Kings Cross Development Forum

North side gone to Appeal; South side application open for comment

A new application 2009/5706/P has just been notified for the Underground entrance structures on the South side of Euston Road with target date for determination on 28 January. A Camden planner  writes “We have to allow a minimum of 21 days for consultation.  It does get a bit problematic this time of year with the Christmas holidays.  I will accept any letters of representation submitted prior to the application being determined (deadline is 28/01) even if they come in after the 21 day deadline, but obviously it is helpful to have people’s views as early on in the process as possible so that they can be fully considered.”

The oval vent shaft and main tube entrance:

 London Undergound’s appeal (deadline was 16 December) only applies to 2 structures nearest Kings Cross Station –

The appeal regarding the two Northern structures is to be decided by an Inspector from the Planning Inspectorate on the basis of written statements between the people who have made the appeal and the Council, followed by a site visit. This will be a ‘fast track’ procedure and it has been suggested there is a remote possibility that a decision will be obtained prior to determination of the two South of the Euston Road applications (28/01).

 Those holding a design competition for the South Square say:-

“Bigger than Leicester Square, the new square at King’s Cross station is one of the most important schemes of its kind for the capital, giving London its first dedicated open approach to a major station.” – quoted from announcement of short-listed designers in Kings Cross Square competition http://www.malcolmreading.co.uk/pdfs/Kings%20Cross%20Square%20Press%20release%20shortlist%20announcement%2027%20Jan%2009.pdf

November 23rd’s meeting of the Forum heard Steve Sanham, Argent’s Project Manager who is working on Buildings R4 and R5 (residential buildings north of the canal).  His presentation updated the Kings Cross Development Forum on both buildings. We decided to  approach the London Borough of Camden and the developers to improve the borderland by York Way.

This meeting followed hot on the heels of the announcement of the preferred design (winner of the design competition) for the inside of Gasholder 8, a scheme from Bell, Phillips and Kimble proposes steps, seating and ramps set within the frame of the gasholder providing access to a circular basement pavilion structure, on the roof of which a reflection pool and a range of features provide a variety of spaces for play, relaxation and leisure.

King’s Cross Development Forum

The Terms of Reference shown below which would have effect if a Secetary had been elected are shown in red.

*The Forum agreed at the same meeting that the provision for 6 Forum meetings per year and 6 Co-ordinating Groups per year (10.1 and 10.2) may not be adhered to in the present situation.

Terms of Reference

Adopted 23 June 2005

Revised 5^th October 2009

1.         Name

1.1       The forum shall be known as King’s Cross Development Forum

2.         Abbreviations, Acronyms and Definitions

“KXDF’: King’s Cross Development Forum

“The Co-ordinating Group” or “The Committee”: King’s Cross Development Forum Co-ordinating Group

3.         Aims and Objectives

3.1       King’s Cross Development Forum is an independent community-led forum, which aims to involve residents of the neighbourhoods surrounding the King’s Cross Opportunity area in the area’s ongoing redevelopment. The KXDF is committed to developing the community networks and infrastructure and to securing the resources to allow a proper community involvement in the redevelopment of the area to happen.  It will aim to:

a)         provide a strong and coordinated voice for all the residents of the wider King’s Cross area to enable them to understand and influence the planning and development process;

b)         maximise community participation in, and benefit from, the development, including securing the community delivery and management of projects over the lifetime of the development;

c)         help ensure that adverse impacts of new construction and development upon surrounding communities are minimised;

d)         ensure continuity and consistency of community participation in the planning and development process, including the sharing of information and learning on activities and projects;

e)         build consensus among local communities and their responses in relation to the new developments;

f)          provide advice on the overall direction of development proposals within the area of consultation;

g)         raise awareness and understanding and improve the information available;

h)         build effective and constructive partnerships with developers, planning authorities and other stakeholders including through joint decision making;

i)          provide a broadly based consultative Forum, prioritising efforts to ensure participation on the part of the under-represented;

j)          contribute to policies,  plans and strategies;

k)         facilitate better communication, consultation and liaison; and

l)          identify gaps in, and opportunities for, participation and benefit and seek additional resources in addressing this and any adverse impact

4.         Geographical Area

4.1       The area covered by the Forum is that area which includes those variously described as ‘King’s Cross railway lands’, ‘King’s Cross Central, ‘the King’s Cross Opportunity Area’ and its surrounding neighbourhoods in both Camden and Islington boroughs.

