Proposed Kinsgate School expansion - is it too late for a rethink?

Camden have come up with a proposal to help solve the problem of the shortage of primary school places locally which involves providing a new school on an area called Liddell Road. Many people in Fortune Green will not have heard of it as it is an industrial estate just off Maygrove/Iverson Roads backing onto the railway line and the Sidings Peace Park. It has been considered as a potential site for a future new school for some time (back when the Council was run by the LibDem/Conservatives) but since then the landscape has changed.

Under the present Government, the only new schools that can be built are Free Schools or Academies. Unfortunately, the current Labour Administration in Camden are ideologically opposed to these options, even though academies were introduced by the last Labour Government and the new Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt has stated that the bulk of existing free schools would be kept open as his party wanted to "keep the good free schools". ) Instead of creating a new primary school for the area, Camden’s current administration are therefore promoting the expansion of an existing school (Kingsgate) funded by building homes for sale on the site and throwing off all the existing businesses.

Everyone agrees that the need for additional school places in the area is a high priority, but we believe that this approach is flawed. Kingsgate is rated as an “Outstanding” school, and its success and educational provision to local children should not be compromised by political expediency.

Our response to the Council includes the following key points:
1) There is no good educational case to be made to have a school based on two sites, a mile apart with railway lines in between, with no clear access route between the two. Further, it could have a harmful effect on the community feeling of the existing Kingsgate School.
2) The increase of 412 additional pupils on the new site will add to traffic and pedestrian congestion on West End Lane and Kilburn High Road especially during peak morning rush hours with families travelling to, between and from the two sites. It is not likely to be acceptable or attractive to families.
3) If an application had been made to build a Free School or Academy, the funding would come from Central Government and so there would be no need for Camden Council to raise money through selling off the land to developers to build expensive homes for sale (120-160 units) and, in the process, putting 250 people who work in the existing businesses out of work. 

While this complicated and flawed scheme has been progressed by the current administration with painful slowness, two new primary schools (Free Schools) in Camden have been through the whole process and opened with central government funding. This new school "extension" would not be open until at lest 2016.

Rubbish - our streets are a mess! Time for a clean-up!

Rubbish - its all round us and seems to be getting worse!

Every day, there seems to be a new pile of litter by a lamp post or a tree or just by someone's garden wall. And that doesn't take into account the piles of stuff round the local recycling centres - the horror on Minster Road seems to be a semi-permanent feature of our landscape and from time to time the West End Green and Fortune Green road "Mini-centres" are not much better. What is it about this time of year that makes people throw out furniture?  

A sort of Spring cleaning in the autumn or lots of people taking up
new DIY courses?

Also, since the changes to refuse/recycling came in in the July, our

councillors complaints bag has been full to bursting - rather like uncollected rubbish! People say they have only had half their bins emptied, or the food refuse bin has been left to fester for another week or that the rubbish is strewn all over the road during and after the weekly collection. And that's before complaints about commercial waste outside shops and dog dirt! Then you ask us why the Council doesn't seem to care about our dirty streets?

There are probably no easy answers - maybe the refuse people don't care or they're trying to do too much in too short a time, maybe they aren't properly supervised either by their own bosses or by officers in Camden who are supposed to monitor the contract. Also it seems lots of people just don't care where they leave their rubbish - smelly old mattresses, broken chairs etc. Whatever the reasons - our streets are definitely a mess!

                                     

Also, it's not very easy to make a complaint via Camden's system, but there's possible good news in sight. The Council has agreed to look at a simple way of reporting problems based on "Love Clean London" (an easy to use website) which means you just send in a photo (that's if you have the technology - if not you'll have to stick with the Camden call centre with all its difficulties!)

The other good news is that Camden's Street Environment Services have been re-organised, recruited new staff and hope that when they are all in place, things will improve and our streets will get to look a bit cleaner.

Meanwhile - over in Fordwych Road - some enthusiasts have planted flowers instead of rubbish round their trees!  Thank you!

Campaign for a clean-up! Make our street environment better and our area somewhere pleasant to live!

Christmas events on West End Green

It's going to be lively on West End Green in the run up to Christmas!

Saturday 30th November the annual West Hampstead Christmas Market, 10am-4pm
supported by the West Hampstead Business Association.

Stalls will include local artists, crafts, festive food, jewelry and cards.
Activities will include African drumming, carol singing, arts and crafts and dancing for families and children.
Local shops involved include Kitchen Table, Achillea Flowers, Village Haberdashery and others as well as the Mill Lane Garden centre who will be selling Xmas trees!

A week later there is a new event: 6, 7, 8th December Cabbages & Frocks Festive Marketplace - to 4pm each day Stalls will include festive fayre, & vintage arts and crafts

Parking - possible changes on the way - slowly!

At long last Camden are almost ready to begin the full house-to house consultation on parking in our area –the full CAP Zone of Fortune Green and West Hampstead. But it is only the beginning of a quite lengthy process.

Camden’s officers have just held a preliminary meeting for local organisations and residents’ associations, including local Councillors. This meeting was to explain the process and timetable and discuss the questions which should be asked in the questionnaire. These will be straightforward and, for example, include (for all three CA-P subzones)what should the start and end times be on weekdays, should there be Saturday/Sunday controls and, if so, what start and end time?

Each household will have a questionnaire posted out and you should receive it on Monday 18th November. It will also be available online should you prefer, but you can’t do both!

