Camden News: Bill Hubbard | Furniture Shop | Gray's Inn Road | Holborn | Subsidence

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Camden News - by SIMON WROE
Published: 27 November 2008

Bill Hubbard

‘Forget the credit crunch – it’s the council’s fault’

Business in crisis over subsidence

ONE of Camden’s great rags-to-riches success stories has gone bust, blaming council chiefs for ignoring his business’s subsidence problems.
Bill Hubbard, 67 – who braved every recession for 42 years to build up a small empire of Hubbard’s furniture shops in Gray’s Inn Road, Holborn – announced on Tuesday that his independent business had gone into liquidation.
He claimed it was the Town Hall and not the current economic climate which sent his business under because officers repeatedly failed to deal with the council-owned tree roots and drainage pipes wreaking havoc on his property.
Ten members of staff have lost their jobs and the self-made businessman is now taking the council to court. He is also selling his Camden Road house to support his family and pay the legal fees.
Mr Hubbard, who started from humble beginnings selling secondhand items with a horse and cart at the age of 16, said: “We’ve been on to Camden for years. They have repeatedly gone over the grounds and haven’t accomplished anything. They don’t care about people’s livelihood.”
One of Mr Hubbard’s two three-unit shops was forced to close two years ago after the ceiling collapsed.
Independent surveyors discovered a catalogue of structural problems at the premises were caused by nearby council trees and recommended their removal.
Officers had made a “half-hearted attempt” to carry out the work, said Mr Hubbard, who has been locked in a two year legal battle with the council over who should foot the bills for the damage and loss of earnings at the shop.
Until recently, council bosses were charging Mr Hubbard business rates on the shop he could not use. His second property closed this week.
Neither shop can be sold because the structural problems persist.
A Camden spokeswoman said: “We are dealing with an ongoing claim for alleged subsidence damage to Mr Hubbard’s premises. As with all such claims, we are dealing directly with his insurance company.
“We took action to remove the trees which were allegedly causing the damage in August after the owner told us about the problem.
“Our surveyors have also inspected the property several times and have confirmed that there is no evidence of a leak in the waste water pipe or damage to his rear wall.”

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