5.         Method of Working

5.1       The Forum’s full membership will meet at regular intervals, and as described in 10.1 below.

5.2       At, and between these meetings, the business of the forum shall be coordinated by a Co-ordinating Group, which shall consist of the Forum’s Chair, Vice-chair, and not less than four other members.

5.3       The Chair of the Forum, as appointed annually by the Forum’s membership, will Chair the Forum and Co-ordinating Group meetings.

5.4       The Co-ordinating Group will be appointed by the Forum at the Annual Review meeting.

5.5       Forum meetings will be open to the public, who will be able to speak, although voting will be open to members only.

5.6       Representations to the Forum, or the opportunity to address the meeting, will be at the discretion of the Chair acting on behalf of the Co-ordinating Group.

5.7       The Co-ordinating Group will:

a)         set the Agenda for the Forum meetings;

b)         co-ordinate the Forums’ activities;

c)         provide a focus to ongoing discussions with developers, planning authorities and other agencies; and

d)         enable additional and in-depth consideration of proposals between forums and other consultation events.  The Co-ordinating Group will be accountable to the Forum.

6.         Forum Membership

 6.1       Membership is open to all of the community led groups and organisations based or with an interest in the area defined in para 4.1 that support the Forum’s aims and objectives, irrespective of the age, marital status, gender, sexuality, disability, colour, race, religion, ethnic or national origins of their members or their representatives.

6.2       Each member organisation or group will be required to have a nominated representative and nominated reserve member, to be determined by that member group themselves and as informed to the Co-ordinating Group Secretary in writing. The Committee should also be informed of changes to representatives in writing.

6.3       A membership list will be held by the Co-ordinating Group Secretary

 6.4       It shall be a condition of membership that members shall conduct themselves at all times in a reasonable manner, at meetings or in premises used by the forum. Any member may be excluded for breach of this condition, or for any conduct contravening the objectives of the forum, by a majority of those present and voting.

6.5       Any member so excluded shall have the right of appeal to the following forum meeting.

7.        The Co-ordinating Group

7.1       The Co-ordinating Group will be largely administrative – responsible for publicising the KXDF, recruiting new members, recording information/contacts about the Forum members, preparing the agenda for meetings, taking forward the Forum’s work.  It will be steered by the larger Forum.  It will be task based.

7.2       The composition of the Co-ordinating Group should, as far as possible, represent the diversity of the various neighbourhoods and communities in the area.

7.3       The election or removal of the Co-ordinating Group may only be carried out at the Annual Review or Special Meetings of the forum.  Any vacancies on the Co-ordinating Group shall be notified by the Chair to Forum members, nominations invited in advance and elections to those vacancies held at the next Forum meeting.

 7.4       The Forum will seek to acknowledge and complement the existing community infrastructure, including neighbourhood and umbrella community organisations with their own accountability to a membership of community groups and organisations.

 7.5       Membership of the Co-ordinating Group shall include one nominated representative of:

• Camden Central Community Umbrella
• King’s Cross Brunswick Neighbourhood Association
• Islington (to be identified)
• King’s Cross Railway Lands Group
• 2 places for minority ethnic organisations in the area

7.6       At least one place on the Co-ordinating Group should go to an Islington Umbrella organisation, failing this to an Islington group in the area.

