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Will Prince Charles help us to beat bridge deadline?
• OUR community is calling for a bridge across the rear of the station giving access to the new western concourse for those commuting from Islington, linking King’s Cross to the east and Somers Town to the west and putting the final piece in the jigsaw for an Angel to Marylebone cycling and walking route.
King’s Cross Central developers, Argent, are under a duty to site the western end of this bridge only if work starts on it by 2012. If we miss that deadline, we lose the bridge, possibly forever.
Both Network Rail and Camden Council have carried out ill-conceived, misguided assessments of the proposal and concluded that it is not feasible.
Given Network Rail’s performance, Camden and Islington officers, and the consultants they keep employing, we asked the mayor’s transport adviser and head of Transport for London, Kulveer Ranger, for help. After all, King’s Cross St Pancras is a strategic issue of regional importance. He said TfL would do all in their power to make the bridge happen. Unfortunately, that stops short of fully funding it. So we asked government to intervene. After all, the design of what is Europe’s fastest-growing transport hub must be of national importance. Lord Adonis, minister responsible for rail, said it is a local issue for Camden to deal with and not one for the government.
What can we do? We have the backing of local and regional politicians from all four major parties.
Even that can’t cut through the morass of regulation, complicated relationships between developers and consultants and closed pots of money guarded by planners.
We are writing to Prince Charles. It’s not a publicity stunt; we just don’t know what else to do.
Sophie Talbot
Address supplied, N1
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