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The Friends of Talacre Gardens, Beverly Gardner, Peter Cuming, Celine La Freniere, Szilvia Baranyak and David Landman, when they launched their campaign to protect the green space in May last year |
It’s the new space race in fight to preserve our parks forever!
Residents fail in bid to use legislation to protect cherished green areas of borough
IT’S the story of an all-powerful landowner refusing to acknowledge the claims of ordinary folk to land they have used by right for a generation – it sounds like a tale from feudal times.
But this battle was fought last night (Wednesday) in Camden Town Hall with elected councillors cast as the barons refusing a grass-roots application to have a treasured park preserved for residents forever – with implications for every park, square and play area in Camden.
Kentish Town residents wanted to preserve their park, Talacre Gardens, on Prince of Wales Road, by using new laws to designate it as a “Town Green”, which would stop developers building on it in perpetuity.
But although it would cost the council nothing to grant, the ruling executive last night threw the proposals out.
And in terms that could be ominous for all Camden residents who enjoy the borough’s open spaces, Town Hall lawyers advised against the move because it would prevent the council selling the land – or building on it.
Friends of Talacre Gardens chairman Peter Cuming said: “We wanted to remove our uncertainty and fear that the most cherished bit of our ward could be surrendered. By turning it down they have done the opposite.”
“Town Greens” have always existed under English law as places where local people had rights of access. But The Commons Act 2006 made it easier for residents to apply for Town Green protection.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) guidance on the new rules reads: “Essentially anyone can apply to have land registered as a green if it has been used by local people for recreation ‘as of right’ (i.e. without permission, force or secrecy) for at least 20 years.”
Only the Secretary of State for Environment could authorise a plan to build on a Town Green, effectively stripping a council’s powers to develop it forever.
There are 69 areas in Camden designated as open spaces under council control, ranging from substantial patches of green such as Waterlow Park and Kilburn Grange Park to smaller, but still valued squares like Cantelowes and St Martin’s Gardens in Camden Town or St Georges Gardens in King’s Cross.
But it is not just treasured parks that could benefit from the Town Green legislation. Play areas, landscaped gardens, patches of open space in housing estates could all be classed as town greens if residents can show they have used them “as of right” for 20 years – and it is this which is believed to have the council running scared.
Small open spaces, especially those on housing estates, are increasingly vital to the council’s housing plans, and its coffers.
The Lib Dem and Conservative administration’s solution to Camden’s social housing crisis involves raising cash for improvements by building new houses – some for sale – on housing estate land.
Residents on the Maiden Lane estate, Camden Town, and the Alexandra and Ainsworth estate in Kilburn, have already been consulted on plans to lever funds for long-overdue repairs from a partial rebuild.
Dr Peter Preston, who lives on Maiden Lane, said his group would watch the Town Green proposals carefully.
He said yesterday: “We’re examining this now. There is a children’s play area in the heart of the land that the council want to build on, and, of course, we have had access to the land for 20 years. A Town Green could stop these plans in their tracks.”
Before yesterday’s meeting, councillors had been eager to reassure residents in Kentish Town that despite officials’ advice on town greens, Talacre Gardens is not under threat.
Leisure chief Cllr Flick Rea said: “There is no question of selling off Talacre, or developing Talacre. But why should we set up something where there could be a bad situation in the future – we shouldn’t be tying the hands of future councils.”
Senior councillors went through much soul-searching before it made what council leader Keith Moffit called an “exquisitely difficult decision”.
They pointed out that a town green could not be locked at night, which might encourage crime, and above all that it might be undemocratic to prevent future councils from changing their minds.
But late last night, finance chief Cllr Ralph Scott, said: “Our responsibility as landlord is to oppose this application. We would be opening ourselves up to a slate of similar applications from across the borough.” |
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