‘Bedsits’ decision behind closed doors

Published: 12 August, 2010

• THE Town Hall’s recommendation for a scheme of cramming 16 bedsits into a late Victorian building is totally inconsiderate (Building ‘dream home’ a nightmare for neighbours, August 5). 

Most of buildings in our neighbourhood are either single dwellings or accommodate no more than three flats. 

The scheme at this scale should not be allowed in this area. 

The Town Hall’s recommendation for the scheme be waved through without going before the planning committee is appalling. 

The residents on Estelle Road should at least have the right to have the scheme studied by the planning committee. 
L Cheng Senior
Rona Road, NW3 

It stinks!

• COUNCIL officers took a decision using their delegated powers about a highly contentious planning application regarding Estelle Road, Gospel Oak, without bothering with the inconvenience of taking the matter to the development control committee where it would be discussed in public – despite dozens of objections by residents and the local conservation area advisory committee.

The decision, and the issue itself, stinks. 

What happened was that a person bought a large property in Belsize Park – only to find that it was a house in multiple occupation, and they could not therefore  convert it into one luxurious house. 

They reached a deal with the planning department to buy another house elsewhere (Estelle Road), which they would convert into a house for multiple occupation, therefore maintaining the number of units in the borough.          

The Estelle Road house is a fraction of the size of the one in Belsize Park and the proposal to create a property to house 16 people in this five-bedroom house constitutes an unacceptable and absurd density of use. 

The application included a massive excavation of the basement – a bonanza precedent in the Mansfield Conservation Area which will allow anyone owning a ground-floor flat to dig out their basements in the same way. The fact that this area is notorious for subsidence problems and damp cellars, was also totally ignored by the council.  

This may all have been perfectly legal, but a supine council disgraced itself by going along with it. Where were our local councillors when we needed them? 
Matthew Lewin
NW3