| |
Sad social engineering
• THERE are so many things wrong with the widely hated Twyman House proposal, it’s hard to know where to start.
It’s been criticised (Towers plan ‘is social engineering’, February 19) – two sites with parking spots costing over £70k a year at the upmarket Primrose Hill end and a tower of rabbit hutches at the downmarket stack ’em high & sell ’em cheap Camden end.
Even as social engineering this is sad stuff, with insufficient living space, no provision for play, inadequate access for deliveries (which would endanger any kids reckless enough to play outside), the list goes on and on.
Even those who don’t have to live in it (or near enough to it to have to deal with the inevitable problems its residential inadequacy would cause) would be offended by the tower. As a visual feature of a historic part of London celebrated for its architectural qualities (the tower would loom over listed buildings and a beautiful Victorian railway viaduct) it would be grotesquely inappropriate.
The developers justify it by saying it’s only twice as big as another nearby ugly and widely criticised building that should never have been built. If you make one big mistake the smart thing, they suggest, is to make another bigger one.
The reason so many people turned up at a recent protest meeting is we don’t feel we can trust the planners to do the right thing, look at the plans with unbiased eyes and say No!
They have a duty of care to us as residents, businesses and taxpayers, so why has important information been so difficult to get? Why did it take one councillor a month of repeated requests to get a date for the planning hearing from a planning officer? Why did he tell residents the date was not known? Why were many residents not kept informed of what was happening, and why did those who did get information get it so late in the day? These are familiar ways of denying people time to organise against unwelcome plans. There was an uneasy feeling at the meeting this was a proposal the planners were helping on its way.
GRAHAM CROFT
Bonny Street, NW1
|
 |
|
|
| |
| |
