Is now available to download: Argent Newsletter Summer 2009.
June 11, 2009
Argent’s impact
The June edition of the King’s Cross Construction Impact Group’s quarterly report is now available.
Highlights include news of the Granary’s completion, works starting on the new canal bridge, connection of the underground ticketing halls in King’s Cross and St Pancras, Argent’s presence at MIPIM, the design competition for gasholder No 8 , noise and air monitoring results and news of future events.
Download the report here. For more information, contact Richard Gethin via the Kings Cross construction website.
May 5, 2009
Construction News
The latest newsletter from the partners involved in developing King’s Cross Central is now available for download. The companies involved in the development have appointed a dedicated liaison officer, Richard Gethin. Richard keeps the partnership’s website regularly updated, queries about the development can be submitted via their website or by telephone: 0800 328 8840.
March 28, 2009
Kings Cross Forum Planning Response Team Response to proposal for T1 – March 09
The building proposed for Zone T1 (1-3 Canal Street) will be the westernmost building in the whole of Kings Cross Central and stand at the southern end of a wall of high buildings curving round the edge of the development site alongside the high-speed railway line. Immediately south will stand the largest of the retained gas-holder (‘gasometer’ to some), open for play activity but maybe also performances.
Within the one stepped building will be the central energy plant for many buildings, an electrical substation, multi-storey car park for over 400 vehicles, a multi-use indoor games hall, shops, cafes, bars and, last but not least 102 flats. Some flats will command dramatic views over South Camden and Westminster, over the Regents Canal and basin. Other flats will face in on a high altitude planted courtyard.
The Forum’s planning response team didn’t see a lot wrong with the overall design but had anxieties about noise – mainly from the trains on the tracks below. We asked Argent about some of these noise issues and they replied on points we asked about. You will find these, and some other points, in our suggested Response and Argent’s answers to the points we put to them.
Comments are invited up to 24 March, so this matter is urgent It is worth sending comments in late, but get them in as quickly as possible. Note that this application also includes the design of the land around T1 building and an adjoining road for considerable length. Please copy any comments submitted to the Forum
Noise And Vibration Aspects
1. The Challenge
a. Building T1 will be placed within a very noisy environment. The residents and designers face major challenges to make the building habitable. Placed to the North of the Canal and at the East of the site – right next to the high level Eurostar line – and with the ‘ public amenity’ Gas Holder 8 very close to its South East, the T1 building is surrounded by potentially intrusive noise generators. There is only a narrow gap to a major solid (noise reflecting) structure to the immediate East of the T1 building.
b. Added to this, there is a large car park embedded in the – noise porous -West wall of the building, a very large Services Plant module integrated into the whole of the North end and a recreational area punched through the centre. There are 24 wind turbines on the roof. Finally, it is proposed to site a restaurant on the Ground Floor along the East face.
c. The questions to be answered before detailed planning permission is given are:
i. What have the engineers done to make sure that the accommodation is habitable from the noise and vibration point-of-view?
ii. What have the engineers done to make sure that the area around building T1 is acceptable from the noise and vibration point-of-view?
iii. How will they measure that they have been successful in mitigating the noise for residents?
iv. What steps are available WHEN it is found on completion that the design has failed to meet minimum acceptable noise standards for residents?
2. Detailed Concerns
Concerns about noise and vibration need to be considered one by one. Taking each source and each external and internal aspect in turn:
The Railway.
Noise from the railway will affect all the accommodation on the West Face of the building. This only concerns the upper floors but information is required as to the level of noise expected on the lowest occupied level. Detailed information is available from the appeal on the Islington Triangle proposal. If this is to be mitigated by double glazing and using passive venting, information is required as to how this West-facing accommodation is to be cooled and ventilated on a hot summer night, if windows have to be kept shut.
Rail noise will enter the multi-story car park through the porous Western wall. Cars will obviously generate noise within the car park:
· What modelling has been done of the resonance and damping/amplification of noise within these floors?
· What noise will penetrate through the building to the flats on the far (east) side of the building and in the floors above the car park cavity?
· What car noise will reach these flats from the car park?
Rail noise will be reflected from the TI West Wall. Baffles have been added but what noise levels are expected in the existing blocks West of the railway?
The Services Tower
Many floors of the North end of T1 are as Service Tower. This is used to house the major power services for the whole development. A number of potential problems for residents arise:
· What noise will penetrate the domestic accommodation to the South of the Service Tower?
· What noise will penetrate to accommodation above the Service Tower?
· As there is only a narrow gap between building T1 and the building to the East, what noise will be reflected back to the Southern end of T1 from the Service Tower?
The Windmills
It is proposed to mount some 24 wind turbines on the roof of T1.
· What level of noise will be experienced by residents below the wind turbines?
· What noise will be reflected around the open atrium within the top floors?
· What noise will be reflected down the East side of T1 into the gap between it and the building immediately to its East?
Wind Resonance
While the script states that trees and baffles will be used to mitigate the wind velocity with the ‘jaws’ at the Southern end of T1:
· What modelling has been done of the resonance which may build up within the building, in particular in the atrium area within the top floors?
