It’s a little late in the day but Camden’s planners have finally woken up to the fact that a pestilence of planning applications and property development south of the Euston Road is having a negative impact on everyone’s lives.
Camden’s strategic planners may be a decade or more behind the times but they are seeking the public’s views on how to better manage demolition and construction in the central area.
Councillor Danny Beales, who is apparently in charge of planning, has now written to community groups to reassure them that “Camden considers protecting residents from the impacts of construction activity a priority. ”
Few would believe any this if they were to have a walk around Fitzrovia and find their way hampered by closed carriageways, pavements blocked, and a queue of lorries full of rubble or concrete all day long.
Nevertheless Camden says it is aware that all is not as it should be.
“In some areas of the borough, particularly the central London area, the impacts of construction are not limited to the activity of one particular site. The impact of several sites can require additional measures that would not normally be required if the site was considered in isolation,” says Beales.
“Officers across several disciplines in the Council have developed a list of enhanced requirements they believe are necessary to mitigate these impacts, which can be found on our website .
“With the support of residents, the Council propose to require sites in the Camden Central London Cumulative Impact Area to implement these measures, or propose viable alternative solutions to residents, as part of the CMP process.
“Should the process prove successful, the intention is to explore other possible Cumulative Impact Areas it in other parts of the Borough, guided by where the impacts of construction are most significant,” he says.
Camden says it would welcome your views on:
1) Which construction impacts do you consider to be the most important and what this process should be aimed to address?
2) What areas do you believe the current CMP process could improve on?
3) Which of the additional measures proposed do you have most support for and why?
Please send any comments to planningobligations@camden.gov.uk, this will help with our decision to establish Camden Central London Cumulative Impact Area. The consultation will run until 27 September 2019.