The site at 100 Avenue Road was demolished but then work was paused

• AS you can appreciate the news that the Regal London company has taken over the 100 Avenue Road project at Swiss Cottage from Essential Living (Swiss Cottage) Ltd – based in the Channel Islands – has raised deep concerns among those of us who have been fighting this plan for the whole of the decade since Camden Council’s planning department helped cook up this awful scheme, (Ten-year wait… now tower land is sold off, March 21).

We have recently written to Regal London pointing out the major defects of the scheme and hope they will live up to their claim, “to improve the areas in which we live and work for future generations, socially, environmentally and economically”.

This will require a completely new plan but, so far, all Regal London have said is that they will have two fire stairways in the tower, as now required by law.

Here are the key points which need serious attention to correct the stupidities of this awful project:

• the tower will be the tallest building in the whole of NW3, a nasty intrusion over this historically important area;

• the two monstrous side slabs – one five storeys, the other a disgusting seven storeys high, running down the whole western side of the open space, will loom above the Grade II-listed library building, one of the few buildings of merit in the whole of north west London;

• more importantly these blocks will overshadow every square foot of the open space, the only open area where residents, including children from several major schools and the many older people living here, can relax and enjoy themselves;

• all but a handful of the properties will be beyond the reach of local people, a major flaw in the whole project, making the building nothing more than an invasion of people with no attachment to the area; and

• the addition of 189 flats – maybe at least 400 new residents – will create massive amounts of new traffic to the building, which has no direct road access, being on a Red Route with no stopping at any time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while the other side is a pedestrian-only market square.

It was ludicrous to expect all the deliveries, service calls, emergency vehicles, needed by these flats to be via the small underground tunnel beneath the Hampstead Theatre.

And these are just the main headline issues.

The EL plan is a fundamentally flawed project which should never have been allowed onto the drawing board in the first place.

So we are hoping for a major revision of the project by Regal London to meet at least some of the local community’s needs, especially the need for truly affordable flats.

MONIKA CARO Chair
DAVID REED Treasurer
Save Swiss Cottage Action Group