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Labour doubts over Crossrail station
Plans for a massive redevelopment in North Kensington could have hit the buffers after the creation of a new Crossrail station looked to have fallen through.
Kensington and Chelsea Council is campaigning for a new station on the Kensal Gasworks site in the north of the borough, and as part of a massive regeneration of the area, would build around 2,500 new homes and new community facilities.
But the announcement that High Speed 2, the route from Euston to the north, will be built with a station at Old Oak Common in neighbouring Hammersmith and Fulham, and that there will almost certainly be a Crossrail interchange there, could have knocked the council's plans off the tracks.
If no station is built in North Kensington, the gasworks site is likely to become a Crossrail worksite.
Councillor Emma Dent Coad, deputy leader of the Labour Group, said: "It seems that residents in severe housing need will not benefit at all from Crossrail.
"Despite all our hard work on the council's local development framework for the future and constant requests to the council, there is no plan B for Kensal Gasworks.
"Golborne ward will be a massive building site for the forseeable future, with little or no benefit at the end of it for local people. We will be working hard to mitigate the potentially disastrous effects on the community and on businesses."
The Golborne ward councillor claims that as a 'worksite' there will be Crossrail staff working 24 hours a day at the gasworks from summer 2013, when work is due to start.
But the council is confident that a station and regeneration scheme can still go ahead.
Councillor Nick Paget-Brown, deputy leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, said: "We have long been committed to improving transport infrastructure in North Kensington and a Crossrail station could transform the lives of local residents enabling easy movement across London and helping to bring fresh employment opportunities.
"It is a pity that Councillor Dent Coad remains so opposed to regeneration in North Kensington that she is now requiring her colleagues to qualify their earlier unconditional support for Crossrail."
The scheme would cost around £30m and would bring improved transport links, new and affordable homes, businesses and community facilities to the north of the borough.
It has the support of traders, councillors and cross-party backing from MPs.
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I'm sorry but this is deeply shocking - that Cllr.Dent Coad is accused of being against regeneration, when she has done so much to try and represent people's real needs ,fighting against the exploitation of the neighbourhood by developers and erm ,cronyism.
This story never made it to the paper edition of the K and C Chronicle.
Paget-Brown's comments were ignored by the media (unsurprisingly)
So Cllr Coad can continue her common sense unabated
hi, hoping that local residents, of w10 areas, will campaign for grass football pitches,..and an amateur north kensington football club for our area, at the large ,open crossrail, site adjacent to the old gasworks, site,..a football club could put north kensington on the map,..so campaign for something that is worthwhile and which affects the youth of our area,..