The Inkerman Area Residents Association
Annual General Meeting 2025, to be held 26.1.26
6.30 for 7.00 at 2 Prince of Wales Road.
AGENDA
- Welcome and apologies
- Minutes of the 2024 AGM held 23.1.25
- Matters arising
- Election of officers
- Chair’s report
- Treasurer’s report
- Reports:
• Police Liaison
• Alma Street Fair
• SustainIARA/Retrofit - 2 Prince of Wales Road
- Future developments for IARA.
- Any other business
IARA CHAIR’S REPORT 2025
It has been a very busy year with two issues dominating and taking up a lot of time and energy from officers and members.
The first is the number of major planning applications, all of which will have a big impact on the Inkerman area.
The largest, and most controversial of these, is made up of three separate planning applications for the Regis Road site. The main one is by Yoo Capital and is proposed as the Camden Film Quarter (CSQ) with an enormous building with several studios built on top of each other. Plans include a Film School and some housing. The plans consisted of hundreds of documents and were only received shortly before the original date given for the consultation to end. In Regis Road alongside the CFQ there is also a development proposed for housing by Joseph Homes. We had understood the developers were working together and we have had numerous meetings with both. It was surprising to find that Jospeh Homes are now objecting to the plans for the CFQ . And of course we are keeping an eye on the Murphys Yard site while we wait for their next move.
There is no consensus from members about how IARA should comment on these plans. Many people feel there is serious over-development proposed with very high buildings – much higher than Camden’s announced policy. Other people are excited by the prospect of the development and welcome the building of any flats. That is why we are currently looking at the basis on which we can have a mandate. There needs to be further discussion on this as we are already aware that some people feel we should maintain the present policy of an absolute consensus while others feel a substantial majority view would be enough.
Of course, while it is the largest, the Regis Road site is not the only site of concern in the area. Within IARA is the small sites development proposal for the Raglan estate opposite St Patricks which many of you, especially residents of Raglan Street and Holmes Road, have profound concerns about. And to the west of us is the West Kentish Town estate where again, there are concerns about overdevelopment. Added to these are proposed workings at the Bacton site.
Not only are there concerns about over-development, but also about the timing of all of these in terms of many, many years of very heavy construction traffic.
We have endeavoured to keep on top of all of these by attending numerous meetings, presentations and consultation events and by notifying members of these when we know they are happening. We have sent in comments from IARA when we have consulted members and there is a consensus.
When there are residential planning applications we also always try to notify near neighbours, although IARA does not comment on these.
On a smaller scale there has been the planning application for MAP café where local opinion has been divided.
We have also represented you on licensing issues, specifically on plans for the refurbished Co-op to have a late night collection point. We remain in contact with the group of residents associations who are more directly affected by licensing issues, especially Covent Garden and Camden Town. Not everyone agrees about applications for late licences for our High Street. But the current policy is to ask Camden to keep to the framework hours that have been agreed and to strike a balance between the needs of businesses and those of residents.
Antisocial Behaviour (ASB)
Another main issue of concern in the neighbourhood has been that of a small group of quite young children who have been kicking doors and acting in threatening ways. We have kept in touch with the Camden Community Safety Team who in turn are liaising with the police and we have encouraged members who are affected by this to report directly in the hope that official intervention can stop this before it gets out of hand. John, IARA’s representative on the Safer Neighbourhood panel, continues to report crime and antisocial behaviour at their meetings.
Traffic
The trial period for road closures and similar measures which arose out of the Healthy School Street plan for Holmes Road has not generated much comment, at least to us, although we are aware that Grafton Road in particular has been negatively affected.
Alma Street Fair
The 2025 Fair was generally considered a success and just about broke even financially. It was the same main organiser and group of people who had been planning and running it for quite a few years now, and it does need new people and new ideas. The group will meet again in February and decide on a plan for 2026. Let us know if you are interested in being part of this discussion. There has been a feeling growing for some years that it would be good to have smaller, informal, more local parties in each street.
2 Prince of Wales Road.
We have been closely involved with plans and activities for the old cinema/Law Centre building at 2 Prince of Wales Road, where the AGM is taking place. The plan is for a complete internal rebuilding, with an extra floor created to provide space for community use and co-working office space to allow it to be self-financing. This represents an exciting opportunity for IARA to have a regular meeting place and for other community activities. IARA has already benefited with our yoga group that is meeting there regularly.
Kentish Town Connects
We have attended a number of meetings organised by Camden where local groups get together and we can find out more about what they are doing and what opportunities there are for local people. This includes some discussion about social isolation which is something we would welcome more discussion about in the area.
Since we started the WhatsApp Group it has really taken off and now has over 265 members. It has been an important forum for discussion about many of the above subjects as well as a source of information about local events, offers of stuff being given away, cats lost and found, packages wrongly delivered, internet outages, etc.
We have a list of local resources that have had recommendations like plumbers, electricians, dentists, restaurants.
A number of sub groups have developed, including local history, theatre goers, cat and dog owners, sustainability, green and gardening issues, bumps and babies.
Green issues/street swap/retrofit
Much of the work previously going on through the SustainIara group is now continuing through the wider Retrofit group, which Rafe will report on. Dilip continues active work on greening the area, and we appreciate the fact that the Camden tree department is pretty responsive to our requests for new trees (and reports of dead ones). We did take part in a Street Swap event organised by Transition Town which, in the event, didn’t really take off in this area but is perhaps something we can repeat within IARA.
The Elders group that we run only met a few times last year and we would like to get back to more regular meetings in the coming year and hopefully organise some outings, as we have very enjoyably done in the past.
Not all residents are on the WhatsApp group and the email newsletters we also send out go to well over 400 people. This includes, in particular, some older people who do not want to be on WhatsApp. It also includes our local councillors and other interested people, whereas the WhatsApp groups is only for IARA residents.
All past newsletters are posted on the IARA website along with a lot of material on the local history of the area and suggestions for local walks, local pubs and restaurants.
Although there has been steady growth in the activities of IARA we also look to other plans – including broadening our membership as we are aware that it is currently very restricted, largely to owner occupiers and leaseholders, with little involvement with, for example, tenants of LB Camden and Housing Associations. There are also ideas that have been floated before of such things as a music or visual arts group, groups for walking and sport, and involvement in local charities including homelessness and food banks.