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Why not use the superlab site as local open space?
• WELL done to your newspaper for uncovering the council’s concerns “from a community safety perspective” about the proposed superlab in Somers Town (Safety fears for superlab, December 4).
Hopefully they will also be obvious to councillors when, or if, a planning application is received.
It is a concern that’s immediately struck also respected local and national media sources.
Why it wasn’t immediately obvious to the medical consortium will probably remain a mystery, but it can only be hoped they will soon see the light, particularly if, as seems likely, the sale at high prices of the land at the existing site in Mill Hill was part of the plan for funding the facility.
In the meantime, since parts of the Brill Place site are already empty, and no application is expected for months, the consortium could generate goodwill by allowing the local community to use the much-needed open space.
NATALIE BENNETT
Co-ordinator
Green Party, South Camden
A vision for the area
• I CAN reassure Councillor Roger Robinson that now that the sale has been agreed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport we will be using our planning powers to make sure any proposed development has the right housing, employment and community facilities for the area and for Camden as a whole (Battle against Brill Place superlab scheme goes on, December 11).
The medical research centre will have to seek planning permission from Camden Council before this project gets the final go-ahead. While we have yet to see any plans we look forward to early engagement with the consortium to reaffirm the council’s vision for the area, in particular more affordable housing.
The council’s planning brief provides for 50 per cent or more of the new land use to be housing, and for half of that to be affordable housing which is desperately needed by residents. While we understand no application is planned until early 2009, we also urge the consortium to build up their connections with local people to explain not just their own aspirations for their project but how they believe it might make a positive contribution to residents and businesses in Camden.
CLLR KEITH MOFFITT
Leader, Camden Council
Place perfect
• I READ with interest the letter from Councillor Roger Robinson regarding the proposed building of the new UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation in Brill Place (December 11).
Unfortunately, Cllr Robinson repeated a number of inaccuracies about the proposed centre. Taking account of local public opinion will be key as the project develops along with the consultation through the spring of next year. I am sure New Journal readers will want to take a full part in this consultation and the team at UKCMRI are looking forward to showing both the paper and the residents of Camden our exciting plans.
Currently the research to be carried out at UKCMRI has not been finalised but we want to ensure the public are fully informed of our plans as we continue to design another state-of-the-art building in the borough. Medical research is highly regulated in the UK and Camden already has a formidable cluster of expertise in research, at University College London, Great Ormond Street Hospital, UCLH, Moorfields Eye Hospital, to name just a few.
It is the perfect place to help us push scientific discovery into benefits for people as efficiently as possible.
The work at UKCMRI will focus on diseases which touch the lives of us all. I am sure the residents of Camden will soon be as excited and proud as we are that a research facility leading the global fight to tackle diseases such as cancer will be in their borough.
FAY GILLOTT
Programme Director UKCMRI c/o The Wellcome Trust, NW1
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