Camden News - by DAN CARRIER Published: 15 January 2009
Heath boardwalk is rejected
PLANS to build a raised wooden platform snaking through a Hampstead Heath bird sanctuary would cause huge damage, members of the Heath’s consultative committee have warned. The owners of Fitzroy Farm, a mock-Elizabethan cottage overlooking the Ladies Pond in Highgate, have planning permission to raze the current building and replace it with a luxury mansion featuring a new three-storey basement designed by renowned neo-classical architects Quinlan and Francis Terry.
Now they have to work out how to get fleets of trucks onto the site – and have suggested using the sand and gravel path that leads from Millfield Lane to the pond for construction traffic. So Heath walkers don’t have to dodge 25-ton trucks, they suggested building a boardwalk through a wood next to the path.
Representatives for Millamant Limited, the Isle of Man-based company behind the development, presented their plans to an emergency meeting of the Heath consultative committee. The members unanimously voted against the proposal.
The Highgate Society’s Michael Hammerson said: “They put it to us, but no one was convinced they could do it without causing damage to the Heath.”
However, he admitted it is unlikely to be the end of the matter. Mr Hammerson added: “Too much money is involved for them to simply walk away.”
Millamant declined add to their statement last week that they vowed to listen to the concerns of Heath users.