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Row over gas blast land

from Cathy (cathyvpreece@aol.com)

Row over gas blast land

Oct 8 2004
By Vicky Wilks

South London Press

THE site of a tower block demolished after a gas blast should not be redeveloped with housing, say residents.

Lambeth council wants to build homes at the site of Kennington's Kerrin Point tower, which exploded in 1996.

But residents have been using the land as a park since the high-rise was razed to the ground four years ago and now don't want to see it concreted over.

On Monday night, Lambeth council started a consultation on the future of the site, which is at the junction of Black Prince Road and Kennington Lane.

Founder of community group, Save Ethelred Homes, Ricky Rennalls, said: "People go and play football there. It's like a park - we call it Ethelred Park.

"Two tower blocks directly face the park. The people who live in them find it absolutely vital. Residents will lose that and be condemned to look at a building site.

"On Monday night, people walked out because they did not want to be part of a process they disagreed with.

"Lambeth and their consultants made it clear that regardless of what we think they are going to build there anyway."

A Lambeth council spokeswoman said: "This is a totally open process - we have no fixed plans for the development and want local people to help decide the best way to replace much-needed housing that will bring real benefits to the whole community.

"More than 2,000 people in Lambeth have no home and are living in temporary accommodation. Many of the former residents of Kerrin Point want to return home as they were originally promised.

"The council always proposed to replace the demolished Kerrin Point with a new housing block.

"A number of meetings have taken place in the past with residents to explore this."

She pointed out the council had started consulting residents at an earlier stage than it usually would.

(posted 7112 days ago)

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