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We must defend the Heath
• THE Camden planning committee was correct in rejecting the management construction plan of the developers of Fitzroy Farm.
Voluble public opposition rumbled around the council chamber like thunder. We should assume that the developers will be back on the tax efficient profit trail in due course.
They still have planning permission (how they got it, the Lord only knows) and if they attempt to proceed, the next step must surely be for objectors to get the council to revisit that regrettable approval in light of all the objections they have subsequently received in bucket-loads from all directions, with the view of getting it rescinded. Hampstead Heath and its borders are too important for anything less.
The remarkable post-10pm assertion of Councillor Mike Greene that any potential threats from the development to the bordering Hampstead Heath and Hampstead Heath ponds were not relevant to the application, was more unreasonable and disproportionate than the Fitzroy Farm development plan itself, in promoting private financial interest above the public good and interests of the people of north London and indeed an entire capital city.
The notion that a building with an arguable potential to damage the Hampstead ponds, to be erected next to them with the permission of Camden Council, is not the business of Camden Council, is preposterous.
It is clear that the area around Fitzroy Park must be afforded permanent protection as a unique and precious survival of old Middlesex countryside bordering Hampstead Heath, itself protected by the 1871 Hampstead Heath Act.
Future house building must be compatible with the history and nature of the picturesque spot, and inappropriate, grandiose applications like the Fitzroy Farm development rejected.
Although the committee received numerous objecting delegations, only three were allowed to speak because of the shortage of time: the Fitzroy residents for two minutes, the City of London Corporation two minutes and the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond bordering the proposed development one minute.
The United Swimmers Association had no time for a dissenting contribution although it wished to give one.
The developers were allowed a full five minutes of continuous presentation, plus surprising extra time on top of that, at the individual prompting and intervention of Cllr Greene in the last moments.
The developer’s spokesman failed to successfully convert that generous intervention into the desired, bottom-line winning score.
Earlier Cllr Greene, seeming to act in loco parentis, led the evidently delighted promoters of the Kenwood House picnic concerts with solicitations on their behalf, enthusiastically urging them from across the chamber, to increase their stated demands from one fireworks display at the last Kenwood concert, apparently to firework displays at every concert, presumably at the promoter’s discretion.
Nearby residents may care to take note.
Robert Sutherland Smith
Chairman, United Swimmers Association of Hampstead Heath, N2
Of dogs and barbecues
• Barbecues, loud music, litter as far as the eye can see, aggressive dogs…
Yes, it’s almost summer on the Heath once more – or last weekend, May 11 was. And as usual we, the regular Heath-goers through autumn, winter and spring, have to put-up or shut-up when the fair-weather Heath users arrive with their loutish behaviour and disregard for the privacy and peace of others.
We have to put-up because no one in charge is doing anything about it for yet another year. No Heath warden can be seen going up to parties, deep within the grass, and asking them to please extinguish their barbecues. Fire hazard?
Maybe I’m wrong, but perhaps when half of Parliament Hill, or Kite Hill, or Kenwood borders disappears in a wave of smoke, maybe then someone will realise that they had the power to invoke the Heath by-laws. And while they’re remembering their duties as Heath wardens, or Heath police, they could do well with reading a few more of the heath by-laws – the one about music springs to mind.
As well as the five smoking barbecues that I counted on Sunday, I counted even more portable music systems blasting away. One in particular, over in a field facing the men’s pond, was the size of a large amp speaker and was pumping out heavy bass unchallenged, with neither a warden nor a policeman in sight. On the whole, we seem to be fairly unprotected as Heath-users come Sunday afternoon. With no apparent back-up, it’s no wonder then that the public does not challenge such goings on. Only around 7pm when passing the main yard, over by the café, did we spot any wardens, dutifully clearing bags of rubbish. Meanwhile, scores of parties of revellers were departing, leaving fields strewn with bottles and bags and packets. Surely they should be encouraged to bag their own litter as they produce it, rather than kow-towing to them and clearing up the morning after. As for the aggressive dogs. Well, throw them into the mix, and you get the picture. The Heath? Who’d want to spend summer weekends there? Not me. Not until I feel that somebody’s caring for the place. Caring for the people.
Guy Mitchel
Brecknock Road, N7
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