Cycle Superhighway may not be so super for buses

Amidst the controversy raging around the Cycle Superhighway (CSII) scheme one aspect seems to have been largely overlooked – not the least by Transport for London. At a time when TfL is about to reduce the numbers of bus routes using the Finchley Road, it is ensuring by the proposed new road arrangements at Swiss Cottage that the remaining buses will be subject to delay.

I have challenged TfL over these delays which they admit will affect northbound buses by an "up to 2 minutes" delay (which in my book means at least twice as much!) So why would anybody choose to switch from their car to a bus?

I also think it is unwise to proceed with the scheme until the question of the HS2 traffic is sorted or there may well be the sort of traffic overspill chaos the scheme’s opponents are predicting especially in view of the unknown effects of the monstrous Avenue Road development.

Everyone wants pleasant safe green travel but at the moment I'm not sure the left hand of TfL knows what the right hand is doing. They need to sort it out for the sake of all of us, particularly the unfortunate residents in the vicinity of Swiss Cottage.

War on Waste - is it Armageddon?

Bursting bin bags everywhere -Is this the future?

In April Camden’s new waste 

contract comes in to force.

This has caused widespread

concern in the north of the

Borough with the flames

fanned for political reasons

with talk of "bin bias". This
will run on possibly until
the next Council Elections
in May 2018.


Admittedly it is our area (as well as NW3 & 5) who will see their weekly “general waste” collection go from weekly to fornightly (recycling remains weekly) and this will indubitably bring problems.

The fact that Camden Council is performing very poorly in achieving its recycling targets (and has even fallen back since the days of the Lib Dem led administration 2006-10 ) plus the need to cut costs has led them to consider a new strategy coinciding with a new waste contract. The theory being that if you encourage people to recycle more, you can reduce the amount that goes to landfill and the number of times you have to pick up general waste thus reducing cost.

The strategy is laudable but the way Camden proposes to implement it is extremely ill-conceived and the poorly thought out communications are only making it worse. At present it is difficult to see how it can work without costing a lot more, leaving much of the Borough in a mess and annoying many of its residents.

To make it clear – most of the North of the Borough – except for housing estates - are proposed to continue weekly recycling including food waste while “general waste” ( ie everything else) will only be picked up once a fortnight.

In most of NW6/2 the average property has a front outside space barely big enough to hold one bin, let alone several where the house has been subdivided into flats. But the Council has waved a magic wand over such streets and declared: “homes chosen for fortnightly pickups have large outside storage spaces so rubbish will not spill into the street".

This, not to put too fine a point on it,  is “rubbish”!  But the Council is prepared to be “flexible” – or so it says. I recently met a group of concerned local residents with officers who talked through potential problems with them. You can accept a new general waste “wheelie” or opt for orange bags which you can continue to store in a regular rubbish bin.  If you have young children, please note, nappies can be collected separately while if you are vulnerable or elderly you can have an “assisted collection” and you don’t actually have to put your bags/bins etc on the pavement.

The problem will arise chiefly from those multiply occupied properties with short term tenants who will not know or understand the rules and just bung everything into the nearest bin or leave bulging carrier bags by the bins. This could certainly lead to a build-up of uncollected and festering rubbish, as some people believe and it will need a great deal of time/better information /education for landlords and letting agents as well as tenants.

So will the new contract lead to a rubbish apocalypse? Better levels of recycling at lower cost? Or just a proportion of disgruntled residents who – like most of us – dislike change? Time will tell!