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Tom Young and Val Stevenson
Concern over plans to demolish Lyndhurst Hall |
'We need jobs as well as homes,' architect pleads
Space for small firms in alternative
vision for taxi workshop site
AN architect who dedicated his spare time over four years
to drawing up plans to renovate a Gospel Oak taxi garage has
warned that two housing developments expected to be given planning
approval this week will create slums.
Tom Young has drawn up three alternative schemes for the taxi
repair workshop in Weedington Road, Queen’s Crescent, where
he runs a design practice.
Developers hope to build social housing on the site, but Mr
Young wants it to be used as a base for small businesses with
homes for families above.
He has also voiced concern about plans to demolish Lyndhurst
Hall in Kentish Town and build 51 flats on the site.
Architects Burrell Foley Fischer’s plans for the taxi workshop
site involve building 18 one-bedroom flats and three bedsits
at low rents, and creating a small area for taxis repairs and
somewhere for traders from the nearby market to store barrows.
Mr Young said of his alternative vision for the site: “It
has been a labour of love. I have put much of my own time in
because there is real potential to do something positive for
the area.”
He added that he had nothing against the idea of the site being
used for social housing, but wants to provide workshops for
small businesses as well.
Mr Young said: “We are not a commuter belt like Enfield
or Hendon. Kentish Town has always had light industry among
its homes – and with proper marketing this could help regenerate
the area.
“It does not take an Einstein to see Gospel Oak has a lot
of social housing. We need to work out how to use the area for
the best, and that means creating jobs, marketing the space
correctly and bringing entrepreneurs in.”
His views have been backed up by journalist Val Stevenson, who
works for the cult mystery magazine Fortean Times and lives
opposite the site.
She believes the council has failed to consult residents properly
and has drawn up a list of detailed objections to the scheme
she plans to present to the Town Hall today (Thursday).
Ms Stevenson said: “It stymies another possibility for
regeneration. This is a shoddy, back-of-an-envelope job.”
Developer Pocket has told the planning committee the flats are
not large but are well designed.
Its statement says security locks would be fitted to an alley,
deterring drug users, and that the industrial space is similar
to that at other sites in north London.
Mr Young is also warning that the demolition of Lyndhurst Hall,
a four- storey Victorian building in Kentish Town, will squeeze
more homes into an area already overrun with social housing.
Council planning officials are recommending the red-brick building
should be bulldozed. Notting Hill Housing Group plans to build
51 flats on the Warden Road site. Objectors have raised concerns
about extra traffic, noise and the fact that the area already
has social housing.
Town Hall officers have recommended that the plans should go
ahead, as Camden is short of low-cost family homes and 61 per
cent of the proposed housing will have three or more bedrooms.
The Lyndhurst Hall proposals are also due to be considered by
the planning committee today (Thursday). |
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