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!!