The Sports Area
The open sports area extends right across the middle of the base of the building.
· What is the wind environment is the sports area?
· What direct and indirect noise will the sports area generate in the domestic accommodation?
The Restaurant Area
The restaurant area extends along the eastern face of the base of the building. This is likely to generate considerable noise late at night. This noise may be exacerbated by the tunnel effect up the narrow alley between T1 and the tall structure to its East.
· What direct and indirect noise will the restaurant area generate in the domestic accommodation?
Gas Holder No 8
The proposal is that Gas Holder No8 will be erected close to the South East end of building T1. It is designated for ‘public events’. The general and particularly late-night noise could be a considerable problem for residents living on the East face.
· Why has Gas Holder 8 been designated for public use when a site further East, nearer the commercial area would reduce the noise nuisance to residents of T1
· What proposals are being made IN THE DESIGN to mitigate noise nuisance to the residents of T1?
3. Conclusion
a. The residents living in building T1 will be very vulnerable to noise from all around and within the building. Before detailed planning permission is given for the building reliable information must be made available concerning:
- The standards of noise and vibration being applied to the design
- The assumptions being made as to the level of noise which will be generated around, above and below the residential accommodation. These include the railway, the Gas Holder 8 and the roof wind generators
- The modelling which has been done concerning the transmission of noise within the building from the car park, the service tower, the sports area and the restaurant.
- The modelling which has been done concerning resonance: within the car park, within the roof atrium from wind, in the alley between T1 and the building to the East and from the Sports Area within the building.
- The effect of rail noise reflected from the West wall of T1 on residents living to the East of the rail track.
February 17, 2009
Now online: T1 Building planning application details
The full planning application for what is highly likely to be one of the most iconic buildings in the King’s Cross Central development, 1-3 Canal Street (designated Building T1 on the plans) is now online along with all accompanying documents.
1-3 Canal Street will comprise a new energy centre and electrical substation, a 417 space multi-storey car park, a multi-use games area, residential development totalling 102 units (48 private ownership, 34 social rented and up to 20 intermediate affordable), retail units cafes, and bars together with new areas of adjacent public space.
Click here for all the documents relating to the application including archtectural drawings, landscape drawings, and reports looking at the environmental sustainability, light, and urban design impacts of this new building.
We will be responding to Forum members about the planning application. Once our response has been drafted you’ll find it on this site and will be welcome to make use of any part of it in submitting your own.
February 17, 2009
Phil Jeffries Guardian obit by Christian Wolmar
Click here to read the full obituary.
January 11, 2009
Application for new bus depot
Argent have submitted the planning application for a new Metroline bus depot, reference 2008/5813/P, within the King’s Cross Central development just south of the Maiden Lane Estate. The deadline for comments is 12 February 2009 – this is a change to the date given previously. All the documents relating to the application can be seen here, meanwhile a few highlights are:
Location of the depot in the existing area
Comments on this application can be made online. We will be preparing a response, watch this space for details…
December 20, 2008
Diana on Phil – a truely irreplacable campaigner for our community
I am very sad to announce that my partner of 32 years, Phil Jeffries, died of cancer on 14 December.
Many local people will know Phil as a committed campaigner for the King’s Cross community. He was a founder member of the King’s Cross Railway Lands Group in 1987 and served as chair on three separate occasions during its 21 years. His particular skill was for parliamentary and paralegal work, leading the case against the original Channel Tunnel Rail Link which would have demolished large swathes of King’s Cross.
Later, when the route changed to St Pancras in 1993, he helped found the Cally Rail Group, not to campaign against the rail link but to ensure it disrupted the local community in West Islington as little as possible. He led preparation of our case to Parliament to adopt a scheme which would avoid digging up the Cally Road for several years, and in 1995 the House of Commons agreed the current route to avoid that disruption.
In 2001, when the CTRL was about to start on site and the engineers had ‘forgotten’ Parliament’s aim not to disrupt the Cally, it was Phil who wrote our referral to the Secretary of State and led negotiations with the Department of Transport when we finally got them to take us seriously. It was too late to avoid disruptive work to the utilities in 2002, but Phil gained what the Council had not thought to demand-a special compensation scheme for traders who lost passing trade (vital for our small traders who operate on such tight margins)-and the Government paid out some £100,000.
Phil’s knowledge of construction impacts was put to good use when CTRL wanted round the clock noisy working at St Pancras. He worked with local people to convince Camden council to oppose the application and then helped prepare evidence for the resulting planning inquiry. The Planning Inspector rejected CTRL’s appeal in February 2004 and, when regular meetings were set up between CTRL, Camden officers and residents to agree construction methods, Phil continued to advise.
