Under threat?

One of my neighbours at the top end of Fortune Green always talks about “going to the village” when she is going down the hill to West End Lane. This always strikes me as charming, if a little odd, coming as I do from a proper village in the country, but I know when people talk about West Hampstead they often refer to the “villagey feel” as one of the things that make it special. And, in fact, there are those who say London is actually just a collection of villages!

So West Hampstead is different from Hampstead or St John’s Wood or Highgate and does have its own identity – but what gives it that identity? Like our posher neighbour up in NW3 we have a tube station, a bus terminus and a “village green” with public lavatories; a police station and a library , a post office and a “parish church”. Additionally here we have a synagogue and a fire station which are both listed buildings while we probably both have an equal number of estate agents, charity shops, cafes and hairdressers and a handful of independent shops.

Hampstead’s police station has been under notice for many years and its library has now become a “community library” and not part of Camden’s public library service, while its independent shops are struggling to survive. The community there feels threatened.

What of West Hampstead – how much of our “village” is likely to leach away in coming months and years? Our police station too is under threat (and this time it’s genuine) from the Conservative Mayor’s cuts and our fire station is trembling on the reserve list of his cuts. The Council offices have closed and our West End Lane Post Office is likely to move, we only have one bank left, and there are rumours of changes to the library while many of our shops are having a hard time. What will be left of our local services?

Our police station on Fortune Green Road is closed to the public much of the time – and not the most beautiful building in the area – so would people really miss it? Who drops in there these days? For many years now, if you report, say, a burglary, the response is most likely to come from Kentish Town!  If you have a problem with people causing a regular disturbance, most of us would contact our Safer Neighbourhood Teams who do have a visible presence in the area.

So what would the effect be if the front counter at the police station is closed all the time? Well, many of our residents are telling us that it matters to them and the local community, and that the police station is a reassuring presence in our midst. Closing the front counter feels like the thin edge of the wedge, leading to total closure before long.

However, it is the drastic cuts in the overall police budget by the Tory Mayor which present the biggest threat to Londoners, with a big reduction in police numbers as well as the closing of front counters and replacing them with “access points” which would only be available a few days a week.

Locally, it looks as if we will keep our two Safer Neighbourhood Teams, but possibly with reduced numbers. Compared to the rest of Camden our crime figures are low but losing highly visible officers could affect us all.

This is why we have created an online petition to object to Boris’s cuts.  If you agree with us, please sign!   http://tinyurl.com/camdenpolice  (going live as of Thursday 29 Nov)

Notice anything new?

The new community noticeboard that's been installed outside West Hampstead library is the final touch in the popular improvements to the outside of the library first planned a couple of years ago when the Liberal Democrats were running Camden Council.

Regular "area forum" attenders will remember that in those days area forums had a small budget to spend on local projects. One of the ideas the West Hampstead and Fortune Green area forum came up with was to improve the outside of the library, including the new entrance, the benches and a new community notice board.

The steps and benches were done earlier this year, and after we reminded Camden about the noticeboard, it's finally turned up. We're sure that that local groups including West Hampstead Community Centre will welcome the board to advertise their activities, and we will certainly be advertising our councillors' advice surgeries there.

Autumn update - Only 54 Shopping days till Christmas

Its only now, when it's getting dark so early, that it's clear that this exciting and busy year is drawing to a close with only about 60 days till Christmas. But the year hasn't wound down yet - there's been a lot going on and lots more to come.

Some good things:
We welcomed our new Farmers Market (largely as a result of the efforts of West Hampstead Lib Dem Councillor Gillian Risso-Gill) which goes from strength to strength - blessed for its first weeks by glorious weather, and we also especially welcomed the Boundary Commission's final recommendation to leave Fortune Green where it was (largely thanks to all the wonderful letters written by local residents!). We look forward to the improvements promised for Fortune Green itself (due to the sterling efforts of the Friends of Fortune Green) and to the third Christmas Market to be held on West End Green on Sat 8th Dec sponsored by local estate agents Alexanders. Email : westhampsteadxmasmarket@gmail.com for more info -  not sure if there are any stalls left but volunteers to help on the day would be very welcome!!) And, finally, we very much look forward to the planting of a "Jubilee Tree" on West End Green which is being donated by local estate agents Chelsea Square.