7.7       Further seven places should be elected annually, from and by the membership of the Forum.

7.8       The Chair and Vice Chair and Secretary of the Forum shall be elected annually by the membership of the Forum

7.9       The Co-ordinating group can co-opt 2 additional members and additional advisory members as required, including Camden and/or Islington support officers.

7.10    Should the Chair, Vice Chair or Secretary be drawn from a particular community group or organisation, this will not preclude that group or organisation being additionally represented.

7.11    If any office holder vacancy arises, the Co-ordinating Group may temporarily fill such a vacancy from its members until the next Meeting of the Forum, which must be no later than at the next or subsequent Forum meeting.

7.12    If any other vacancy on the Co-ordinating Group arises, a replacement should be sought through the reserve or new nominated representative of the particular member group from which the vacancy has arisen. Failing this, the vacancy should be filled at the next Special Meeting of the Forum.

8.         Sub Groups

8.1       Meetings of the Forum shall from time to time create working groups and project teams as appropriate. These sub-groups will report back to the Forum.

9.         Quorums

 9.1       The quorum for Forum meetings will be 8 members including the Chair, vice-Chair and Secretary. Quorum for the Co-ordinating Group will be four members including Chair or Vice Chair

10        Frequency of Meetings

 10.1    The Forum shall meet as necessary, not less than *six times in each year.

10.2    The Committee shall meet as necessary, and not less than *six times in each year. Committee meetings shall be open to all members.

 10.3    The Chair, after consultation with the Co-ordinating Group, may convene an urgent meeting outside the agreed schedule to discuss urgent issues that cannot wait until the next scheduled meeting, in which case the procedure for notice of meetings will be followed. 

 11.       Role of Council officers

11.1    Council officers will have an advisory/listening/servicing role and officers/planners from both Camden and Islington will be invited to attend each Forum meeting.

 12.       Role of Councillors

 12.1 Both Islington and Camden local ward Councillors can attend the Forum and may be invited to attend the Co-ordinating Group.

  13.      Role of Individual Residents

 13.1    Residents of Islington and Camden in the development area and neighbouring wards can attend the Forum and be members of the Co-ordinating Group. 

 13.2    Individual voting rights:

7 individual votes will be the equivalent of 1 community organisation vote

 14.       Notice of Meetings

14.1    Notice of all meetings shall be sent to each member by post, fax or email and shall include the date, time and place of the meeting and an agenda of matters to be discussed.

14.2    All reasonable attempts will be made to publicise the meetings.

 14.3    The Agenda and papers for discussion shall be circulated 7 days prior to the meeting, and only in matters of urgency shall papers be circulated 3 working days in advance.

14.4     If a member bringing a paper or report wishes to present a motion or resolution for adoption by the Forum, the proposal shall be notified in the paper or report when circulated in advance. 

 14.5    Late items will be accepted at the discretion of the Chair.

14.6     Forum meetings shall be adjourned at the time stated on the agenda. If there is unfinished business remaining when the time for closure has been reached it shall be in order to propose either of the following motions:

          (a)      that the meeting continue until the item under discussion has been concluded

          (b)      that the meeting continue until a time (specified in the motion) or until the whole agenda has been completed, if sooner.

It shall not be in order to move either of the above motions after the original closure time has passed.

 15.       Servicing of Meetings

 15.1    The forum will proceed on the basis of continued support from Camden Council for servicing the Forum and in the event of any need to do so, will seek resources from the Councils and other sources to service its meetings, and such support and servicing will be undertaken/determined by the Co-ordinating Group. ‘The Secretary appointed by the Forum shall serve as the official contact point for communications to the Forum and notification of requests for membership in accordance with 6.1 to 6.3.

 15.2    The Forum expects that in carrying out its functions the Forum will have access to Council Officers and other advisors throughout the duration of the project.

 15.3    It is additionally expected that the Council will make available, on request, background documents and information to aid the process of consultation.