In 2004 Cally Rail Group widened its brief to campaign for a better development on the King’s Cross Railway Lands. We had welcomed CTRL in principle because we hoped for real regeneration which would benefit local people. As part of the King’s Cross Think Again campaign, Phil was at the forefront in preparing the unsuccessful case for judicial review against Camden’s acceptance of the inadequate Argent scheme. Earlier this year, after Islington rejected the scheme for the Triangle site and Argent appealed, Phil acted at the planning inquiry as advocate for Cally Rail and KX Railway Lands groups, arguing unsuccessfully to have environmental problems on the site taken seriously and for more affordable housing.
He helped set up King’s Cross Voices, our local oral history project. When its parent organisation, King’s Cross Community Development Project, went bankrupt because of mismanagement, Phil worked tirelessly to rescue the project, support the staff and secure its future with Camden council.
Phil was born in Darlington in 1953 and came to London to study physiology. He did not finish his degree but became involved in the squatting movement, which is how I met him in 1976. He was for many years active in the peace movement, helping to found the Peace Movement Legal Support Group which advised activists on the law and supported people arrested on demos. Together we edited A Legal Advice Pack for Nuclear Disarmers (published by CND in 1984), which explained the law affecting non-violent actions.
Phil held various jobs until, in 1985, as a result of his work in the Nuclear-Free Zones Movement, he went to work for the Greater London Council. After abolition he became PA to the Labour leader of the Fire and Civil Defence Authority, and in recent years he was the London Fire Brigade’s statistician. This year he and two colleagues won a special award for their work tracking down someone who made 885 hoax calls in 45 days: by analysing the pattern of calls from various public call boxes Phil predicted which the hoaxer would use next, leading to his arrest.
Phil was a trade unionist and (sometimes critical) Labour Party member. Alongside other political and community campaigns too numerous to list, he loved cooking, music, birdwatching and history. Until the illness overtook him he struggled to continue research on a history project which engaged him for many years.
On a personal note, Phil and I were in a relationship for 15 years before we took the plunge in 1991 and went to live together. We wondered immediately why we had missed out for so long on the delights of living as well as campaigning together.
He was diagnosed with lung cancer, with brain secondaries, on August Bank Holiday this year, exactly 17 years after we moved into Gifford Street. Phil faced the knowledge that he would die with courage and grace: ‘don’t talk statistics to a statistician’, he said, ‘I may live another twenty years’. Despite palliative treatment in UCH, the disease progressed shockingly fast. Staff in St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney, where he went on 5 December, managed to control his pain and did everything they could for us both. I was with him when he died, supported by his brother, Steve.
His final act, as a scientist dedicated to improving life for everyone, was to leave his body to the London teaching hospitals. This means there will be no funeral, but details of an event to celebrate his life will be posted here when available. Thank you to all our wonderful friends and neighbours, as well as Phil’s brother, sister in law Val, and niece Anna, for all the support we both had, and I continue to have now.
The struggle for a just and peaceful world continues, but without one of its most dedicated campaigners.
Diana Shelley
Ed: Anyone wishing to share their memories of Phil or good wishes for Diana, please visit the King’s Cross Community site where an online book of commemoration will begin this Sunday.
December 19, 2008
Applications are in now for the Gas Holders
The following detailed applications all follow from outline planning application 2004/2307/P, a comprehensive, phased, mixed-use development of former railway lands at Zone N of the King’s Cross Opportunity Area.
Development of Zone N requires re-erection of the linked triplet of gas holder guide frames to enclose new residential and other development on the site of the Western Goods Shed; re-erection of the guide frame for gas holder no 8 alongside the re-erected triplet to enclose new play facilities and open space; relocation of an existing district gas governor.
We are currently looking at these applications and will publish our responses here as soon as we can.
Listed Building Consent for Gas Holder Land at Goods Way
Planning reference number 2008/5825/L
Works to relocate and store dismantled Gas Holder Triplet Guide Frame A comprehensive, phased, mixed-use development of former railway lands within the King’s Cross Opportunity Area, as set out in the Revised Development Specification. Click here for more information.
Approval of Details for Gas Holder Land at Goods Way
Planning reference number 2008/5668/L
Details of the demolition, dismantling and re-erection of gas holder and implementation of a programme of building recording and analysis (2004/2315/L to the dismantle Gas Holder no.8). Click here for more information.
Planning reference number 2008/5665/P
Details of enabling works, including layout, designs and specifications and gas holder contracts/agreements. Click here for more information.
Planning reference number 2008/5666/P
Details of gas holder contracts/agreements and programme of building recording and analysis. Click here for more information.
December 17, 2008
Phil Jeffries
I am sorry to have to report that one of our valued Forum members, Phil Jeffries, died around 9.30 on Sunday night in St Joseph’s Hospice.
After a tough few days, the nursing staff managed to control the pain and he was quite peaceful at the end. His brother Steve was able to come down from Darlington to be with him for the last 24 hours. Diana Shelley was with Phil at the end. She will arrange a memorial gathering in the new year.
Phil had been an energetic and thoughtful participant in the Forum. He represented us on the Construction Impact Group where his experience of construction impact from the previous Channel Tunnel Rail Link proved of great value. I appreciated his contribution.
We are going to miss him personally and in terms of the contribution he was able to bring.
Geoffery Roper
Chair KXDF
