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Published: 7th April, 2011
by RICHARD OSLEY

PLANS to sell off part of the Town Hall and build offices for Camden Council staff on the King’s Cross redevelopment site are suddenly in the balance again.

With the council on the brink of a final deal, Labour backbenchers have ordered the party leadership not to sign any contracts part of the controversial change-around. They have won a pledge that cabinet councillors will ask chief officers to look at alternative options again.

Camden had looked all set to dispose of the Town Hall annexe, a bubbly brick block of offices above St Pancras Library in Euston Road.

It is claimed lift breakdowns and plumbing problems have made the building too costly to keep. The council has secured a site for new offices opposite St Pancras International station. 

The sweetener for the move, worth more than £100million, is a plan for two swimming pools on the site and a new library.

The deal, however, hinges on the sale of a host of other council-owned properties, including the Crowndale building in Eversholt Street, a site in Cockpit Yard, Holborn, and the old social services block in St Pancras Way.

Rebel backbenchers and at least one cabinet member now say cash from those sales should be going into refurbishing schools and saving services facing funding cuts.

At a private meeting of Camden’s Labour group on Monday night, there were angry words as opponents of the project secured a pledge for a fresh investigation into the options.

There is still a hope among some Labour Party members that the annexe can be saved. But its site is a potential goldmine for developers due to its close proximity to St Pancras station and its European links.

There is a fear among these critics that Camden will ultimately risk the embarrassment Newham Council recently suffered when it unveiled new offices at roughly the same time as announcing significant job cuts.

One backbencher, insiders said, asked the leadership at Monday’s meeting: “Why are we buying a Ferrari when we are making so many people redundant?”

Another accused cabinet members of not briefing colleagues properly about how the plan was being funded: “They keep moving the goalposts without telling us.”

Part of the irritation among some sceptics is the dramatic change of heart on the plan – first suggested by the Liberal Democrats and Tories – after last year’s local elections. In opposition and on the campaign trail, some Labour councillors opposed the plan, only to change their minds once winning  office last May.

Housing chief Councillor Julian Fulbrook is among the dissenting voices even though he is in the cabinet. He said: “There has been no final decision on this, either at the Labour group or at the cabinet. This should surely still be the subject of open public debate. Building a new Town Hall annexe is an inherited proposal from the previous administration and was hatched in a slightly different financial climate for local government.”

Labour finance chief Councillor Theo Blackwell, who was not at Monday’s meeting owing to work commitments, said critics had been fully briefed and the plans have been up for discussion for months and even years.

“These arguments have been gone over many times,” he said.  “The truth is that there will be no need for the same amount of office accommodation. Because of the cuts we have been forced to make by the government we have had to lose almost 1,000 posts. 

“I don’t think tax payers would be happy for us to be paying for empty offices. I don’t think there will be a ‘Save our empty Town Hall’ campaign. The annexe is expensive and the money on repairs could be spent on the services under threat and putting money into our schools, where it is badly needed.”

Cllr Blackwell said the plans would not be disrupted. “It’s still going ahead,” he added.