WARNING

Do you know that Camden Council is planning to over-develop our neighbourhood?

Camden Council is planning to knock down West Kentish Town estate and rebuild it. We need better homes and support development, but Camden is proposing a plan that will bad for everyone in the area, with:

  • Overbearing buildings much taller than the surrounding streets
  • 4 times as much building with 100 more flats than recommended by the planners, leading to over-dense and crowded conditions
  • Existing tenants segregated in one part of the estate (shown in lighter red)
  • Most social rent homes more than 3 stories above ground
  • 85% of additional homes not affordable, gentrifying the area and making our neighbourhood more expensive for local people
  • Lack of social and community facilities
  • Poor quality design:
    o Over-shadowing and intrusion to privacy from tall buildings around small courtyards
    o Minimum space standards
    o North-facing, single-aspect flats in the 14 storey tower
  • Tall buildings unsuitable for families and cause isolation
  • At least half of the trees felled and loss of open green space
  • 16 year construction period is too long to live on a building site
  • Adds to the climate crisis through high-carbon construction
  • Designed in lock-down without collaboration with residents, based on developer funding model, not people’s well-being and social good
  • The scheme clearly prepares the ground for selling off chunks of the development to private developers by segregating social housing in only a few of the blocks.

Above: proposed view of masterplan looking from south west

Light red buildings in the image above are replacement social homes for rent: 263 for existing tenants and only 12 additional.

For details of the impact on neighbouring streets see this link.

Camden say “there is no alternative”, but we think that there is, as residents need decent homes sooner, a human scale and a greener, healthy environment. What can you do to persuade them to think again?

JOIN THE BETTER WEST KENTISH TOWN CAMPAIGN

We demand better outcomes for all – better quality homes, lower buildings, larger and greener spaces and more affordable homes for local people in need. A better neighbourhood for all.

  • Join the BETTER WEST KENTISH TOWN mailing list to keep up to date with the campaign by emailing BetterWKT@gmail.com
  • email your local councillor
  • Go on-line and object to Camden’s current planning application (see link below):
West Kentish Town Estate Land bounded by Queens Crescent, Grafton Road, Althone Street, Rhyl Street, Weedington Road, Coity Road, Warden Road, Bassett Street and Allcroft Road London NW5
Request for scoping opinion under Regulation 15 of the Town and Country Planning Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations 2017, for proposed development involving the redevelopment of the West Kentish Town Estate to provide up to approximately 898 dwellings (with a mix of affordable and market housing) and ancillary commercial uses in buildings ranging from 4 to 14 storeys in a variety of different housing typologies including flats and maisonettes alongside new routes, open space, play space, hard and soft landscaping and other associated works. Application number: 2022/5281/P
Application type: Request for Scoping OpinionView Application
Extract from Camden’s planning application

Click this link to find out more about how to object

Your local ward councillors should be here to help you. The councillors for the effected areas are:

HAVERSTOCK WARD

GOSPEL OAK WARD

KENTISH TOWN SOUTH

Please join us, by signing up to the mailing list and keeping touch. If you would like to volunteer or make a financial contribution to BETTER WEST KENTISH TOWN (for printing and meeting venues), please email BetterWKT@gmail.com

NEIGHBOURS OF WEST KENTISH TOWN – Residents and neighbours of West Kentish Town Estate, demanding ecologically conscious and socially responsible development, involving proper town planning. Established 2019.