Decisions on community centre worthy of a proper debate

• AT the St Pancras Community Association annual meeting on Tuesday, it was clear that your report (GP could be forced to move by community centre plans, July 14), about local concerns over plans to demolish a parade of shops in Plender Street to build a replacement community centre, reflected a strong current of local opinion.

The physical fabric of these shops might be poor, but the services of this off-licence, laundrette, butcher, hair salon and newsagent are clearly highly valued in this densely populated area. The letter from two local tenants’ and residents’ associations in the same issue highlighted the fact that Camden Council, in what is becoming a worryingly familiar pattern, appears to be trying to rush through the scheme with only a few weeks’, very limited, consultation.

Certainly the existing St Pancras Community Centre building is not all that it might be. The first meeting that I attended discussing that was at least two years ago. But there needs to be serious consideration about whether renovation – central heating, toilets and closed-off windows – would be better than replacement.

It may be that a year of detailed discussion in the community would produce a scheme much like that being suggested now but unless proper consultation and debate takes place, what instead we’ll get is a rushed-through, resented, project that may well not be the best outcome for the people.

NATALIE BENNETT
Chair, Camden Green Party 

Published: 21 July, 2011