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Somers Town robbery
Open letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown
• I AM writing to register the dismay of the people of Somers Town in Camden over the cavalier way that our calls for social housing at the back of the British Library have been airily ignored.
This is totally opposed to your pledge to build millions of houses to combat the lack of decent affordable homes that are desperately needed in this area.
I have no doubt you were sincere when you made that promise, but it will make people hesitate to applaud it when the first opportunity that presents itself to begin implementing that pledge is casually dismissed in favour of giving the available land for medical research laboratories. We realise the importance of institutions such as the Medical Research Council, but we know the desperate impact of overcrowding on the health and wellbeing of both parents and their children. There are many problems for a government to face, but surely the welfare of ordinary people should come high up the list.
The people of Somers Town feel that they are being robbed of their rightful claim by this decision. They feel that they should be compensated by the government who should release the £280 million that Camden Council needs to bring its present housing up to standard that people need without the coercion of backdoor privatisation, and by the scarce land there is being made available for council housing.
BOB AUSTIN
Somers Town People’s Forum, NW1
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