I chair a meeting at Jacksons Lane Community Centre, Highgate on the furore around the solid wooden fence that is proposed to run along the Tube cutting by Highgate Tube station.

Although I’d previously persuaded London Underground to take part in two consultative meetings with people in the area, more information has come to light – particularly about the possible acoustic impact of the fence they are planning to put in. The proposed fence would deliver 5 decibels of improvement to those living in the dip behind the cutting but up to 1 decibel of worsening noise to those on the Archway Road. This meeting in particular gave a chance for Archway Road residents who either didn’t attend or did not get invited to the first meeting to have their say.

The meeting put forward three alternative proposals to London Underground. The key issue is that we need a balance of the noise advantage from whatever fence is built – but one that ensures that the people in the dip end up no worse off than they were before the original fence was removed. Also, people on Archway Road want sight of the greenery – which would be lost with the proposed solid fence. A solid fence might also lock the pollution from the road into the road area. I hope London Underground will amend their plans to be as fair to everyone as possible.