|
|
 |
| |
Land sale plans spark ‘We’ll get nothing from it’ protest
PRIME real estate in Somers Town is likely to fall into the hands of a developer, dashing residents’ hopes of a sports centre or a supermarket being built on the site.
Seven acres of land behind the British Library, temporarily occupied by a sprawl of offices and storage space needed for the building of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link at St Pancras, will fall vacant soon after the line is opened by the Queen in November.
Residents in nearby Ossulston Street, concerned by rumours that the land could be used as a travellers’ site, called an emergency meeting with Camden planners on Tuesday to clarify its future.
But the New Journal learned yesterday (Wednesday) that the land will be sold to the highest bidder within weeks.
The area, known locally as Brill Place, is one of the last patches of publicly-owned, undeveloped land in the sought-after south of the borough.
The current owner, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), has said that it plans to put the site on the market in early summer through estate agents Cluttons and Atisreal.
A DCMS spokeswoman said the site had been bought to accommodate an extension to the British Library, plans for which had now been dropped. The sale would be determined by purely commercial considerations.
Resident Candy Udwin told Tuesday’s meeting of Ossulston Tenants’ and Residents’ Association (OTRA): “We don’t want offices, we don’t want hotels, we don’t want pubs that won’t let local people in, we don’t want more bars.
“This area has a lot of people living in it and not many facilities. If they sell it to the highest bidder then we know we’ll get nothing from it.
“It ought to be a facility for local people, and it shouldn’t be sold off.”
OTRA secretary Helia Evans said: “Local people want a sports centre, or a swimming pool, or a supermarket where they can afford to shop, anything that will benefit everyone not just the developers. They have not been consulted.” |
 |
|
| |
|
|
|
