At a special training meeting of Camden Council’s Planning Committee last Thursday [7 May] councillors heard from a top planning lawyer two things which disturbed me greatly:
“Basement extensions,” said the lawyer, “are not a planning matter. It is up to residents to seek private redress. You have bigger fish to fry.” He went on to say that if we tried to prevent builders and developers from using inefficient trucks which spew out poisonous diesel fumes and which are sending us all to an early grave, then “we wouldn’t win a planning appeal.”
The law is an ass!
Belsize is almost entirely made up of Georgian and Victorian buildings with virtually no foundations. Residents are understandably concerned about subsidence. No protection is given to those who live in the surrounding area. Basement excavations also cause untold nuisance in terms of noise pollution. We need to be much tougher. Developers need to prove that basement extensions will not affect neighbouring foundations. It is simply not in the public interest for homes to be put at risk and residents’ lives to be made a misery for the sake of a cinema room or a Jacuzzi.
Camden’s air quality breaks EU rules and World Health Organisation guidelines. Few people know it but diesel fumes cause lung and heart diseases, and worsen conditions like diabetes. Living in Camden is the equivalent to a lifetime of heavy smoking. Ideally we would ban diesel-fuelled trucks altogether and replace them with vehicles powered by electricity from renewable sources or biogas made from food waste. But that will take time. For the time being we should be insisting on the most efficient diesel engines – Euro IV or V – for those who transport goods through our polluted streets. Quite simply our lives depend on it.
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