Catching up on August -riots,childrens fair, Thameslink and local police

Although few council meetings are held in August and lots of people are away (including me) there is always something going on that's worthy of comment.

First of all - I was in Spain during the "riots" and it was rather bizarre watching it all from hundreds of miles away but glad West Hampstead and Kilburn seemed to have escaped the worst of it (although Fortune Green ward certainly had its one casualty - the CarPhone Warehouse on Finchley Road.)

The Council has set up 3 "Community Summits" to discuss recent events with residents/businesses etc - there is one in Kilburn on
Tuesday 6 September:
Kingsgate Community Centre
6.30pm – 8.30pm

So what else has been happening?

There was a "childrens fair" on part of Fortune Green 19-21 August.

This caused some local residents' complaints as they had not been properly notified in advance (in some cases not at all) The noise of the generator and potential parking problems were two issues but the lack of consultation was the greatest annoyance although I had specifically asked the Council's Parks officers to ask the most immediately affected neighbours (some are only a few feet away from the Green) for their views! In the event it didn't cause as much trouble as some had feared and those residents with small children seemed to enjoy it. Would love to know what others thought of it.!

Another issue hit my post bag - I had an email from one concerned resident who had heard that the "Black Path" entrance to Thameslink station was to be closed. After a scurry of emails we got the following response:

"We confirm that this entrance will remain open. They are due to undertake works to install a covered area plus ticket barriers at the existing entrance and this will require temporary closure of this entrance. The northern entrance will be out of operation for approximately 12 weeks from Mid November. Afraid some disruption but thankfully temporary"
So if you heard the rumour of closure - don't worry!

A final piece of news is that Fortune Green is to "share" a Safer Neighbourhood Sergeant with West Hampstead - we lose our Acting Sgt - Aaron Clark - and will now share West Hampstead Sgt Dave Timms. Sgt Timms writes
"As of 1st September 2011 I take over formal responsibility for both Fortune Green and West Hampstead SNTs. I appreciate that the issues of SNTs 'sharing' sergeants and which Wards should be involved has been ongoing for a few months, however this week decisions have been made.I am looking forward to meeting with Aaron Clarke when I return from leave and having a handover period. Aaron, as I believe you are aware, has spent much of the last two weeks on 'Aid' and I have not been able to discuss much with him. I don't anticipate too much change with how the Teams work; they do sometimes work together now, as at the Jester Festival this Summer and during the recent high visibility reassurance patrols.Each SNT will continue with their own Panel Meetings and I will endeavour to attend both. I am aware that your next Panel Meeting is scheduled to take place at the base at 7.30pm on Monday 12th September and I aim to be there.I have discussed with both Teams 'a public meeting'. As last year we are hoping to have a joint Fortune Green and West Hampstead Public Meeting to take place at the Synagogue Community Hall at 1930 on Wednesday 21st September 2011. I will be arranging to have members of both teams present, and representatives from the Youth Violence Team, British Transport Police and Special Constables. We will also have displays of recent work carried out by the Teams.I would appreciate it if you could disseminate the above information to the Fortune Green Panel members. Best wishes, Dave Timms PS 4EK

Camden in the riots

Regular readers will know that we rarely mention other parts of the Borough/City on this blog - however, I thought people would be interested to see what was happening tonight in response to the threat of rioting.

Coming home up through Camden Town - it brought home the full impact on our area- even though there had been only minor disturbance in Camden compared to the scale of what has been seen in other boroughs.

Everywhere was boarded-up or being boarded-up unless they had metal grills already.  The few exceptions were kebab and burger shops that looked as though they intended to sta open.

There was a very substantial police presence as I passed by at 8:00pm and things were calm.  However, the Chalk Farm area had been the focus of activity in the borough last night - so it seems like shops were given extra warnings.

Finchley Road I didn't notice any difference to normal.  West End Lane - Sainsbury's was closed early - and Domino's Pizza was putting up protective boards.

Kilburn High Road also didn't have much boarding - but did have a heavy police presence.

Car Phone Warehouse seemed to be taking extra precautions as they've clearly been a target in other places.  The Camden Town branch had a notice saying all stock had been removed - and Kilburn High Road said it was closed for renovations. I hear their fairly isolated store on Finchley Road was attacked last night.  How bizarre to attack that store - it goes to show how much opportunism there is amongst the theives.

I heard unconfirmed reports that Cricklewood Broadway McDonalds had been attacked - which no doubt explained why there were more than a dozen police officers outside the Kilburn branch.

Whilst I was speaking to a police officer a young girl from a flat 2 stories above us called down to ask the officer if he was using plastic bullets.  At first I thought she was worried if he was - but it was soon obvious she would very much welcome him being armed with baton rounds to protect her local area.

Isn't it awful that that despite the massive, welcome, but delayed police response the streets are so intimidating; that such London feels a lot less safe than it did last week and that we're bring made to retreat further into our homes by the gangs.

West End Lane was relatively free of hoardings compared to Camden Town - Just Domino's taking precautions around 9:00pm on Tuesday.