18th-century burial ground<\/a> designated as a site of importance for nature conservation. While HS2 Ltd originally committed to replacing the gardens by building a new park on a concrete deck above the railway tracks north of the station, government cost-cutting redesigns have dropped that replacement park from the scheme entirely.<\/p>\nResponsibility for the surrounding site now sits between public planners and private developers. While HS2 was approved directly by parliament, the private developer Lendlease is drawing up plans for commercial space and homes across the site. Camden council is assessing Lendlease\u2019s plan, with a decision expected next year.<\/p>\n
Alice Brown. Photograph: Graeme Robertson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Alice Brown, a cofounder of Climate Emergency Camden, said it was vital that green space was retained for people to take a break from the bustle of the station. \u201cOtherwise it\u2019s just going to be the site of the massive office building.\u201d<\/p>\n
For people living around Euston, the development of their neighbourhood encompasses more than just the parks. The issue is about housing, frustrations with the council and a broader question of who London is for.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey say this is all in order to be able to provide some affordable housing, but it\u2019s a very small amount of affordable housing for the loss that\u2019s being suffered,\u201d Brown said of the construction sites. \u201cBy affordable, they mean 80% of current cost \u2013 they don\u2019t mean social housing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lendlease has said the scheme will provide up to 1,500 homes, but neither the final number or the amount that will be affordable has been determined.<\/p>\n
Hackman is a governor at Netley primary school, a stone\u2019s throw from Euston. She is worried about what the new buildings will mean for the area\u2019s falling pupil numbers. \u201cCamden\u2019s policy of failing to provide family-size housing means that all our families with children are driven out of the borough,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For people living around Euston, the development of their neighbourhood taps into issues about housing, frustrations with the council and a broader question of who London is for. Photograph: Graeme Robertson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to see how the social-cleansing consequences of what they\u2019re doing can be of any benefit to our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
For some, the byelection will be a chance to shock Labour\u2019s grip on the council and the constituency. The party has dominated control of the council since the 1960s and represented Holborn and St Pancras since the constituency was created in 1983.<\/p>\n
Frustrations with the council could spill into a vote against Labour. \u201cSo much that Camden Labour are doing is seen to be not in the best interests of people who live here,\u201d said Brown. \u201cIt\u2019s either performative or it\u2019s money generating. Every development, every bit that they sell off is to the detriment of the local residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Labour\u2019s conference, the party\u2019s deputy leader, Lucy Powell, said she thought it was \u201cunlikely\u201d that Zack Polanski, the Green party leader standing in the constituency, would win the seat. Brown is not so sure. \u201cI think he\u2019d really roll his sleeves up and get involved in what\u2019s happening here,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that would include trying to get the council to perform better.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Camden council spokesperson said: \u201cThe Euston area plan sets out the council\u2019s vision for future development at Euston until 2051.\u201d They said the plan is being submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for public examination after a consultation this year.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Lendlease said: \u201cWorking with our partners, we\u2019re developing proposals that could deliver up to 1,500 new homes, including affordable ones, as well as public spaces, improved connections and places for businesses and communities to thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When HS2 construction began around London\u2019s Euston station in 2017 and people living nearby watched parks and playgrounds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":793773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-793772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}