• FROM 2017 to 2021 Camden Council spent £8.4million retrofitting the Holmes Road depot.

It was an “exemplar”, “flagship”, action in the council’s response to the climate emergency and they have rightly boasted of the 40 per cent reduction in the building’s carbon footprint.

But they are now working with a developer on a plan for the regeneration of the Regis Road area, including the Holmes Road depot, which they are selling.

Strikingly the decision report authorising the sale makes no mention of the multi-million pound retrofit scheme, let alone boasting about it.

Cllr Danny Beales, Labour cabinet member for investing in communities, culture and an inclusive economy, has consistently refused to confirm that the plan involves demolition.

He has dodged the question, repeating only that demolition cannot happen without planning permission.

Spending £8.4million on a building only to knock it down is financially and environmentally catastrophic.

Demolition is almost always a bad choice, but taking a wrecking ball to £8.4million of good work – drawn from limited resources – is appalling.

The council must find a way to save the building and its investment.

If that is truly impossible, then there are serious questions to answer about the 2017 decision. How was it so badly wrong?

But none of this can be properly explored until the council comes clean: is there a plan to knock down the Holmes Road depot, and if so, why?

CLLR MATTHEW KIRK
Liberal Democrat, Belsize ward