£600m medical research lab in Somers Town will be an ‘ego trip’ for scientists

Published: 16 December 2010
by DAN CARRIER

A £660million plan to build a medical research laboratory in Somers Town is an “ego trip” for scientists rather than about saving lives, campaigners will tell Camden Council’s planning committee tonight (Thursday).

The meeting will decide whether the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation – a consortium of University College London, The Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK and the Medical Research Council – can go ahead with the project that will see a superlab built on an empty plot behind the British Library.

Scores of objections have been registered with the Town Hall: they range from the size of the building, which neighbours say will overshadow social and sheltered housing, to the fact the land has been earmarked for affordable homes. 

Pressure group St Pancras and Somers Town Planning Action (SPA) member Lillian Scott, who lives in nearby Coopers Lane, said the plan to switch from a 37-acre site in Mill Hill to a 3.5-acre site in Camden was not to do with medical need. 

She said: “They plan to build near St Pancras International station because it will provide the convenience and prestige they want. This has more to do with ego than with humankind.”

SPA chairwoman Natalie Bennett questioned whether the build was a wise use of public money. 

She said: “£220million of public money is being spent not on medical research but on a fancy building. To build an enormous laboratory costing £660million in total cannot be justified.


“We have asked UKCMRI to produce a peer-reviewed paper proving that they must have 1,500 scientists in one building and they have ignored us.”

And tenants nearby say they are facing an unacceptably long spell of building work that will stretch into two decades, with large schemes at St Pancras station and British Library recently finished and with work continuing on the former Railway Lands and at King’s Cross train station.

Ossulston Estate Tenants’ and Residents’ Association spokeswoman Hely Evans said: “Nearly 500 properties would be affected. Many will have reduced sunlight. All will suffer from endless noise and dust from excavation, because the building will descend four storeys below ground. And when it’s built it will be entirely out of character with the listed dwellings that it will dwarf.”

Labour councillor Roger Robinson said the land was desperately needed for housing. He added: “It’s like gold in the current housing shortage.” 

A spokesman for the scheme said it would benefit Somers Town. 

In the application, they outline a range of sweeteners – including a minimum of 40 apprenticeships for local people – and have included a “living centre” on site, links with schools for science teaching, cash towards community safety officers and artworks outside the entrance on St Pancras Road. 

They have also pledged £5.5million towards the Town Hall’s home improvement schemes for tenants.

The UKMRCI’s chief executive John Cooper also dismissed claims that the plans were a vanity project.

He said: “The location is key. Camden is already home to a unique cluster of health and scientific institutions. It will contribute to the regeneration of a long-neglected site. It will encourage innovation, attract investment, strengthen the economy and improve people’s lives.”