In local government, a key principle of planning and land ownership is that they are regarded as totally separate from the viewpoint of decisions. Anyone can make a planning application regardless of whether or not they own the property. If successful in their application, they naturally will have to acquire or obtain rights to any property that they don't have. In this case, the owner of the derelict house next to West Kentish Town overground station put together a proposition to Camden whereby he would buy the Travellers Site and Dalby Street from Camden and build a block of flats etc. He obtained agreement in principle to the Council selling the Travellers Site and Dalby Street, provided he was able to obtain planning permission.
This page provides information on the planning aspect of the overall arrangement. The main planning applications below are in date order
2004/2689/P. This was the original planning application for the one way route north from Prince of Wales Road along Wilkin Street Mews to Wilkin Street. Sports Centre users would be dropped off and collected part way along. The application obtained approval which ran out in December 2009. It was impossible to implement it as Network Rail's co-operation which was essential since they were (and are), the owners of Wilkin Street Mews which provided most of the access route was not obtained. Network Rail have since developed the Mews. The plans etc used for this application may still be of some interest as they may help explain the background to the later ie 2004/4187/P application. We saw no evidence that Network Rail had ever considered allowing Wilkin St Mews to be used for this purpose or even been asked. If that route had been made the access to the Sports Centre, then it would almost certainly no have been possible to allow commercial developments along it.
2004/2690/C. Because 52 Prince of Wales Road (the derelict house next to the bridge) was, unlike the Travellers Site and Dalby Street, in a conservation area, permission was required to demolish the house.
2005/4187/P. This was a new application which the developer made when Network Rail refused to co-operate with 2004/2689/P (see above). It is significantly different from 2004/2689/P, not least in having radically different access routes to the Sports Centre. Consultation of neighbors was improperly restricted by Camden to those who had objected to the 2004/2689/P application. Camden's restriction was on the grounds that this was only a variation of the earlier 2004/2689/P scheme. A list showing some of the differences is shown below under "Differences between 2689 and 4187 applications".
2008/5728/C. This application was needed to allow demolition to take place under the 2004/2690/C approval which contained various conditions.
2008/3688/P. This is a "CLOPOD" (Certificate of Lawfulness for a Proposed use or development).
Under planning law, council officers have authority to allow minor changes to plans without reverting to the (elected) planning committee. This application was claimed to be for such "minor" changes. It contains the latest approved drawings, mainly dated 11.12.08
This list is not intended to be complete and has been compiled as a result of scrutiny by people who are not qualified to do a detailed analysis.
1. 2689 was for 45 flats, 4187 for 54 flats
2. 2689 had no columns shown on the west of the building. 4187 has four columns holding up the six floors above the mezzanine floor. These 6 floors were extended out to the 2.5m over the footpath.
3. 2689 required the whole of Wilkin Street Mews to be part of the scheme. At one time, Network Rail was to be a signatory to the s106 agreement but that seemed to change. See 4.7.2.2 of the 2689 s106 agreement:
“The land identified under the Permanent Access Plan as being necessary for the creation of the new Highway has either been dedicated and that dedication has been accepted under a separate agreement to be entered into between all relevant parties pursuant to S38 of the Highways Act 1980 or any agreement enforceable by the Council securing permanent public rights of way together with maintenance obligations over the new Highway have been agreed by the Council, acting reasonable and without delay, in writing".
4. 2689 had access to the Sports Centre from a one-way road using Wilkin Street Mews. 4187 a narrow two-way road
5. 2689 had a pedestrian footpath on the road access (condition 14). 4187 does not
6. 2689 did not require marshals following completion. 4187 requires marshals for the lifetime of the Sports Centre and its successors. No one is aware of any comparable ongoing marshaling arrangement of this nature in the country.
7. 2689 had two wheelchair accessible flats on the ground floor. 4187 has none on any floor
8. 2689 had two dedicated disabled parking bays, additional to the continuing 3 such bays. 4187 has none except for the existing three
9. 2689 application was formally made on 21.6.04 and included a fee of £11,220. 4187 was treated as a new application. It was formally made on 29.9.05 and included a fee of £14,840
10. 4187’s car parking arrangements are very different from those of 2689 and changed over time. The narrowness of New Dalby Street caused special arrangements to be needed. There have been drawings on 4187, but none on 2689 to compare.
There were innumerable drafts and purportedly agreed (but not signed), s106 agreements, including the four appendixes containing the four access plans. The ruling document changed three or four times in the four day period up to the end of the first day of the Public Inquiry (15-18.1.2008) which made it impossible for potential objectors (or, if there were any, supporters) to be informed so as to properly contribute to the proceedings. The agreements that have been actually signed are, as far as we know, as follows:
23.12.04 re Planning Applications 2004/2689/P and 2004/2690/C. This concerned the earlier, "One Way", scheme which was abandoned sometime in late 2004, early 2005. It ran out after 5 years on 23.12.09. It was signed at a time when both parties ie the developer and Camden were aware that Network Rail was not prepared to co-operate with the scheme
The s106 agreement for 2004/2689/P dated 23.12.04 entered on the Camden planning site is linked here. Ocr version
10.1.06 between Camden, TRAC and Community Housing Association [now One Housing Group]
See Link here "1. S106 Agreement Original of 10.1.06" OCR version
30.9.08 Supplemental s106 between Camden and TRAC (CHA not a party). Note that the original posting on the 2005/4187/P site omitted a critical (and rather extra-ordinary) page (13) but that was added when we drew Camden's attention to the omission..
See Link here "2. Sup S106 of 30.9.08 with p14 in right place". OCR version
This agreement contains 86 pages, including 7 schedules, as follows:
1. Main Agreement
29. Sch 1. Continuing Works Contribution
32. Sch 2. Temporary Access Plan
43. Sch 3. Permanent Access Plan
52. Sch 4. Pedestrian Access Plan
60. Sch 5. Servicing & Management Plan
71. Car Park Management
73. Sch 6.Traffic Marshalling Brief
79. Sch 7. The Transfer Obligations
As it is vital that this document can easily be accessed especially by those who are most affected by it such as the private leaseholders, a Word ie .doc version is also attached. As it is an OCR conversion, it omits the drawings and anyone using it should check with the pdf version before making decisions. It contains a Contents list at the front which should be particularly useful and highlighted are the pages we see as particularly important to anyone contemplating buying a flat.
30.9.08 Re-executed s106 between Camden and TRAC (CHA not a party). This document is defined as being identical to the 10.1.06 document and needed because the 10.1.06 document required it to be re-executed following registration of the land. In fact it differs in several ways from the 10.1.06 agreement, including not having CHA as a party. It is thus impossible to know what has been agreed to.
See Link here "3. Re-executed S106 of 30.9.08". (OCR Version)
Also Link here Sup S106 of 30.9.08 with onerous obligation highlighted. (OCR version)