Spring possibly

I have been really cheered up in the last few days by the wonderful daffodils on Fortune Green (planted last year by the Council with the help of the Friends of Fortune Green) In general the local front gardens are amazingly colourful which prompted me a few years ago to set up a West Hampstead Spring Front gardens competition. You certainly notice them as you go door-to- door at Election time (which is nearly always this time of year!)

However, the Spring feeling didn't last long as the day grew colder and wetter!

Weather apart though, people are still making plans and looking to the future. The evening saw the open meeting held at Emmanuel School to discuss the future layout of the Mill Lane Open Space (which will be shared between the new school and the community) and lots of bright ideas were floated to do with the pond, the "nature trail" and the play area. I attended the meeting with Councillor Keith Moffitt as well as the Heads of Emmanuel and Beckford School, members of the Mill Lane Open Space Group and other local residents and parents. The full planning application will go to Committee for decision in June and, if successful, demolition of the Mill Lane houses (at the front of the site) will start in late July. Meanwhile the rest of the site will remain available for community use.

Brian Coleman strikes again

An interesting piece no ITV London about yet another story that questions the judgement of Barnet and Camden's representative on the London Assembly, the Conservative Brian Coleman.

http://www.itv.com/london/fire-planning-authority47151/

Traffic snarl up

You may remember that about a month ago TfL closed the inbound lane of the Finchley Road and put all the trafic down Fortune Green Road/West End Lane. This was done at the same time that there were two sets of extra traffic lights on West End Lane as people were digging up various parts of it - and on a weekend of heavy tube and overground closures - with lots of extra rail replacement services.

The result was horrible!

I complained to them at the time - asking why they put all that traffic down into West Hampstead when they should have known it would cause massive congestion.

They have finally replied - see below for their response.

In summary - they say the works on the Finchley Road, but were responding to an emergency. I have to say - when I got up close it seemed the equipment they had looked like heavy tarmac laying equipment - rather than the kind of thing you'd expect to see for a burst water maine.

Can anyone else remember and maybe email me (russell.eagling@camden.gov.uk) or commet here?

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dear Councillor Eagling,

Re.: Finchley Road (A41), NW3 - closures & diversions on weekend of February 20

Thank you for your e-mail of February 22, concerning the above. Please forgive the delay in responding to you on this occasion. Our engineers at TfL have investigated the queries you raised, and drawing upon their report, I should like to answer your particular questions in turn.

1) The work was due to burst water mains. It was not possible to put in contra-flows in what was an emergency situation.

2 & 3) The work was done on demand. There was no opportunity to re-schedule it as it was required immediately.

4) Signs that gave notice of road closures were in place. You may appreciate that TfL is not in a position of responsibility for the actions of individual drivers, and nor can we reasonably comment upon them.

5) Thames Water is the water provider in this area and as such organised an emergency traffic order to implement the emergency works required. To mitigate further disruption, Thames Water completed four further pieces of work in the southbound lanes while this closure was in place. By their nature, future emergency works cannot be co-ordinated any further in advance then when the situations arise, but we at TfL seek to put measures in place - and monitor their effectiveness - so as to minimise disruption.

Thank you for raising these issues with us. I shall be pleased to assist if you have any further queries.

Yours sincerely,

David Goudge
Customer Service Advisor

New beginnings!

Can it really be Spring? Wonderful bulbs coming up everywhere and spring blossom at last creeping out. West End Green had a lovely patch of purple crocuses and these on Fortune Green are a forerunner to the trenches of daffoldils that were planted last year by the Friends of Fortune Green, have poked up from underground and are just about to flower again this year!

Meanwhile today Cllr Keith Moffitt and I went to inspect the newly refurbished Broomsleigh St Community Hall. It looks amazing - so light and airy and clean!! Lots of white paint, new windows and the filth of ages cleaned off the tiled wooden floor have made all the difference. It has been cleverly adapted with full disabled access and facilities and is now ready to take the Sington Nursery downstairs and the new Community Association upstairs. The partitions on the ground floor for the nursery are able to be taken down again quite easily depending on how the new "CAWH" decides it wants to use the building. All in all, its a bit of a triumph!

Local event

Fortune Green & West Hampstead

Give & Take event

Saturday March 20^th

Emmanuel Church of England School
101 Mill Lane
West Hampstead
NW6 1NA

10:30am -11:30pm Bring items

12:00pm - 2:00pm Take away Items for free

Have you any household clutter gathering dust?  Bring items along to our

next event and make a pledge to recycle or reuse an electrical appliance.

Re-use is great for the environment because it uses less energy and resources and less waste is sent to landfill. 

