Summer Events Around West Hampstead

Here is a summary of some of the events that are taking place around West Hampstead over the summer that have been notified to us by the Camden Events team.  There are also several street parties being organised around the area over the Jubilee Weekend.

West End Green

Saturday 2nd June Wheart will be holding a Big Lunch picnic.

Kilburn Grange Park and Maygrove Park

Happy Souls, a mental health well being project.

This is a neighbourhood event hoping to use both Kilburn Grange and Maygrove on May 29th for a half- day of sports workshops.
The event is small scale and run by a local community organisation, and involving the local community.

Also Fordwych Road Residents Association are organising a party for all residents at St Cuthbert's Church which is  halfway between Maygrove Road and Mill Lane on Fordwych Road. Details on the Fordwych Road website.

On June 3rd Praise Chapel are planning a Community Big lunch family picnic event in Maygrove with a variety of activities.

July 8th is the confirmed date for the Kilburn Community Festival in Grange Park.

Irvin’s Fair are requesting a contract for Grange Park on two separate weekends in June and July. we are currently completing the arrangements and final dates with them.
Pop Up cinema event  running on the 8th and 9th September in Grange Park
Fortune Green
 The Community Jester Festival is planned for Saturday 30 June and Sunday July 1 2012. A road closure has been agreed for the Festival dates.
Ajax road will be closed to traffic and parking bays suspended.
The website address for full information on the event is www.jesterfestival.co.uk and the organisers contact details are listed. jesterfestival@gmail.com

The Friends of Fortune Green has applied to hold a Big Lunch on Sunday 3 June. .
Benson’s Fair has requested to operate on Fortune Green between August 17 and 19th. Consultations underway with Community safety teams in Camden. If permissions are granted the event will be  monitored and stewarded and all operational timings are adhered to.
If you have any other enquiries please don’t hesitate to contact Events Service at events@camden.gov.uk or call 0207 974 5633.

Parking Review

As part of the Parking Policy Review (PPR), a public engagement exercise will take place, to gauge opinion on issues relating to the size, days and hours of control of Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs), as well as on the maximum stay in pay and display bays. I would welcome your views on this issue and ask that you send your comments to parking.review@camden.gov.uk

The results of the consultation will inform where changes may be required to CPZ days and hours of control to respond to changing parking demands and lead to the development of a work programme of CPZ reviews. A report outlining the consultation responses will be considered later in the year, outlining any options for change. It is also proposed that this will be considered by the Culture and Environment Scrutiny Committee.
This questionnaire is being undertaken as part of the wider Parking Policy Review (PPR). Some changes have already been implemented and details about these can be found on the PPR web page at Parking Policy Review.
The questionnaire will be available for anyone to respond to, but direct notification will be sent to the groups below:
- Residents’ and Tenant’s Associations;
- Businesses (through business forums and monthly e-newsletter)
- minority groups such as those representing the disabled and elderly;
- individuals who have previously requested changes to CPZ hours.

The questionnaire is available on the Council’s web site for public consultation on the following link: https://consultations.wearecamden.org/culture-environment/test-fl/consult_view

Hard copies of all documents can also be obtained by emailing parking.review@camden.gov.uk (although please consider whether you really need a hard copy as we wish to keep printed material to a minimum). The public consultation ends midnight on Monday 18 June 2012.

If you have any questions about the consultation or would like further information, please contact:
Email: parking.review@camden.gov.uk
Phone: 020 7974 4639

News from the Safer Neighbourhood Team

Last Thursday the safer neighbourhood team met at the O2 centre and were pleased to hear that the police numbers locally will be up to full strength soon. One new PC and two new PCSOs have either started or are about to.

After I wrote to the Borough Commander about this, and then having raised the problem of our police numbers in the Council Chamber, the message finally got through and Sgt Dave Timms is particularly pleased he has a full strength team to lead now as we approach a busy summer.

More good news was that Jason King, who works for the O2 centre, had finally discovered who is responsible for the street lights on Blackburn Road, which is a private thoroughfare not maintained by Camden, although a public right of way.

Having established the owner is Alan Day, of car dealership fame, we now have a contact to approach if the lights go out again.

