Submission by the Inland Waterways Association. N&E London Branch

Submission by the Inland Waterways Association. [N&E London Branch.]

Town and Country Planning Acts 1990 : Public Local Enquiry.

Appeal Reference No: APP/X5210/C/12/2185203. [Camden Ref: EN12/O5O6.]

Regarding the Former Lock Cottage: 289 Camden High Street, LONDON, NW1

STATEMENT FROM THE INLAND WATERWAYS ASSOCIATION.

1, The Inland Waterways Association was founded in 1946 to campaign for the use, restoration and development of Britain’s inland waterways for their fullest possible commercial and recreational use. The total personal membership of the Association is 17,000. In addition its membership includes a range of Associated Organisations and Corporate Members, covering some 90,000 people, all of whom have an interest in, or involvement with, the Inland Waterway network. The IWA represents all their interests.

2. When Starbucks took over the property, they agreed a Section 106 Agreement with Camden Council that stipulated 51% of the floor area should be devoted to the provision of a ‘Canal Information Centre’. The Inland Waterways Association [IWA] fully supported that concept, since it fully complied with the IWA’s educational remit.

3. Unfortunately Camden Council has not closely monitored the implementation of the Section 106 provision over time. In consequence, Starbucks conveniently allowed a slow, but steady, infiltration of their ‘Coffee Shop’ business into the area that initially was set aside for the Canal Information Centre. They compounded this takeover of space by closing the separate external door to the Information Centre area, so forcing potential visitors to pass through their commercial space. The Information Centre’s external sign has been undermined. The situation now has been reached that, apart from a display on the room walls, the remains of that 51% Information Centre space has been taken over by the Starbucks commercial ‘coffee shop’ operations.

4. Starbucks recently put in a Planning Application, to remove their Section 106 liabilities, by seeking to have the whole of the premises designated as a ‘Coffee Shop’. This planning application subsequently was initially withdrawn, after considerable public protest, nominally to allow further discussions to take place. The IWA objected to that Planning Application on the grounds that it took away the very educational facility that it had campaigned for at the time Starbucks originally took over the premises.

5. The IWA continues to press its case that the Former Lock Keepers Cottage at Camden is such an intrinsic part of the ‘canal scene’ that it should continue, in its own way, to provide information about London’s Canal history to the public at large.

6. The IWA argues that Starbucks, by their knowing displacement of the Canal Information Space, have neglected their basic Section 106 undertaking, made when taking over the premises, and are now seeking to overturn them completely to legalise their continued neglect. 7. The strategic importance of the Camden Lock Keepers Cottage site on the Regents Canal makes it the central focus for visitors to London’s Canals. As such, it is important that the Lock Keepers Cottage continues to provide that public educational focus for those visitors. It is on these grounds that the IWA asks the Planning Inspector to dismiss Starbucks’ Appeal which, if it were successful, effectively would allow them to ‘walk away’ from their original and binding undertaking to maintain a Canal Information Centre covering 51 % of the floor space of the Lock Keepers Cottage. And, in doing so, beneficially gain by their persistent neglect of that original legal undertaking.

Roger Squires Hon Secretary, North & East London Branch, IWA. 1st November 2012.