Friday 28 June 2013

Next Area Action Group

Fortune Green and West
Hampstead Area Action Group
Tuesday 2nd July, Hampstead Synagogue
Community Hall, 1 Dennington Park Road, NW6 1AX,
from 7.30-9.30,
(7pm to meet councillors for light refreshments).
This area action group meeting is your local forum and gives you the opportunity to have your say on the issues that matter to you locally.

Agenda:
 7.30 Start of meeting and introductions:

Thames Water provision and maintenance in the local
area a subject of particular relevance to those in the
West Hampstead area who have had water shortages
and a burst water main recently;

Potential S106 funds for community development

Neighbourhood Planning Forum update

Thursday 27 June 2013

Spotlight on Cricklewood

The Cricklewood Networking Event went off very well last night at The Crown Moran Hotel. The room was filled with local residents and business people come to meet new neighbours and hear about the latest developments in Cricklewood.
There was a very interesting presentation from Sally Williams, a local retail specialist who is working with businesses in the area. She presented the findings of a UCL study into the reasons why people come to Cricklewood - and how they would like to see it improved.
Its interesting that the survey clearly indicated that the most important thing people want to get sorted is the basic regular tidy and proper cleaning/cleansing of the public realm. This ought to be bread and butter stuff to the three council's involved - but I'm afraid to say they find it very difficult to get the co-ordination right.
Jonathan Joseph was also on hand to give a preview of the issues he'll be showing about revised Brent Cross Cricklewood redevelopment. I wasn't a fan of the last scheme which seemed to me far too car centric. I'm glad therefore to hear that there is a cycling/pedestrian bridge in these new plans.
More details of the changes will be available at Brent Cross Shopping Centre, Hendon Leisure Centre, or the Crown Moran Hotel on different dates over the next fortnight. For exact details - look at the Brent Cross Cricklewood website. (Crown Moran is likely to be most convenient for readers of this blog - and the roadshow hits there on Monday 1 July, 12pm - 8pm and  Tuesday 2 July, 12pm - 8pm).
For more details on the Cricklewood Improvement Project (including signing up to their useful weekly email) visit http://www.cricklewoodcip.org

Monday 17 June 2013

Congratulations Cllr Flick Rea MBE - a message from Russell and Nancy

A very nice surprise greeted us all on Saturday as we discovered that our colleague (and fellow blogger) Flick Rea had been awarded an MBE for:
"Services to Local Goverment and the community in London"
Flick has been a local councillor for the West Hampstead and Fortune Green areas for over 27 years and she was deeply involved in community life long before she first got elected.
We suspect that the "...and to the community in London" part of the commendation is a special recognition of her work with the Jester Festival - which she helped after the old West Hampstead Community Association which was running it until a few years ago collapsed quite in the run up to that year's festival. Rather than watch a much-loved local tradition die, Flick rolled up her sleeves and made sure a team of committed volunteers were coralled into making sure the show did go on.
Flick is helping to organise the festival again this year - set to be on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th July.
Hope to see you there!
Russell and Nancy

Tuesday 4 June 2013

New Post office for West Hampstead and mysteries of 106 money


Cllr Gillian Risso Gill
From our "sister blog" for West Hampstead
 
"To gain planning permission, writes Cllr Gillian Risso-Gill, developers are often required to provide additional monies for amenities that will benefit local communities in the form of Section 106 obligations.  The developer of the new student development nearing completion in Blackburn Road has contributed £500,000 to Camden for various items including pathways, health services and community amenities.

Your Councillors have campaigned to ensure that the monies are spent in the local area and not siphoned off to other parts of Camden.   Despite having two public meetings, it is still unclear how Section 106 monies are allocated and who makes the decisions.  We have argued that decisions should be made by local communities through their local Councillors.  However, we are pleased that Camden Council has agreed to provide £50,000 towards the relocation of the new Post Office as part of the community amenities allocation.  How the remainder of the monies will be spent is still uncertain but we shall continue to campaign for greater transparency in allocating these monies.

West Hampstead Post Office

The West Hampstead Post Office on West End Lane will close later this year as the Postmaster is unable to continue due to ill health.  The Post Office cannot close until a new premises is secured and the only location that has come forward is St. James Church on the corner of Sherriff Road, 200 yards from the current site.
Fr Andrew Cain has proposed to run a post office  in the rear of the church building.

The post office will be run by a charitable trust, with other facilities including a cafĂ©, stationery store and other amenities as a social enterprise, the profits from which will provide finance to employ three part time community workers for families, youth and elderly residents.  These commercial activities will be separated from the areas for worship in the church which will remain .  At the time of writing, the Post Office is reviewing the Business Plan and, if approved, planning permission will be sought, building work commissioned  with a view to the new Post Office being operational before the Christmas period in 2013.

Fr Andrew has secured over £200,000 in finance for the scheme, including £50,000 from Camden Council and over £85,000 from St. James Church as its contribution to the community to celebrate its 125 year anniversary.


Reservoir latest

We hope this is good news, but still some fears for the future!

Latest bulletin from GARA (Gondar and Agamemnon Residents Association):

"Dear GARA members and supporters,

Fantastic news, at least temporarily ... the ‘frontage’ appeal is dismissed for reasons of poor detailed design.  But the impact on Open Space, SNCI, views, parking etc are all considered acceptable.

As you know, having won one appeal, the developer appealed against refusal of its second planning application for this site.  The first scheme allows destruction of a large part of the protected Open Space and Site of Nature Conservation Interest.  The second scheme – refused on appeal – would block the Open Space aspect from the street, including views across the site towards Hampstead.

Here is what the inspector says in dismissing the second appeal:
Conclusion [from Inspector’s report, 3-Jun-13]
The development has been designed to minimise the impact on the POS [private open space] and SNCI [site of nature conservation interest] and I have concluded that the benefits of the scheme outweigh any small harm in this regard. While many other aspects of the scheme are acceptable including the siting and size of the proposed buildings, the scheme fails on the detailed design as outlined above [in the report]. For this reason, it would be contrary to National and Local Plan policy and the appeal is dismissed.

So, what does this mean?  Well, the developer can ...
a)      Build the first scheme, for which permission was granted at appeal last year
b)      Improve the design of the second scheme within the same envelope and re-submit
c)      Prepare another scheme combining elements of #1 and #2, and addressing points on design
d)      Sell the site
Of course, all these options would also have been available to the developer if they had won this appeal, so the inspector has at least removed the option to build a poorly designed scheme #2.


A quick reminder:
Scheme #1: 16 large houses in the middle of the to-be-excavated reservoir space, mostly below ground level; major loss of open space and major impact on wildlife; low impact on street frontage; and a large contribution to Camden in lieu of affordable housing ... refused by Camden but allowed on appeal (which we still struggle to comprehend!).

Scheme #2: 28 units filling-in the street frontage between existing mansion blocks; lower impact on wildlife but significant impact on openness from the street and houses opposite; affordable housing included within the scheme ... refused at Camden planning committee and also dismissed on appeal (as described above)."

www.gara-westhampstead.co.uk