Revealed: National Temperance Hospital sale will pay for controversial Brill Place superlab
Thursday April 1, 2010
By DAN CARRIER
VITAL cash to fund a proposed research centre in King’s Cross will come from selling the derelict National Temperance Hospital site nearby to the highest bidder, the New Journal can reveal.
The news will come as a blow to campaigners who had hoped the hospital site in Hampstead Road would house a new secondary school or social housing in return for Camden Council giving permission to build the super-lab.
The Brill Place site of the new lab, which will house more than 1,200 research scientists, had been earmarked for social housing and a park.
The cash injection was confirmed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown at a meeting in Euston Road on Thursday.
He was joined by business, innovation and skills secretary Lord Mandelson, science minister Lord Drayson and health secretary Andy Burnham.
Mr Brown said: “There is nothing more important to the future of our society and our economy than what we are setting in motion. I believe the project we are discussing today will transform lives, will make for a stronger economy, will put us at the forefront of research around the world and will give people a huge amount of hope about the future.”
The lab will provide Britain’s top scientists with an integrated centre to work on cures which could offer new hope to sufferers of illnesses such as cancer, strokes and heart disease.
But Holborn and St Pancras Labour MP Frank Dobson said: “Camden should not give planning permission for the laboratory unless the [hospital] site is used for housing.”
He warned that if the hospital site, owned by the Medical Research Council, was sold its property value would be much lower than the price paid for it.
Green Party candidate Natalie Bennett said: “It is extremely disappointing that this is not going to be part of the planning application or development.”
She added that the council should now put the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation – the body which hopes to build the lab – under pressure to ensure adequate compensation for the loss of the Brill Place site. Ms Bennett added: “The plans are grossly unsuitable. They are a third too big for the site, and sadly it is pretty impossible to alleviate the damage this development will do to Somers Town.”
The government cash will include money raised from the sale of a Medical Research Council site in Mill Hill.
Pictured: National Temperance Hospital in Hampstead Road