16.       Annual Review

16.1    The Forum will seek to review its operation Terms of Reference and re-elect Committee members annually.

16.2    The Committee shall call an Annual Review Meeting, giving not less than 21 days notice of it and no later than 15 months after the last such meeting.

16.3    The Committee will present a review of the Forum’s progress.

16.4    Any proposals that are submitted to the Co-ordinating Group in writing not less than 7 days in advance of the Annual Review meeting shall be discussed.

17.       Special Meetings

17.1    Special meetings of  The Forum can be called by the Co-ordinating Group, giving at least 21 days notice. Such a meeting must also be called if three members (or 5% of its membership, whichever is greater) of the Forum request it.

18.       Alterations to the Terms of Reference

18.1    Any proposals to alter these Terms of Reference shall be put to a Special Meeting of the Forum called for that purpose.

18.2    Any alteration shall require the approval of the majority of those present at the Special Meeting of King’s Cross Development Forum.

19.       Dissolution

19.1    The KCDF can decide on its own dissolution. There shall be agreement from at least two thirds of all members of the Forum present at a special meeting called to decide on dissolution.

Annual review September 2008 to August 2009

Withdrawal of support by Camden

Following a series of meetings in which Camden offered less each time, the Borough entirely withdrew administrative support, upon which the constituent organizations and members hitherto depended for the Forum to operate.

At the request of Forum members who met on 18 September 2008 the Chair wrote to the Leader and the Chief Executive of London Borough of Camden, with copies to all Camden borough councilors.

 Low attendance and lack of support

The view was expressed that the low attendance at Forum meetings reflects Camden’s decision to withdraw their support, and that a lot of people have lost confidence in the ability of the Forum to continue without resources and support.

 We are out of order

We have, in fact, not held any Forum meeting in the course of the year under review at which a Quorum (15 members including the chair and vice chair) has been present and we have therefore not been able to pass amendments to the Forum’s Terms of Reference which would have reduced the Forum requirement and dealt with other significant matters. It has also not been possible to hold valid elections, nor has any nomination been forthcoming for the proposed post of honorary secretary, nor for Vice-Chair.

 Our comments ignored

The existing Chair and some members of the Co-ordinating Group have endeavoured to keep the Forum’s business going through the year. The Planning Response Group generated comments applications 2008/3713/P on the southern area public realm, 2008/5052/P (Block R) the ‘Sainsbury’s’ building and 2009/0415/P (Block T1) the Westernmost building on the entire Kings Cross Central site comprising combined-heat-and-power plant, housing, car parking, retail and sports hall. Regrettably, the Forum’s comments were dismissed by planners and ignored by Camden’s Development Control Committee. Forum members have to ask whether it is worth the effort of submitting considered comments when they are treated in this way. The Forum acknowledges the readiness of planning officers, the developer (Argent)’s staff and architects to expound these applications to Forum members before consideration (and sometimes before submission). However, points we made which we considered valid  

• Unimaginative approach to public realm
• Failure to provide adequate footway (pavement) South of the Sainsbury building
• Noise issues for Block T1
• Several other details

were not treated with the seriousness they deserved.

 Consultation and failure of communication

The Forum is consulted formally by letter to the Chair on some applications within the Kings Cross Central site by both Camden and Islington boroughs but the many other applications submitted to Camden are now not being forwarded to him through the supposedly automatic planning alert system due to some unresolved computer problem.

 Deaths of valued members

At the September 2008 meeting members kept silence in memory of Lisa Pontecorvo and at the February 2009 meeting in memory of Phil Jeffries. These two valiant campaigners for the public good are sorely missed.

 Pedestrian Bridge needed

The Forum has been made aware of the refusal, as yet, to provide a pedestrian bridge into Kings Cross Central from the East through the refusal by Network Rail to facilitate it and the use by London Borough of Camden of an irrelevant and misleading assessment report. Many Forum members have supported the campaign for a pedestrian or pedestrian/cycle bridge from York Way in the vicinity of Wharfdale Road.

