Campaigners threaten legal action over construction plan for tower redevelopment

A local campaign group has threatened to take the London Borough of Camden to judicial review over the construction plan it approved for the redevelopment of a key site.

100 Avenue Road is a 1980s office building that had lain empty for some years next to a busy junction and above Swiss Cottage underground station.

Private rent sector developer Essential Living has permissions for a 24-storey tower on the site.

Save Swiss Cottage said it would if necessary take legal action over what it said would be “three-to-four nightmare years of up to 14 construction lorries a day” passing through residential streets. It said the site should instead be serviced from an adjacent main road.

A Camden Council spokesperson said: “The council has to act within the law and the rules of the planning regime. As a matter of law the submission of the judicial review claim against the approval of the construction management plan (CMP) does not invalidate the planning permission or the approval of the CMP.

“Legally the developer has a valid planning permission and an approved CMP, and it is a matter for them if they choose to carry out permitted works.

“There is no breach of planning control and the council has no powers to stop the development. The council would be acting unlawfully and wasting public money for no purpose if it tried to do so.”

Mark Smulian