Council set to buy (and then sell back) O2 Shopping Centre

Camden’s Labour Council has agreed “in principle” to buy the O2 Shopping Centre, car park and former Homebase site on a temporary basis, in a bid to overcome blockages to redevelopment.

The Council intends to buy the land from developers Landsec, so it can use its “statutory planning powers”. This involves overriding the rights of access held by the car showrooms at the bottom of Blackburn Road to prevent them taking legal action to block the first phase of development. A side-effect of this decision is to remove the “rights to light” of neighbouring properties, such as those on Finchley Road, Rosemont Road and Lithos Road. The Council intends to sell the land back to Landsec, but there’s no information on how long this will take.

Cllr Tom Simon, who leads the Lib Dem opposition group on Camden Council said “Camden’s Labour Council is clearly on the side of the developer, rather than residents and the community. This decision has been taken with very little information on the costs, timescales and risks, and puts both the council and us as council taxpayers at risk.”