 Successful website

The Forum’s greatest success in the past year has been the establishment of the Forum website www.kxdf.wordpress.com  Comment on planning applications and news of developments in Kings Cross Central have been put on-line for Forum members and others. The number of ‘hits’ on the website far outnumbers the attendances at Forum meetings. Thanks are due to Sophie Talbot for maintaining this significant link.

 Authority to speak

An issue for the Forum arises from discussion in one of our meetings. Some came away from discussion at Forum meeting in February 2008 believing we had decided that no further responses would be made to Boroughs on any planning applications. The role of Forum’s Planning Response Team would, on this interpretation, only be to prepare model responses which member organizations could forward to the planning authority with any modifications they chose. Others feel that it is still the role of Planning Response Team to make their draft response known to the membership but also to send it to the Borough concerned unless member bodies have responded to Forum officials dissenting from the draft response. Kings Cross Development Forum is being listed as a Consultee in respect of certain applications and Councillors have been heard to enquire whether a response has been received from us and what.

 Implementation Panels

Representation has been maintained on the Construction Impact Group and Access Panel thought opportunities to report to membership have not been fully taken up. There was one omission to attend Design Panel and we await notice of a further meeting – and appointment of a second Forum representative to both Design and Construction panels. Quarterly monitoring reports and constructions newsletters have been publicized via our website, keeping the interested informed on progress.

 Questions demanding answers

The vital questions for Kings Cross Development Forum are

 Shall we continue attempting to hold Forum meetings?

Can we conform to our constitution (Terms of Reference)?

Will anyone accept responsibility for admin?

Will someone pursue funding possibilities for admin?

Is it worth continuing to prepare Responses to planning applications and, if so, who should be added to the planning response team?

May those responses be submitted on behalf of the Forum?

What nominations will be made for officers and Co-ordinating Group members at our coming annual election?

All might be summed up in one question – is the local community bothered about what is going to happen on Kings Cross Central?

 Geoffrey H Roper

Chair, KXDF

Robert Evans, Director of Argent (Kings Cross) Ltd, explained what is happening and what the future looks like now.  The credit-crunch shocks of recent months, big changes in the property market and and in economic prospects have changed  the sequence and pace of development at Kings Cross Central. Work goes on at the Granary site to have the University of the Arts, London, ready for opening two years from now. Combined heat and power will be provided in T1, the westernmost site by the Regent’s Canal. But what else? Affordable Housing has come to the fore. Certain landscaping works and roads are going in. The ground floor of the Great Northern Hotel is being converted to an arcade which will open in conjunction with Kings Cross Station’s new hemispherical Western concourse. L1, the Western Transit Shed, is being prepared for a prospective anchor tenant and retail users. The Forum were told to expect applications to be submitted soon on sites R4, R5 and T6 as well as Cubitt Square and Cubitt Park (working titles).  The long-awaited Gas Governor removal is also in the offing. There should also be an application in regard to the Southern Square (another working title), the site nearest to the German Gym and the mainline railwaystations. In view of the imminence of these Reserved Matters applications and the proven advantage of expressing views about plans before formal application stage, the Forum decided to meet again soon (November 23rd at Camden Town Hall).

The Construction Skills Centre, a training centre for aspiring construction workers, has been handed over to the London borough of Camden and continues to offer a 2-year course which will prepare people to work in building, not only on the Kings Cross Central site.

The Forum continue serving communities around Kings Cross Central site sharing views and information, focussing concerns and telling planning authorities what we think.

The June edition of the King’s Cross Construction Impact Group’s  quarterly report is now available.

Highlights include news of the Granary’s completion, works starting on the new canal bridge, connection of the underground ticketing halls in King’s Cross and St Pancras, Argent’s presence at MIPIM, the design competition for gasholder No 8 , noise and air monitoring results and news of future events.

Download the report here. For more information, contact Richard Gethin via the Kings Cross construction website.