We usually redistribute at least 2-3 tonnes of household items at each event and our events are growing in popularity.  And it means that Camden residents can find some treasure right at their front door.

take away for free:

ü      household items including bric-a-brac, toys, tools, sports equipment and books

ü      Small items of furniture* (easily carried by one person),

we accept:

ü       electrical items (Pat tested at the event)    

ü      household items that are clean, in good condition and ready to

     use

we do not accept:

û       broken items in need of repair

û       knives and sharp or dangerous objects

û       toiletries

û       food

û       upholstery that does not have fire safety tag

Also at this event:

Information Stalls TBC

For more information, please contact Jane Ryan on 0207 974-1720, or email

recycling@camden.gov.uk

Sunday afternoon at Swiss Cottage

Sorry - not Fortune Green but couldn't resist blogging this. Spent Sunday lunchtime outside the Swiss Cottage Library where Camden Parks and Libraries were putting on an event which involved giving away free trees (one of my favourite annual events) The trees are about 18inches high come with growing instructions and this year were all fruit- producing so they also came with recipes (crab apple jelly etc). There were also story telling sessions for younger children, someone to talk about recycling and give out shopping bags, and the highlight "Zoofari". They are an animal rescue and wildlife sanctuary from Hertfordshire and really lovely people. Some of the creatures are really lovely as well! The meerkat is called Alexander and is 10 months old and had been bottlefed having ben abandoned when only a day or so old! Everyone wanted to take him home. There was a skunk (not smelly) called Alfie, an extraordinary lizard ceature called a tigou(?) whom I also held if not cuddled! And two huge snakes - one was an albino boa constrictor which I did not want to take home. We'll have to see if Camden Parks will put on an event for us on Fortune Gren or in the Maygrove Peace Park one day and bring Zoofari along.

Emmanuel School Proposals

Have just received this letter from the Chair of Emmanuel Governors, John ward. Come along if you are interested!

Dear Parents, Neighbours and Friends


Development project – open space

As part of our school development project, we will be spending some money improving the public open space at 160 Mill Lane.

The Governors would like to invite you to a public meeting on Tuesday 30 March 2010 from 7-9pm in the school hall to discuss how we should spend this money. We would very much like to hear the views of the local community as the public open space belongs to all of us who live in West Hampstead.

Further details of our development project are available on the school website at www.emmanuel.sch.uk. I look forward to seeing you on 30 March. No need to book; just turn up.

With all good wishes

Yours sincerely
John Ward
Chair of Governors

Friends of Fortune Green activity day

Congratulations to Friends of Fortune Green for organising another successful activity day the other weekend.  Bird boxes were assembled, litter was picked, children learnt about the flora and fauna, and Russell made an attempt to sweep up some of the pine needles from where the Christmas Tree recycling area was (their acidity harms the grass, apparently).
Also the Friends were active in seeking opinions on the proposals to improve Fortune Green Play Centre at the top of the green (See previous Spotlight entries).  The council is running an ongoing consultation on the proposals at the moment.  The most controversial aspect is clearly the temporary road that would need to stretch across part of the green to construct the new buildings - but the people I spoke to understood the need - so had no objection.

Traffic, Tesco and Parking

Last night there was a meeting in the Fortune Green Play Centre (sorry about the little chairs!!)
for residents to talk to Camden officers about the problems in Fortune Green Road attended by your 3 ward Councillors, Flick, Nancy and Russell. One proposal put forward was welcomed as a first step which is to create a "loading/unloading bay" out of the very wide pavement by the new shops - don't forget there are 3 other shop units still to be taken up and they will all need some unloading facilities. In the longer term, Camden have agreed they will looks at the wider area to see if the whole new development will make local parking problems worse. New residents of the block (one was present) can not have residents parking permits nor, he said, visitors permits.

Lots of issues like road safety were also brought up and the fears that if/when the alcohol licence is granted, there would be people stopping as they drive past - one resident said it would be the last shop before the M1! On the other hand there was general agreement that local people would use it and, as Councillors, we reported that we had received several emails in support of the new Tesco. But almost all are agreed that parking and traffic congestion is the main worry.

We've promised to keep you posted about Camden's plans to create an unloading bay.

Fortune Green Play Centre Proposals

The Council has revealed plans for combining the Sington Nursery with the Play Centre in a new purpose built centre. It will also involve moving the Sports Pitch / Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) nearer to the front of the site to make it more accessible for local young people.

So far we are in a "pre-planning application" consultation (running until March 24), and Camden would welcome your views. There will also be a later opportunity to comment when the planning application goes in. It all sounds very exciting but no doubt there will some issues arising. One which has been dealt with in consultation with the Friends of Fortune Green is the need to access the Centre during building work - this will mean a temporary road crossing the Green from Ajax Road which will be replaced and the Green reinstated and repaired when they've finished. Safety aspects have also been considered and we are promised any traffic will be marshalled. Important because its near the under-fives playground - which will not be otherwise affected.

Also work will not start until after the Festival!



These proposals can be viewed on the Camden website (see below)

http://www.camden.gov.uk/--------URL: http://www.camden.gov.uk/redirect/?oid=%5Bcom.arsdigita.camden.cms.contenttypes.Consultation%3A%7Bid%3D2168650%7D%5D&context=live



Title: Consultation on proposed redevelopment of Fortune Green Play Centre and relocation of Sington Nursery

Status: CurrentPurpose:To inform the development of the new Fortune Green Play Centre, relocated Sington Nursery and associated multi-use games area to find out how local people and amenity groups want to use the facilities outside core hours

Contact Officer/Department:Children, schools and families

Topic: Children and young people

Type: Camden website, Public meeting, Self-completion questionnaire (non-postal distribution), Self-completion questionnaire (postal)Start Date: Mar 3, 2010Completion Date: Mar 24, 2010

Results Date: Mar 24, 2010Statutory: NoTarget Audience: Black and minority ethnic groups, Carers, Children, Community/voluntary groups, Council staff, Disabled people, Faith communities, Parents, Residents, School staff, Statutory Groups

Geographical Area: Fortune Green, West Hampstead