Does scheme for flats and sports centre add up?

Published: 5 May, 2011

• THE letter (Talacre questions, April 28) from councillors Sue Vincent and Tulip Siddiq seeks to persuade us that the new access to Talacre sports centre if the 55 flats are built would have minimal impact on the community. 

This is difficult to accept. Currently we believe about 100,000 people a year use it (compared to 300,000 for London Zoo). It is one of the largest gymnastics centres in the country and an essential resource as there is no other for miles around.

Now you can reach the building by means of a wide road with pavements. Once the seven-storey building is constructed on it the road will be 5.5m wide, have no pavements or waiting space for cars and be managed by marshals. Access for pedestrian would be from a 2.5m path, overhung by the flats, with columns within it. All you can do is to reduce the danger. That is why a second marshal at the Prince of Wales Road end of the new road is essential.

But marshals have to be paid for out of the service charges of the 36 private flats. They cost (using the developers 2008 figures from the public inquiry) £83,000 a year. According to the monitoring clauses in the legal agreement, Camden has the right unilaterally to require a second marshal and whatever else is needed to safeguard the public amenity. 

Service charges, according to the schedule submitted to the public inquiry were over £6,000 for a three-bedroom flat if one marshal were required and all 55 flats shared in the costs. It was later established that the 19 affordable flats would not share in these charges (the schedule showed them paying up to £3,585). That pushes the service charge for the private flats up to £9,000. Add another marshal and you are at over £14,000 pa to live in a car-capped development a few metres from West Kentish Town overground station. Even half that amount is absurd.

This means that if Findon start building, they must believe that they can sell flats with such service charges or, more likely, that Camden will not enforce the legal agreement. Camden must tell Findon that it does intend to enforce the agreement and what the consequences would likely be. Camden should also ensure the bank which according to the Land Registry has a charge on the site is fully aware.

MARTIN PLAUT
Ryland Road, NW5

Accessible?

• SADLY, Councillor Vincent’s and Councillor Siddiq’s words (April 28), intended to calm troubled Haverstock residents and those from further afield, are not working.

Our politicians, who acted with vision and boldness in establishing the Town Green, may have overlooked the Dalby Street developer’s own claim that already a vehicle every minute enters and leaves the Talacre sports centre foreground during the weekday evening rush. 

No amount of new “pay and display” parking in Talacre Road on the opposite side of an often necessarily “locked at dusk” park, will satisfactorily replace what exists for a bit longer at Dalby Street. 

Dropping off at Talacre is still possible. In future, the task of taking the young and vulnerable safely to and from their their destinations will be challenging and expensive. 

How will the council prevent the deterioration of access at the sports centre? 

PETER CUMING
Talacre Road, NW5