Local people have concerns about plans submitted to Camden Council for assessment
Plans for the mass redevelopment of the Hawley Wharf site opposite Camden Market have been submitted to the council this week.
For over two years, I have been working with other local councillors, residents and business groups to influence the developer’s proposals. While it’s great that this ramshackle and tawdry site (partly gutted by the fire back in 2008) will finally get a make over, we need to make sure the development respects our local area and makes Camden Town an even better place to live.
Judged against these criteria, and despite the developer taking on a few of our ideas, I believe the proposals currently fall short on several scores:
- Just 8% of the new housing on the site will be affordable, despite Camden setting a target of 50% and housing being the priority need in the area;
- Open spaces are poky and overshadowed by huge blocks;
- No evidence has yet been provided that local transport infrastructure will be able to cope with large numbers of extra visitors to a new four story “market”;
- There is no mechanism to secure new outlets that will bring retail diversity to Camden, to appeal to a different demographic.
Frankly, this new development feels like a shopping mall disguised as a market. Yet there is already a huge, commercial market on the other side of Chalk Farm Road, attracting thousands of visitors a week.
I believe most residents and local businesses would like to see a scheme that looks to Camden Lock’s origins as a place for craftsmanship, entrepreneurship and creativity, while offering something for the local people who currently feel frozen out of their own area.
You can read more in both the Camden New Journal and the Ham and High, and there will soon be an official consultation on the plans. I’ll post details as soon as they are available.
5 comments
Comments feed for this article
October 28, 2011 at 8:31 am
mark
We don’t need another market. We don’t need local people kicked out of their livelihoods just so another greedy developer can make a quick buck. It feels like social engineering. Camden is not just for tourists! This does not ‘diversify’ Camden as the developers claim – Camden is already diverse’. As for their claim they need more stall space – what by adding another market kicking out businesses and replacing them with more imported t-shirt stalls – how many more ‘street food’ and crap pizza and posh hippy hobby-business stalls do we need? This is not for the already alienated local underclasses.
November 9, 2011 at 1:56 pm
tallulah
These plans are outrageous and badly thought out – these plans could spell the death of Camden as we know it. If you want a ‘commercial’ shopping centre just go to westfields – this is not what Camden is about and not why Camden has been so popular for so many years. The safety aspects of this plan are dangerous – the increased number of people and cars proposed could be distastrous. Not to mention losing the wonderful Scar studios. The plans harp on about the potential to create 900 jobs this is only if this is successful, which it does not sound like it will be, but where does it mention all the business from the arches that have already been made to leave and the businesses that will be lost and taken out due to the areas chosen for redevelopment? These plans are misleading…I wonder why!?! Scar studios is under threat of closure if these plans go ahead, that is fact. That is jobs lost and a hugely successful business that is working effectively in tackling the diversity problems that can be seen elsewhere. Scar studios should be held up as a shining example not forced to close for shops and food places that I have seen no evidence that Camden needs. In this current economic climate it has been proven one of the first things people cut back on is eating out so why on earth are they flogging a plan that has already been proven won’t succeed?
November 11, 2011 at 12:10 pm
Affordable housing should be a Hawley Wharf priority « Haverstock Liberal Democrats
[...] Camden New Journal have today published a fantastic series of letters and comment piece on the Hawley Wharf development, which is currently being assessed by Camden [...]
January 8, 2012 at 8:48 pm
“Fundamental concerns”: experts speak out on Hawley Wharf « Haverstock Liberal Democrats
[...] expert professional groups have revealed they have significant concerns around the Hawley Wharf redevelopment plans as they currently [...]
February 9, 2012 at 9:28 am
Hawley Wharf plans: it could have been so much worse « Haverstock Liberal Democrats
[...] who have been less than complementary about development plans for Camden Market (including English Heritage, the Design Council and many local residents) might [...]