A broader view of the King’s Cross area

Camden  and Islington Councils have been drawing up a “place plan” for the King’s Cross area. This is a development from the document circulated by Camden in draft form in 2010 and in revised form in 2011. That document covered Somers Town, Camley Street and Maiden Lane but not any districts in Islington or to the south of Euston Road; the draft place plan covers those other districts, too, at least with a broad brush.

The draft place plan is here. Though it has only just been published, the official closing date for comments on it is 21 May.

The districts covered in the draft place plan offer varied opportunities for improvement. Several of these are to be looked at in walks by the proposed neighbourhood forum. If you wish to join the walks, or to provide views for consideration in comments on the draft place plan, please contact us.

Applying for a neighbourhood forum for the King’s Cross area

At the meeting on 22 March representatives of several local organisations discussed the application for designating a neighbourhood forum that had been drafted by Forum members. They noted the difficulties and the effort levels needed in organising and maintaining a neighbourhood forum for a large King’s Cross area but were keen to proceed with an application to both Camden and Islington. They decided to use the draft documents in an application that could be submitted to the Councils by 6 April, when the regulations would come into force.

The discussion at the Forum meeting is summarised in the minutes of the meeting.

After the Forum meeting the representatives of the organisations present held a further meeting, to consider enhancing the application before its submission. In the following two weeks the application was enhanced in various ways, before being submitted on time. The application as submitted is here; the draft of the constitution of the neighbourhood forum, which includes a map showing the districts currently proposed and a list of the organisations currently represented, is here. Further changes to these documents are likely as more organisations become involved and the discussions with the Councils proceed.

Foundations for a neighbourhood forum for the King’s Cross area

Most people in the previous King’s Cross Development Forum meeting (on 9 February) wanted the Forum to take an active role in setting up a neighbourhood forum for the King’s Cross area. In particular, they wanted an application for the designation of a neighbourhood forum to be prepared for  submission to Camden and Islington Councils on 1 April. Before then there would be a further meeting to review and amend the application. After then more people would need to be actively involved in formulating and implementing the detailed intentions of the neighbourhood forum.

Is the application for designation of a neighbourhood forum ready for submission? If so, which organisations and people will take the neighbourhood forum further? These are the questions for the next meeting of the King’s Cross Development Forum (on 22 March). The meeting will also look at what helping with the neighbourhood forum would mean.

To provide background information, there is a note on the decisions needed on setting up the neighbourhood forum. Please read this as well as the draft documents for the application for designation of a neighbourhood forum. The draft documents are:

• A map showing districts that might be covered.
• A list of organisations that are known to be interested.
• The application itself.
• A constitution for the neighbourhood forum.

The Forum meeting will be from 7:00 to 9:00 on Thursday 22 March in Committee Room 2 of Camden Town Hall. It is open to the public (as are all Forum meetings). If you are unable to attend it but wish to offer help or to comment on the draft documents, please contact us so that your position can be taken into account at the meeting.

Setting up a neighbourhood forum for the King’s Cross area

At the meeting on 9 February Forum members discussed what part the Forum should play in setting up a neighbourhood forum for the King’s Cross area. Though they had reservations about neighbourhood forums in general, most people in the meeting wanted the Forum to take an active role in setting up a neighbourhood forum that would serve both Camden and Islington. They finally decided that the Forum should develop an application for the designation of a neighbourhood forum that could be submitted to the Councils on 1 April. Before then there will be a further meeting of the Forum, to review and amend the proposal.

The neighbourhood forum could contribute greatly to living and working in the King’s Cross area. It could give legal backing to requests for action and improvements to plans that many people have been wanting for years. It could even take over community assets. However, setting it up and keeping it going will need enthusiasm and effort. To help with this in the crucial initial stages, please contact us now.

The points raised during the discussion are outlined in the minutes of the meeting, which also summarise the discussion of the use of the Section 106 funds from the King’s Cross Central and King’s Cross Station developments. A further account of the meeting, with audio clips, provided by Living Streets King’s Cross, is currently the first item here.

Discussion of neighbourhood forums

Under the Localism Act, a neighbourhood such as the King’s Cross area can have a neighbourhood forum that creates a neighbourhood development plan (and neighbourhood development orders) for approval by the local authorities and an independent inspector. In principle, then, people get extra ways of influencing how their neighbourhoods should develop, provided that they are consistent with broader London and borough plans.

Would a neighbourhood forum be effective in the King’s Cross area? If so, how should it be set up? These are very important questions for the King’s Cross community. They will be central to the meeting of the King’s Cross Development Forum on 9 February. Organisations like the King’s Cross Development Forum have four possible courses of action:

• Seeking to form the core of a neighbourhood forum.
• Working towards the formation of a neighbourhood forum as a new organisation.
• Working with a neighbourhood forum if it is formed by a different organisation.
• Regarding the formation of a neighbourhood forum as an irrelevant distraction.

To provide background information, Forum members have provided a note on the framework and a view of the implications. There is also a large quantity of material from the Department of Communities and Local Government here; it is supplemented by Camden Council here.

A neighbourhood development plan can cross borough boundaries. Something similar is now recognised in the Council exercise on “Shaping the Future of the King’s Cross Area”. This was originally set up by, and confined to, Camden, but is now being extended to Islington (as the Forum said here that it should be, in 2010). Its final results are now due out in the middle of 2012.

The Forum meeting will also look at the use of the Section 106 funds from the King’s Cross Central and King’s Cross Station developments. It will be from 7:00 to 9:00 on Thursday 9 February in Committee Room 2 of Camden Town Hall.

Views of neighbourhood forums

The next meeting of the Forum will be from 7:00 to 9:00 on Thursday 9 February in Committee Room 2 of Camden Town Hall.

At the meeting the Forum will discuss what is now known about:

• The desirability and feasibility of turning the Forum into an official neighbourhood forum under the planning framework of the Localism Act.
• The use of the Section 106 funds from the King’s Cross Central and King’s Cross Station developments (to provide the Maiden Lane Station study and the York Way improvements, for example).

The meeting will not need to discuss the application to build a hotel at 1-11 Euston Road (opposite King’s Cross Station). The Camden planning officers thought that it should be rejected for many reasons, so they exercised their delegated powers to reject it without referring it to the Development Control Committee.

However, the planning officers, and subsequently the Development Control Committee, accepted the planning applications about King’s Cross Square. In its response to the applications the Forum had requested that the Committee defer approval until the plans were complete and co-ordinated with others, for the rest of the Square (by different architects) and for pedestrians and cyclists. Hurrying to approve the plans appears odd, as work on the Square is not scheduled to start for another year. Nonetheless the Committee did so, having heard from the Forum for four minutes and from the planning officers (seeming to speak of the plans as partly their own) and the applicants for forty. The report of the planning officers is here. The web cast of the Development Control Committee meeting is here.

Forum response to Camden about the hotel opposite King’s Cross Station

The time period for responding to the planning application for a new hotel building opposite King’s Cross Station ended on 30 November. However, the “Justification for Demolition and Replacement” of the existing houses was put on the Camden Council web site later than that.

Because of this, the Planning Response Team of the Forum had an extra day in which to read all the documents and respond to the application. The response, which is here, mentions again the need for co-ordinated planning of the area near King’s Cross Station and points particularly to the need for consistent requirements on building heights, building set backs, footways and cycle lanes. It also questions the firmness of the business case for demolishing the existing houses and the adequacy of the proposed replacement.