Usually 3/4 weeks are allowed for completion and then the questionnaires will be collated and the responses assessed, and officers will make recommendations. These recommendations will be presented in a published report to the Cabinet Member responsible (Cllr Phil Jones) probably for a “Single Member Decision”. The report will make recommendations for changes in hours or subzones or for no change depending on the responses received. This is likely to be in late January and any changes agreed would then be the subject of statutory Traffic Management Order consultations which makes for another delay. Then they have to make new signs!

So, all in all, there will be no actual changes until late Spring at the earliest – but it’s not possible to alter the timetable and remember the only thing which will influence the Council is the response YOU make to the official consultation next month.

So look out for it coming through your letterbox, and be sure to respond and make your views known to Camden! Whether you own a car or not, your views are important as changes to parking affect us all – visitors as well as drivers.

If you have any queries, don’t hesitate to contact us or go direct to Camden – the officer responsible is Charlie Parish - email: Charlie.parish@camden.gov.uk or call 020 7974 4639.

News and Events in Cricklewood

Latest News from the Cricklewood Improvement Programme includes:

Silk Road Festival: 1st-7th September 2013 in Cricklewood – a week long programme of cultural events You are all welcome. Bring the sunshine with you!
CIP are looking for help with leafletting of this event. They will be hitting the streets the second last week in August and many hands make light work. So, any offers of help will be gratefully received. Email info@cricklewood.net if you'd like to get involved with leafletting, or even volunteer at one of the events.

Also An Evening with Zadie Smith: Wednesday 4th September - The Crown Moran Hotel, Cricklewood – 6pm Tickets are available from a variety of locations.

Brighter High Street: We were delighted to hear that planning permission for the building and shop front improvements on Cricklewood Broadway has been granted by Brent Council. Works should begin in September. CIP Cricklewood Improvement Programme has been campaigning for this via the Cricklewood Outer Town Centre fund programme. Watch this space……..

Also in the pipeline: Projects to improve the public realm and visitor experience of Cricklewood are underway. A street greening strategy has been developed under the banner '50 new trees for Cricklewood'.

An audit of guardrails has been completed and a strategy for de-cluttering of the footways is being prepared for implementation. A plan for comprehensive repaving of Cricklewood town centre, extending from Beacon Bingo to the Crown Moran hotel along Cricklewood Broadway and to Cricklewood Station along Cricklewood Lane, is nearing completion.

Plans to improve the crossing arrangements at Cricklewood Lane and Chichele Road are being progressed in dialogue with LB Barnet, LB Brent and Transport for London. Discussions with LB Barnet are ongoing in relation to the greenspace on Cricklewood Lane and a strategy is being developed to implement improvements.

Later in the year new festive lights will be installed along with lights for trees in time for Winterfest, an event featuring art, food and drink stalls and seasonal entertainment. Winterfest had a successful debut in November 2012.

Good news for Post offices- pay for Council Services at your local Post Office

This news comes a special pleasure as about 2 years ago Lib Dem Councillors, Flick Rea and Jill Fraser proposed a motion to Camden Council that they should make it possible for residents to pay for Council services at their local post office. This has finally happened! It is particularly good news for our "new" Post office at St James Church(The Sherriff Centre) which now has the official go-ahead to take over when the West End Lane Post Office closes in Spring 2014.

You can also use Mill Lane post office!

posted from our "sister blog" - West Hampstead Spotlight

From 5th August, 2013, Camden residents will be able to pay for Council Services at their local Post office. Services that can be paid for at the Post Office include: Council Tax, Housing Rents, Business Rates, Leaseholder Services, Housing Services, Commercial Rents, Sundry Invoices, Commercial Waste, Nursery Fees, Street Trading and Licensing, Allotments and Building Control. Services can be paid for by Cash, Cheque or Debit Card free of charge. Residents can also pay by Cash at any shop displaying the PayPal sign. Post Offices where these services are available include West Hampstead on West End Lane, Swiss Cottage on Finchley Road and on Mill Lane all of which are open on weekdays and Saturday morning. Council Services can also be paid for on line at www.camden.gov.uk, by phone on 0207 974 6104 and by Direct Debit. From the Autumn 2013, the Cash Office at the Town Hall in Judd Street will close. Posters and leaflets on these new services will be available in Libraries and Post Offices across the Borough.

A Cleaner Camden?

Does this sight seem familiar? It stayed like this for several days, stinking in the hot sun, until a quick Councillor phone call resolved the problem - but it shouldn't need to be like that!
This is by no means the only complaint we've received in recent weeks, and in each case the resident had reported their problem via the website - had no joy, rung up, tried again and eventually reported to Camden's complaints department.
This is sad because the waste collection and recycling service is usually efficient and responsive, but just one or two incidents like this bring the whole service into disrepute.

Recently, one enterprising resident asked Camden if they had heard of a company called Love Clean London (http://lovecleanlondon.org/Reports/Home) who work in a number of other Boroughs. They supply an app which allows people to photograph a problem (such as graffiti or fly-tipped rubbish) and send it in to be dealt with.  It works so well in Lewisham apparently that they actually issue their street cleaners with smart phones so they can themselves report problems (e.g. graffiti) or open cable boxes.  Plus it saves Lewisham money, for example fly tipping has fallen by 53% since this was introduced.  It is also much quicker and cheaper to report a problem. 

So, he asked :"Why isn't it being used in Camden?"

Camden's reply is typical! They don't believe it currently would work as well as their existing system and they say it “would not offer us an integrated solution for getting the report to our contractors in a quick and efficient way as it would require the manual inputting of the reports received.”  But they say they will investigate various solutions, including making better use of the Camden’s own website and add: “Either way we are committed to making reporting as easy as possible for our customers.”

What of course, they don’t seem to consider – it’s not just that we want the reporting made easier – we also want something done about the problems we report!!