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By RICHARD OSLEY
 

Protesters at the Town Hall last week.

Critics savage £2bn King's Cross deal

Opponents vow to fight on against a development they say has too many offices and not enough cheap homes

THE final deal struck over the massive redevelopment of the King’s Cross railway lands represents a “pathetic return” for thousands of families in need of a place to live, planning chiefs have been warned.
Councillors voted 9-6 in favour of the £2 billion plans – drawn up over several years by developer Argent Limited – after sitting through a marathon, five-hour session at the Town Hall on Thursday night.
Work could begin as early as next year but the arguments over whether Camden Council has achieved a good deal for the 67-acre site behind King’s Cross and St Pancras stations is still rumbling on.
While Labour Party chiefs were this week trumpeting the approved scheme as “the best deal in London”, objectors maintain the plans for the last large open space left to be developed in central London represent a wasted opportunity.
What deputations wanted on rail land

TWENTY-three deputations passed through the Town Hall during the King’s Cross planning hearings, creating a growing wish-list for the site. Not everybody got what they wanted.
The deputations asked for:
• More housing. Many residents were dissatisfied with the 42 per cent affordable housing quota Argent is bound by. That figure signifies a departure from Camden Council’s own planning guidance, which recommends a 50 per cent minimum for all new developments.
Historic buildings. The Culross Building and the Stanley Building North face the bulldozer. King’s Cross Conservation Area Advisory Committee said they should be saved and adapted.
Madrassa or an Islamic community centre. Mamota Khatun, of Bengali Women’s Forum, said King’s Cross needs an upgrade but that the Muslim community was being “neglected” by the plans.
Irish Museum. Kathleen Dermody, representing the Irish community, called for a memorial to the Irish workers who toiled long hours to build King’s Cross, served in two world wars and as mayors and councillors in the 1960s and 1970s. She said: “There’s a lack of any reference to the cultural history of this area in any of the plans. The contribution of the Irish to Camden should be acknowledged.”
Olympic-sized swimming pool. Leigh Austin was unhappy with the current plan for a 25-metre pool.
Park. Angela Inglis, of Somers Town, said the site was big enough to create a massive green space “comparable with Regent’s Park”.
Secondary school. The desperate demand for school places in the south of the borough could be eased, campaigners suggested.

What is in plans

1,946 new homes – 42 per cent (817) affordable, with 650 units of student accommodation.
25-metre swimming pool.
Indoor sports hall.
Community centre.
25,000 jobs.
Possibility of casino.
New primary school.
Architectural heritage. Refurbishment of the Granary building, Stanley Building South and relocation and reconstruction of gas-holders. Culross and Stanley North will be flattened.
Business space – up to 455,510 square metres.
120 new shops.
Feasibility study for new station at Maiden Lane.
Campaigners who fought the scheme say Argent’s plans for what will be Europe’s biggest construction project contain too many offices and not enough cheap homes to meet the area’s critical housing demands.
On top of that, historic industrial buildings will be bulldozed to make way for Argent’s blueprint.
Protesters have already set the wheels in motion for an appeal and are hoping Mayor of London Ken Livingstone or Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott could still intervene and ask for the plans to be scrutinised again. Holborn and St Pancras Labour MP Frank Dobson is among critics of the final blueprint.
He said on Monday: “I’m not happy with the deal they have got in Camden. What I wanted was the best for people in Camden and Islington. People who come to see me in my advice surgery often want somewhere to live, they often want somewhere for their children to play, somewhere for teenagers to go. I don’t remember anybody saying they needed a new office block.”
Mr Dobson had hoped 3,000 homes would be built on the site, half of them owned by the council.
He added: “Camden had a dilemma. They had negotiated with the developers but they risked everything falling apart if they asked for something above what the developers were willing to concede. The important thing to do is to make sure that the social housing is built as soon as possible – not right at the end of project.”
At Thursday’s meeting – the second of two extended hearings – Labour councillor Roger Robinson, who represents nearby Somers Town, warned that planners would have the deal on their “conscience” for the rest of the lives if they did not broker arrangements for more inexpensive housing on the site.
He said: “This is the last piece of land we have open to us in Camden to build municipal housing, corporation housing, whatever you want to call it. We are going to completely lose that.
“We need a far greater look at the need for elderly people’s accommodation, sheltered accommodation and accessible homes for people with disabilities.”
Argent will build nearly 2,000 homes but a large chunk of the properties will be aimed at single professionals.
Cllr Robinson said: “We need large family accommodation as well. There is not enough of it in Camden. I can tell you that from the housing cases I have dealt with in the last few years. If we do not do this properly then we will have it on our conscience for the rest of our lives. I don’t want to be a part of that.”
Cllr Robinson said that the final decision was too momentous for the Town Hall’s planning committee and argued that there should have been more consultation and a full public planning inquiry – an opinion that has split Labour in Camden.
Earlier in the proceedings, 23 deputations passed through the main chamber urging councillors to send Argent back to the drawing board. Many of them appealed for more housing.
Liberal Democrat councillor Flick Rea, who voted against the application, said: “We have been constantly told this is about balance. When I worked out that we are only going to get 338 new families housed I began to worry that the balance wasn’t right. I think this is such a pathetic return”
Among those who voted in favour of the proposals were four Labour cabinet members and former leader Dame Jane Roberts, fuelling suggestions that high-ranking Labour councillors were intent on passing the proposals.
The party’s top brass have denied that the meeting was ‘whipped’ or that members were briefed on how to cast their vote.
Councillor John Thane, the council’s environment chief, took a sideswipe at coverage of the hearings in the New Journal – open to both sides of the debate – as he announced his backing for the scheme.
He criticised last week’s “Save our King’s Cross” headline, adding: “Our job is not just to save King’s Cross – that’s a pretty pathetic aim – it is to see that we seize the opportunity at King’s Cross for the benefit of future generations.”
After the meeting, Camden Labour leader Councillor Raj Chada announced his support for the deal.
He said: “There is hardly anything on the site at the moment that benefits residents in the area. This deal will ensure that will change. We have negotiated hard to get a higher percentage of homes than anywhere else in London.”
But objectors are pressing hard for a last-gasp intervention from a higher authority.
Una Sapietis, from King’s Cross Railway Lands Group, said afterwards: “This is just an opportunity for large profits and property speculators. It could have had a lot more social housing and community facilities. We are planning to appeal.”
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