Kings Cross Environment

This week there will be two meetings to decide on planning proposals submitted by developers at 62-68 York Way (York Way/Wharfdale Road) – one more onerous then the other.

On Thursday 4 September the West Area Planning Sub-Committee will meet at 7PM at the Robert Blair School (new location) on Brewery Road N7 9QJ Download map_to_robert_blair_school.pdf), to decide on Planning Application P080767.  This application is the latest in a series of proposals for over-development of this site and it should be Refused.

Many objection letters have already been sent, and at this meeting a decision will be made by the Committee to Approve or Refuse this application.  I will be attending this meeting as will several others to speak out against this plan; I hope other local residents will join us to show their support to Refuse this application.

If you want a building on this site as most folks do, you must understand that the developer claims to have already commenced building his 2002 Approved Plan (he’s dug a hole in the ground).  If this new application is approved however, not only will the building being proposed in this new application be larger, but the developer will then able to abandon the 2002 Plan and will have three more years during which he will not have to do anything.  So, in effect, a Refusal of this plan, increases the likelihood of work proceeding on the current plan.  I hope you will join me and others at the meeting to support local efforts to get this plan Refused.

Later in the month on Wednesday 17 September at 10 AM at Town Hall there will be yet another meeting regarding the same site.  This will be an Inquiry conducted by the Planning Inspectorate to uphold or deny the Council’s REFUSAL of this same applicant’s previous but similar plan, in November ‘07 (P070753).  I will alert readers of the Bulletin Board to this meeting as the time draws closer.

Please also be reminded that this applicant has had approved plans in place for this site since 1995 and has never built anything.  He has however continued to submit plans for larger and larger buildings.’  This latest Application seems to be no more then a cynical attempt to keep his options open for speculative benefit as the longer he can delay, the greater the potential value of the site.

If you want more information on either of these meetings or the details about the plans involved, please email me – stephan@kingscrossenvironment.com.

Every planning decision made in Kings Cross is governed by a strategy set every few years by the Council.  If the ‘core strategy;’ says you can’t have buildings over a certain height in an area or demolish old buildings or have buildings painted pink or made of spaghetti then you can’t get planning permission for them.  So the strategy is very important and the Council are consulting on a new one.

The council have done an online thingy which makes it a bit easier to respond – you can just click some buttons after registering.  We have until early November to comment – i shall post more about this when i have read and digested the document but i thought some of you might want to get on with it.

You can go direct to the questionnaire and document here or look at the document and leave public comments on each paragraph here.  The latter option is particulalry welcome as you can see whatother people are saying on each bit and then coment on their comments.