; you could do six with the extra reserves of £12 million that the council appears to have accumulated this year. Camden also has some money in its capital programme that could be used to renovate these bedsits. Otherwise, prudential borrowing should be used. Selling off the borough’s “family silver” is a short-term, short-sighted decision. We call on the administration to think again and follow one of these ways of saving public housing on the Holly Lodge estate.
Cllr MAYA DE SOUZA
Green Party, Highgate

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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