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Camden News - by PAUL KEILTHY
Published: 4 December 2008

Safety fears for superlab

SAFETY concerns at the highest ranks of the Town Hall over the siting of a £500million superlab in Somers Town have been revealed by Freedom of Information disclosures.
The government’s intention to allow scientists to build a research centre exploring cancer and infectious diseases in Brill Place, behind the British Library, was revealed by the New Journal last year.
Now papers disclosed under FoI show that the council’s then safety chief, Lib Dem councillor Ben Rawlings, wrote to senior figures at the Town Hall and Camden police about “community safety concerns I have at this early stage”.
Cllr Rawlings listed animal rights protests, the risk of contamination, and the disruption any incident would cause to King’s Cross-based council services.
His letter, sent on August 21 but drafted in January, reads: “I cannot envisage any proposal for a medical research facility that would be acceptable in this area from a community safety perspective.”
Much correspondence has been exempted from disclosure for security reasons.
Camden police began drawing up draft contingency plans for the site last year.
The council has repeatedly stated that it cannot act on the site until a planning application is submitted, as expected, next year.
The Medical Research Centre, Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK and University College London are backing the centre.

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