Loss of green space could be issue that decides Holborn and St Pancras byelection

When HS2 construction began around London’s Euston station in 2017 and people living nearby watched parks and playgrounds give way to diggers and rubble, they were promised that the lost green space would be replaced. “They have to give it all back,” said Dorothea Hackman. “But they are destroying it – so there’s nothing to give back.”

As the dust from the political party conference season begins to settle, disappearing green spaces and housing developments have become central issues in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection. On Thursday, Labour and the Green party will contest the seismic seat vacated by the former prime minster Keir Starmer.

Planning documents show that the high-speed railway project and surrounding developments will permanently swallow 14,404 sq metres of green space and playgrounds from the constituency, with more closed off as work takes place.

The work forms part of the Euston section of HS2. The government estimates that the full high-speed railway between London and Birmingham will open between May 2040 and December 2043.

The biggest park under threat is St James’s Gardens, an 18th-century burial ground designated as a site of importance for nature conservation. While HS2 Ltd originally committed to replacing the gardens by building a new park on a concrete deck above the railway tracks north of the station, government cost-cutting redesigns have dropped that replacement park from the scheme entirely.

Responsibility for the surrounding site now sits between public planners and private developers. While HS2 was approved directly by parliament, the private developer Lendlease is drawing up plans for commercial space and homes across the site. Camden council is assessing Lendlease’s plan, with a decision expected next year.

Alice Brown, a cofounder of Climate Emergency Camden, said it was vital that green space was retained for people to take a break from the bustle of the station. “Otherwise it’s just going to be the site of the massive office building.”

For people living around Euston, the development of their neighbourhood encompasses more than just the parks. The issue is about housing, frustrations with the council and a broader question of who London is for.

“They say this is all in order to be able to provide some affordable housing, but it’s a very small amount of affordable housing for the loss that’s being suffered,” Brown said of the construction sites. “By affordable, they mean 80% of current cost – they don’t mean social housing.”

Lendlease has said the scheme will provide up to 1,500 homes, but neither the final number or the amount that will be affordable has been determined.

Hackman is a governor at Netley primary school, a stone’s throw from Euston. She is worried about what the new buildings will mean for the area’s falling pupil numbers. “Camden’s policy of failing to provide family-size housing means that all our families with children are driven out of the borough,” she said.

“It’s very difficult to see how the social-cleansing consequences of what they’re doing can be of any benefit to our community.”

For some, the byelection will be a chance to shock Labour’s grip on the council and the constituency. The party has dominated control of the council since the 1960s and represented Holborn and St Pancras since the constituency was created in 1983.

Frustrations with the council could spill into a vote against Labour. “So much that Camden Labour are doing is seen to be not in the best interests of people who live here,” said Brown. “It’s either performative or it’s money generating. Every development, every bit that they sell off is to the detriment of the local residents.”

At Labour’s conference, the party’s deputy leader, Lucy Powell, said she thought it was “unlikely” that Zack Polanski, the Green party leader standing in the constituency, would win the seat. Brown is not so sure. “I think he’d really roll his sleeves up and get involved in what’s happening here,” she said. “And that would include trying to get the council to perform better.”

A Camden council spokesperson said: “The Euston area plan sets out the council’s vision for future development at Euston until 2051.” They said the plan had been submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for public examination after a consultation this year.

A spokesperson for Lendlease said: “Working with our partners, we’re developing proposals that could deliver up to 1,500 new homes, including affordable ones, as well as public spaces, improved connections and places for businesses and communities to thrive.”