But not everything is good news:
the proposed changes to recycling are due to be in by next summer. All recycled materials except food and garden waste are to be collected together (co-mingling) and we shall only have one collection per week for recycling and the rest of the rubbish. The Council wants as many people as possible to start using wheelie bins and has written to a number of people in properties they consider suitable for wheelie bins to ask them whether they'd like a "small" or large bin and what colour. ("Small" is the same height as large but a bit slimmer and your colour choice is limited to green or grey) It isn't compulsory - yet! This experiment, which is likely to arouse some opposition, is only due to come in in "the north of the Borough"!

Another long delayed scheme is about to be agreed by Camden's "Cabinet". The long promised parking review has resulted in a report which proves there is some appetite for changes in hours (although not for changes in zones) Unsurprisingly the responses from across the whole of our zone (CAP) all massively in favour of increased hours. However.... Camden will not consider our area until late in 2013 (they're looking at the south of the Borough first!) and then they will go for full residential consultation like when they first introduced the zone. So - we're afraid it looks like no early solutions.

Other looming events are the "Ballymore" development (the railway lands off West End Lane opposite the post office) which we heard was likely to start in the Spring. Some of the little shops have already closed and it's all looking rather sad. The best thing likely to come out of the development is the possibility of a new lift being created in the north east corner to allow access to the Overground - something people have been wanting for ages!

Also it now looks as if the extraordinary building proposed for the old garden centre on Iverson Road is actually going to be built so the giant cranes will soon return to this part of West Hampstead just as they've nearly vanished elsewhere.

The Mill Lane development by the rail bridge is now finished and a group of residents is working with the developers and Camden to ensure that the promised wildlife area will go ahead.

Meanwhile another new development is set to rise on Maygrove Road backing onto the Peace Park while local residents are waiting with baited breath for the Inspector's decision on the future of the Gondar Gardens Reservoir.

 Camden closed its District Housing Office at 156 West End Lane without remembering to tell tenants! They have apologised and promise to hold "drop-ins" for tenants at Swiss Cottage and Kilburn Libraries for tenants. The building itself is scheduled to be sold off for redevelopment in the future. Camden is busy maximising all its land holdings both large and small ( I recently dissuaded them from planning to build on Templar House's small but popular Pear Tree Garden - at least I hope so!) and other developers are greedily eyeing up every other space.

All this development in our area is why we support the Neighbourhood Development Forum in its efforts to produce a "Neighbourhood Plan" which will allow local residents some say in what is likely to happen in the future. (For more information - visit www.ndpwesthampstead.org.uk)

A final footnote - A new convenience store (BuyBest) is due to move in to the previous scooter shop on Fortune Green Road (corner of Burrard Road) and has applied for a licence to sell alcohol from 6am- 12 midnight. We have objected and hope that at the very least the Council will restrict the hours.

Another long running story is that of the change to the traffic lights at the Fortune Green Road / Finchley Road junction - done by Transport for London without any consultation - even with Camden's traffic engineers. It just happened - seemingly overnight - apparently done in the name of safety but in fact making this junction even more dangerous - especially for pedestrians!  Finchley Road has become a sort of Berlin Wall - impossible to cross from one side to another without risk to life and limb and TfL just don't seem to care. We have taken this up with Camden and the GLA but still get bland answers.

All in all we are living in "interesting times"!

PS A short walk recently round NW6 showed different views of what you can do with a tree site!

Victory for Fortune Green!

The Boundary Commission have just announced their latest thinking on the proposals to re-draw boundaries.  They have decided that Fortune Green belongs with its Camden colleagues in the constituency of Hampstead and Kilburn. This is excellent news!
Flick, Nancy and myself - along with a lot of local people from all parties and none went to considerable lengths to explain why putting Fortune Green at the bottom of a Barnet constituency was such a bad idea.
Fortune Green would have sat in the Finchley and Golders Green constituency. This was what their first proposal looked like...

