Gondar Gardens latest and other local news updates

On 16th April residents living around the Gondar Gardens Reservoir received a letter from the new owners -Linden Homes - to say that for security reasons they intended to put hoarding around the site ( or part of it). They say: "A health and safety assessment has been carried out and there are potential risks to people accessing the site without permission. As a result we have taken to decision to hoard the site..." However they are including "vision holes" along the frontage to maintain a level of natural surveillance".

They also say "We are committed to community consultation and as plans for the site start to evolve, local residents, stakeholder groups, businesses and representatives will be fully consulted on the teams redevelopment proposals". They add they are aware of the sensitivities of the site and the SNCI designation, and "will be working hard to prepare options for redevelopment that respect these considerations".
Some local residents are not reassured by these statements and we shall all be keeping a very close eye on Linden Homes and their plans.


Note they have begun to erect the hoarding as you can see from the pictures which is neatly precisely the right height so as not to require planning permission! They plan to extend the hoarding right along the northern edge (parallel to the bottoms of the gardens of Gondar residents but not - at this stage along the backs of Agamemnon Rd nor Hillfield Road).

Meanwhile on another topic - Tescos has succeeded, despite objections from some local residents in obtaining its license to sell alcohol although only from 8.00 am and on Sundays they must stop alcohol sales at 10.30 pm. They assured the panel that the sale of alcohol in their stores is closely monitored and in fact only accounts for beween 7 and 8% of all sales!! Meanwhile the traffic and parking is still a problem but we have been assured that Camden offices will shortly propose a scheme for consultation to address the issue. (However - the West End Lane situation has been exacerbated by the roadworks in West End Lane. You do wonder why they can't all leave West Hampstead alone!!)

A new issue concening the Sager building shops has just arisen - 2 of the the three remaining "A1" retail units alongside Tescos have applied for planning permission to become one unit. If this goes ahead it could make the parking and traffic even more problematic. We will be asking Camen's traffic and planning officers to look at this carefully.

Meanwhile - just down the road, there is a plan to change the position of the recycling bins/bus shelter and access onto Fortune Green itself - this is intended to improve the "entrance" as part of the proposed works to the Green - planned for later this year. The Friends group showd plans for this at last year's Festival.
Congratulations to the Friends Group for another successful seed planting day by the way and a final point - Don't forget to put the Festival in your diary - July 3rd and 4th. More details - watch this space!

Whats in a number?

Very interesting post on one of our favourite sites - completely independent and non party political which explains very clearly why Ed Fordham stands to win Hampstead and Kilburn and why the Conservatives are well behind!
visit http://www.northwest6.net/

West Hampstead Library - Good News

West Hampstead library is soon to have a facelift and a spring clean!It will close for a couple of weeks from 10 May to 24 May.

Our local library is very busy and poular. It is open six days a week with 2 regular Rhyme Time/Baby Bounce sessions a week, a once a month social club for older people and many other events.

Believe it or not, 93,000 people visited West Hampstead library in 2009 and borrowed 73,000 items! They also used 20,000 hours of computer time! These numbers continue to go up partly because since January last year the library has increased opening hours and 200 new members joined last year.

Well, now its time for a bit of sprucing up! Improvements to the library will include:
self service for you to check items in and out more quickly, which means staff will have more time to help people find what they want, answer questions etc

a freephone to contact the Council directly for council services

more space with an improved layout and signs inside and out

and thanks to the suggestions from residents at our local West Hampstead Area Forum, a community noticeboard, new pavement, bench and planters outsde the library

All in all , a new look!
PS Don't forget, the library will also be closed on Election Day 6th May for use as a polling station!

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!