The offices now standing on... Network Rail clears West Hampstead garden

Published: 28 January 2010
by JOSH LOEB

RAIL bosses stand accused of smashing up a housing association’s garden to provide their own car park and portable offices – without bothering to warn residents.
Residents at Moore Court, in Alexandra Road, West Hampstead, said plants and a 15-year-old tree were destroyed. Network Rail cleared the patch of land while doing emergency work on a stretch of the West Coast mainline. In just a few hours, hedges were replaced with a portable office and grass with metal sheets. A sign warns: “These premises are patrolled with security officers with guard dogs.” 
Residents fear their garden will not be restored once the workmen leave. Boris Lemos, who has lived in Moore Court for 15 years, said: “We were surprised because they never told us what was happening. Children liked playing in the garden and some of the plants were mature.”
Nurse Veronica Barret-Hall, who lives in Moore Court, run by Notting Hill Housing Association, condemned the lack of consultation. “Network Rail posted something through our letterboxes late in the evening and started work at 4pm that day,” she said.
Network Rail has promised to return the garden to its former standard – “if not even better” – once the work is finished.
A spokesman said it had been forced to intervene to curb subsistence which, if left unchecked, could have caused tracks to buckle.
He added: “Network Rail has had to identify a suitable work site close to the railway in a very specific location. This is not easy but we have done everything by the book.”