Category Archives: Purpose

Introductory notes

The King’s Cross Development Forum helps people living and working in King’s Cross to have a say in the future of the area and the development of the old railway lands (now known as “King’s Cross Central”). Anyone from the neighbourhood can attend its meetings and be a member.

The Forum was set up in 2002 by the Planning Department at the London Borough of Camden, in association with the London Borough of Islington, to collate the opinions on planning of community organisations and people. Until 2008 the Planning Department provided administrative assistance for the Forum. A request by the Forum for such assistance thereafter was met with a refusal by Camden Council after the master plan for King’s Cross Central was given outline planning permission.

The Forum elects a Steering Group each year to plan its work, monitor developments and make information available (through its meetings and this web site). It also appoints people to act on its behalf. These include representatives on two external bodies set up by the developers at the request of the Planning Department; they are the Design Panel and Access Forum, which examines building plans before planning applications are made, and the Construction Impact Group, which receives reports on the effects on the area of day-to-day building operations. The Forum normally has four representatives on the Design Panel and Access Forum and two representatives on the Construction Impact Group.

Since the master plan for King’s Cross Central was give outline planning permission, the Forum has been more concerned with detailed proposals for individual buildings in and around King’s Cross Central and with the facilities available when people move there. The Forum is also monitoring the significant sums that the developers will pay for community benefit.

As the development of King’s Cross Central moves towards completion the emphasis of the Forum is shifting towards building the community of people who live or work in it and considering day-to-day matters that affect that community, such as public transport and health facilities. It is complementary to the residents associations, for example, which cater for individual apartment blocks.

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