Plan to tear down Chester Road estate gets backing

Published: 17th March, 2011
by DAN CARRIER

THE wrecking ball will be swung at a block of flats in Highgate Newtown after councillors on the Town Hall’s passing committee voted unanimously to approve housing department plans to redevelop it.

The committee, who met on Thursday, waved through the project on Chester Road – despite opposition from the Dartmouth Park Conservation Area Advisory Committee, Whittington Estate Residents’ Association, the Friends of Highgate Library, the Highgate Society, two ward councillors and people living near by.

The project will increase the number of affordable homes to rent from 20 to 23 and will be partly paid for by selling a further 26 homes privately. But spaces for shops will be lost – the current two storey  parade will be replaced with half the number of retail units – something designers say should be adequate as previously over half the shops available lay empty.

Highgate Labour councillors Valerie Leach and Michael Nicolaides opposed the scheme. Cllr Leach told the committee that the design was too bulky, and was not what people living nearby wanted.

She said: “The limited amount of retail space in the design means amenities for residents of the area will be much reduced. The fact that there has been empty retail space on the site for some time is testament to the long-standing neglect of the buildings there, not the lack of demand for such amenities.”

Green councillor Maya de Souza said that while she had many misgivings on aspects of the scheme – such as the design and whether it was necessary to demolish a building put up in the 1970s that was at the centre of a community – opposition was too little and too late. 

Cllr de Souza said: “I have many reservations and serious concerns about the level of community involvement, which I have expressed strongly in the past. As a councillor in the last administration, myself and my fellow Green councillors were forced to pull together a working group to ensure some level of community involvement. I sincerely hope we will not see a similar failing to properly involve the community in future projects.”

She said that she originally hoped the block could be refurbished, adding: “This would mean less disruption  and would be less harmful to the environment.”

But she admitted Town Hall surveyors  believed that due to asbestos panelling it would not be possible to renovate the flats.

Cllr De Souza added: “The time for objecting and seeking a different solution is past. The building is 90 per cent empty and is an eyesore. It no longer provides services. The responsible position was not to risk a derelict building [being left there] for many years.”