Fortune Green was tucked right at the bottom of a constituency that stretched far to the north - its difficult to see how any MP representing that seat would ever think of Fortune Green as anything other than an after-thought.

We campaigned and lobbied - and now the Boundary Commission have scrapped that idea and their proposals now look like this...

This is much more sensible - as its mainly Camden wards - with some near neighbours from Brent.

I'm not sure its a perfect solution - but its much better than their first stab.

Full details are on the Boundary Commission's website (though their server seems to be struggling with the demand at the time of writing)

NB

In the short and medium term this is fairly academic - as the agreement at a national level to establish an elected House of Lords and even up constituency sizes has fallen apart. So no changes are likely before the next General Election anyway.

However, I suspect boundaries are always under review and at some point the idea of evening out all constituencies will be raised again. When time comes to look at this matter again a much more sensible plan will be ready and waiting to be put into effect.

Towards a better Cricklewood

We have just had the latest newsletter from the Cricklewood Improvment Programme and thought it worth posting as it's full of activity. Congratulations Cricklewood!

NEWS from CRICKLEWOOD – May - June 2012

Welcome to ‘News from Cricklewood’ newsletter geared to keeping you in touch with CIP activities and inviting your suggestions and support. We hope the sun will shine for all London 2012 events.

OLF Public Realm Following CIP’s successful bid for funds to the Outer London fund Round 2. We are working with Barnet, Brent and Camden councils. Our project manager is Osita Udendon of Udenson Caldbeck Associates . We were hoping to be operational by now but contracts have yet to be signed so a bit of a delay there. Still, we aim to deliver the whole project even if we are late starting. The funding will cover work relating to public realm which for us means tidying up the streets, decluttering, make them more pedestrian friendly, minor street work, shop front improvements, supporting local  businesses, employment support for young people, cultural events and much more.

Phone boxes BT have agreed to remove 4 phone boxes from the Broadway which will reduce the number of BT boxes to eight.  We are still trying to get an agreement from Spectrum who have a number boxes on the Broadway to reduce their number of boxes.  BT have also agreed to stop incoming calls to their boxes. We are monitoring the cleanliness, advertisement content and busyness of the boxes with a view to being able to provide evidence to BT & Spectrum when we are in discussions with them.  Please provide us with any comments you have in order to flesh out our findings.

Street cleaning  On 18^th April we CIP’s Greener cleaner Cricklewood undertook a street clean up of the Broadway.  The clean up was assisted by local police, council cleaning teams, the probation service, students and teachers from Hampstead School and local residents and businesses.  The day was a big success with lots of litter evidence collected.  (for more see http://www.cricklewoodcip.org/publicrealm.php and http://www.brentbasis.org.uk/information-services/news/brent-vcs-news/1417-community-clean-up-day-brightens-cricklewood-broadway)

Policing - JAG – Cricklewood Joint Action Group   In April 2012 a dedicated Joint Action Group was formed to resolve key concerns on the Broadway. CIP has now succeeded in getting agreement from police, residents and businesses to create a forum to resolve antisocial behaviour and other criminal activities and agreed to create a coherent message about what is and what is not acceptable in terms of drinking on the streets. At the moment residents and businesses report confusion regarding the legal position in relation to street drinking.

CIP reported on successes to date including a voluntary agreement by off-licenses to stop selling super strength alcohol to street drinkers. This is helping to reduce the problem. Given the reduction in resources amongst many statutory agencies such as local councils and police, CIP feels that it is imperative that all groups, work together to ensure a safer neighbourhood.

 (For more…. http://www.cricklewoodcip.org/Communitysafety.html)

Mapesbury Community First Panel has agreed and submitted projects for the year to March 2012 to the Community Development Foundation.  The projects relate to dealing with anti social behaviour which affects the community, the environment and improving community cohesion and an interesting project that links to the culture of the population of Mapesbury. Requests for grants (between £250 to £2500) from voluntary organisations in Mapesbury Ward are expected. Grants need to be match funded by the group receiving the grant. 

