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A history of apathy and appalling neglect of building
• I LIVE in the block on Chester Road proposed for redevelopment and I was enraged by Chris Naylor’s reply (Letters, April 23) to the April 9 article (Shops fear they will be forced out by proposal to demolish ‘asbestos block’).
He wrote that “there are very serious problems affecting the Chester Balmore estate”; what are they? The only problem I have seen, after 10 very happy years of living here, is the apathy from the council in maintaining the building; even in the simplest ways like sweeping stairs to the flats that make 58 Chester Road.
The stairway itself should be covered and it had some cheap corrugated plastic that blew away in a storm about four years ago never to be replaced. The wooden fencing is rotten and has never been treated.
The windows have not been painted since I moved in and as leaseholders we are not allowed to maintain the infrastructure of our properties.
The consultation process consisted of council staff saying that the buildings were going to be redeveloped but not sure when. During my first meeting it was intimated to me that the block was coming down whether the community liked it or not.
The shops mostly remain empty because Camden’s commercial arm is no longer advertising them as empty and there are some thriving, successful businesses that benefit the community; where are they going to go? The alternative sites proposed by the council are laughable. Where is the last remaining launderette in Dartmouth Park going to be when they do knock down and redevelop the block?
The council have spent a massive amount of money harnessing public opinion with questionnaires, visiting the local school and using one of the empty shops to showcase the redevelopment; and they may have got the answers they want to support their policy.
However, has the local community been given the opportunity to consider the impact the redevelopment would have on their neighbourhood? Has the community been given the given the chance to compare the costs of upgrade, refurbishment and repair to a group of buildings and land which have been appallingly neglected to the point of full-scale redevelopment? I think not.
Dan Roberts
Former Chairman Highgate New Town Residents Association
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