The impact of proposals to develop the king's cross railway lands

If the British Rail proposal for the King's Cross Railway Lands is approved, the scheme will go ahead just as the latest round of local authority legislation begins to bite. By the time builders are on site, new laws and regulations governing the provision of housing, education, services, local authority finance and land use controls will all be in place. In this context, the King's Cross scheme will act as a great Trojan horse unleashing huge changes in a highly concentrated form on a community whose guardians have already been disarmed. This article describes some of the likely effects of this unequal contest —on the local authority involved (Section I) and on the surrounding local communities (Section II). It argues the need for other local authorities to rethink their conceptual and corporate approach to future large‐scale planning applications well in advance of their arrival at the Town Hall.