The priorities of our programme are to 1)improve community cohesion linking to the strategies in schools, local businesses, residents and creative groups supporting youth and the elderly 2) understand the history and culture of the population in Mapesbury and 3)deal with antisocial behaviour affecting the community and the environment. How to apply –http://www.cricklewoodcip.org/community_first.html

Schools Angela and Shirley are continuing to work on a partnership with local primary and secondary schools with a focus on encouraging/motivating the children to take a proactive part in the development of a safe, clean and proud Cricklewood. We are delighted to have developed a very good relationship with Hampstead School

Website content has been updated. Please submit any content to be considered for website by e-mail to cipcricklewood@yahoo.co.uk                   

Feedback is important to us so please feel free to comment on the web page www.cricklewoodcip.org

CIP steering group 3^rd July 2012.

Please let us know if you feel you can help CIP in any way. We would be delighted to have you on board. There is much to be done but it will be worth it when we have a Cricklewood that is safe, fun, welcoming and prosperous.

Public drop-in Session – West Hampstead Area Scheme, Thursday 12th July

We've just heard from Camden's officers about a drop-in session about transport related issues (NB cars, bikes, lorries etc, not buses and trains) in the West Hampstead area. Here are the full details from Camden:

Public drop-in Session – West Hampstead Area Scheme, Thursday 12^th July

 

Following the approval of the West Hampstead Place Plan as the strategic guidance for the area, Camden Council want to ask local stakeholders about their views on specific transport related issues in the West Hampstead area. As a local resident or business, we want to know what things you think would improve the streets and traffic in the area. This will help us to deliver the objective to improve the quality of experience for people in the streets and public spaces.

The Council is holding a drop-in session to give you the opportunity to highlight what you believe are the key street and traffic problems in this area, as well as what solutions you would like to see.  Council officers will be present to discuss your traffic questions. 

We are interested in discussing a wide range of traffic issues such as: -

• Road safety and accident reduction.
• Vehicles speeds and congestion.
• Ease of pedestrian access.
• Provisions for cyclists.
• Waiting and loading provisions.

Please note that the scope of this scheme will not include buses or trains.

Details of this drop-in session are as follows: -

Venue: West Hampstead Synagogue

Date: Thursday 12^th July 2012

Time: 2pm to 7pm

Officers from Camden’s Transport Strategy Service will be present for discussion throughout this session. We will then use the information gathered to assist in the development of a scheme, on which we expect to undertake a public consultation later in the year.

If you would like any further information, please contact Costa Kakouratos in the Design Team on either 020 79745132 or costa.kakouratos@camden.gov.uk. If you would like any further information about the West Hampstead Place Plan, this is published on the council website: 

http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/environment/planning-and-built-environment/place-plans/-west-hampstead/

West Hampstead's heritage

Camden has lots of interesting buildings, some important like the British Museum, and some quite small. Many of these are “listed”, which means taking special care over changes to them. Here in West Hampstead we have a Conservation Area around West End Green but we have traditional only had two “listed buildings” – the Fire Station and the Synagogue in Dennington Park Road.  More recently, Emmanuel Church and the Victorian public conveniences by West End Green have also been listed. Also, Hampstead Cemetery has specially designated status. But we do have lots of buildings and features which give our area its special character. So it’s good that there is new legislation which lets Councils produce a “local list” of buildings which have a value to local residents.

To be included in the local list the building should be a good example of a style particular to a local area/ designed or built by some notable local or national builder or architect, and or be an especially good example of some particular craft or technique. Alternatively, or it should be of local or national historical significance in the area’s history, or associated with an important local or national person or event. Or it could have have “social value” which means having local community, cultural, religious, political, educational or economic significance.

Camden will soon be asking for suggestions for buildings to go on the list – watch this space!