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'Super station' mugging fears
PLANS to merge three West Hampstead stations have been dismissed
as a cheap and nasty project that will turn the area into a
building site for years.
The scheme, which developers say would be finished in time for
the 2012 Olympics, will link the existing Silverlink and Thameslink
rail stations and the Tube station, and create a new Chiltern
Line station, for Marylebone trains.
Stuart Yeatman, property manager of Laing Rail, builders in
charge of the plans, told a packed meeting of West Hampstead
Amenity and Transport group at Broomsleigh Street’s Community
Hall on Wednesday that the company aimed to have the work completed
by the Olympic opening ceremony. The development would include
shops, doctors’ surgeries, housing, a farmers’ market
and, potentially, a new school.
Resident Candice Temple, who lives at the junction of Iverson
Road and West End Lane, asked the builders: “We live in
the block directly above where you will be building. What compensation
will you offer us? You will be making money from our misery.”
Another resident, Loulou Brown, called the proposals a “cheapskate
plan”, adding: “I would not like to travel on your
new walkway. It portends muggings and rapes. This new scheme
is diabolical – cheap and nasty.”
Michael Roberts, a consultant working on the plans for Laing
Rail, said: “We want to bring the area up – not create
dirty, nasty, depressing spaces”.
Talks on the plans are going on with Camden Council, the Greater
London Authority and London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s office.
Mr Yeatman said: “If we get support from all those bodies,
the proposal for a transport-led regeneration should become
part of the local development framework.”
Public consultation could start in the autumn, with plans submitted
to the Town Hall early in 2007. |
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