Camden News: Gary Hodes | Gospel Oak | Estelle Road | Planning Application

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Camden News - by SIMON WROE
Published: 22 May 2008

Neighbours celebrate the outcome of the meeting

‘A haunted house for Addams family’

Proposals for home are slammed as sixth application is thrown out in long-running saga

IT is a planning war that has dragged on at great cost for almost a decade, embroiling everyone from Alastair Campbell to Prince Charles.
But this week, embattled applicant Gary Hodes conceded his proposed house in a Gospel Oak cul-de-sac may never be built after planning chiefs threw out his sixth application.
Despite Mr Hodes’ assurances that he had revised plans for his four-storey, two-bedroom house – to be built over a side street off Estelle Road – Town Hall officials rejected his bid, saying the property’s overlooking issues had still not been resolved.
Mr Hodes, who has employed five different sets of architects and planning consultants, costing thousands of pounds, said he was “considering his options” after a “very disappointing” result.
Objectors at the Town Hall meeting last Thursday did not mince their words.
Conservative councillor Chris Philps described the structure as a “monstrous rabbit hutch which only the Addams family would wish to inhabit”.
Steven Adams, of the Mansfield Conservation Area Advisory Committee (MCAAC), said the “wedge-shaped” building was a “fairground haunted house” which would “seriously detract” from the area and impinge the views of adjacent houses.
He added: “This latest departure illustrates perfectly the level of desperation the applicant has reached in his attempts to develop the last drops from the land that he owns.”
Melanie Cooke, who lives in the flat next to the proposed site, said the building area would look directly into her bedroom and that of her teenage daughter.
Ms Cooke was so concerned by the applications that she has written to Prince Charles asking him to help.
The Hodes Row plans have also attracted the complaints of Tony Blair’s former spin-doctor Alastair Campbell and his partner Fiona Millar, who live in Estelle Road.
Mr Hodes confessed he had made mistakes in earlier planning applications, but said that emotion was now impairing neighbours’ views.
He said: “I can’t think why [people] are objecting.
“It complies with all the planning applications.
“What we have is a lot of deceptive and misleading illustrations, all designed to whip up emotions among local residents.”
But Gospel Oak councillor Keith Sedgwick blasted Mr Hodes for questioning the honesty of his constituents, adding that the “twisted vortex” building would “realise itself as unbuildable when construction reaches the roof”.
Speaking on behalf of the MCAAC, Mr Adams said they were “happy but tired”.

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