Finally, the local team was pleased to learn that the developers of the student accommodation in Blackburn Road were interested in improving Billy Fury Way. Environmental improvements, including a clean up of railway land, is being proposed. I am hopeful that the developers and the police can get together to exchange ideas so that any funding is usefully spent to improve security in this area. My colleague Gillian Risso-Gill will be pressing the developers to make contact with our local police.

Residents defeat plans for music festival

West Hampstead residents living near Kilburn Grange Park are celebrating after plans for a late night music festival to be held in the park in August were withdrawn. The promoter, Vince Power, initially applied to hold an Irish FEIS Festival lasting 18 days during the Olympics running from 11am until midnight every day and 2am at weekends with a capacity of 5,000 people. The Councillors in West Hampstead and the Kilburn Liberal Democrat team worked with local residents in opposing such a large scale event and the promoter scaled down the event to just 4 days with reduced hours and capacity. However, Councillors and residents still opposed the event, arguing that not only would the event deprive residents of access to their only local park during the summer holidays but also that the event would not meet any of the Council's Licensing Objectives of Prevention of Crime and Disorder, Public Nuisance, Public Safety and Harm to Children, particularly at a time when Police resources would be deployed elsewhere covering the Olympic sites.

As Councillors we were astounded that plans for the event were allowed to get to the licensing application stage without any consultation with residents or Councillors in West Hampstead. The park is in Kilburn Ward but the event would have caused serious disturbance to residents in the adjacent streets in West Hampstead as well as extra pressure on the transport interchange. They raised this serious issue with the Cabinet members responsible for Culture and Environment and Community Safety in the Labour Administration as well as Senior Officers.

The Council's Licensing Panel were due to make a decision about the proposal on Thursday 5th April but the promoter decided to withdraw the application before the meeting could take place, after over 110 residents, community groups, Councillors and Police had submitted objections.

It just shows that local residents and Councillors working together can have the power to prevent events that could harm the local community.

Finchley Road works between Saturday 11 February 2012 and Sunday 19 February 2012

Your West Hampstead and Fortune Green councillors have received the following advice from Transport for London about yet more gas-related roadworks affecting Finchley Road, which we've set out  below. The bad news is that these works will be taking place between Saturday 11 February 2012 and Sunday 19 February 2012 and not just on those two dates as indicated on at least one other website.

Here's the information from TfL:

Transport for London (TfL) is writing to make you aware of the upcoming traffic management changes to the ongoing NGG scheme taking place at Finchley Road at the junction with Hendon Way.

Between Saturday 11 February 2012 and Sunday 19 February 2012 Finchley Road will be reduced to one lane southbound at Hendon Way.
TfL has worked hard with NGG to look at ways of keeping two lanes open, however there is simply not enough road space to allow this, without removing a traffic island and diverting a traffic movement. This latter option was carefully considered but rejected as it would be even more disruptive.

In liaison with TfL, NGG has agreed the to take the following steps to minimise disruption:

• Increasing the number of teams to three for this stage of the works
• Working further extended hours, seven days a week, up to 23:00 where this is possible within local environmental constraints
• Changing their normal work methodology

Through doing this NGG have reduced their programme duration for this stage from 4.5 weeks to 9 days. To further minimise disruption, works will be taking place over the half term, as traffic volumes are lower.

TfL anticipate vehicular disruption in the area and to mitigate this, mobile Variable Message Signs will be in use in the area to pre warn drivers of these works. TfL’s London Streets Traffic Control Centre (LSTCC) monitor London’s roads 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with the responsibility of keeping London moving. The operators in the LSTCC will monitor this location during the works and if necessary remotely put sophisticated timing plans onto our traffic signals to help ease congestion. TfL has worked closely with the London Boroughs of Barnet and Camden in order to reduce the impact of these works on road users, local people and businesses as far as possible.

I apologise in advance for any inconvenience that may be caused because of these. Should you require further information or an update during the delivery of these works please contact our Streets Customer Services department on 0845 305 1234 or via our website at www.tfl.gov.uk/contact

Snow - what Camden Council is doing

Here's the latest update sent to councillors about what Camden Council is doing on the snow:

Fortune Green Road at 9.30 Sunday morning

We received 10-15cm of snow between 6pm and 4am this morning. The forecast for today is dry and cold with no further snow.

Because we starting gritting early yesterday and carried this out throughout the evening all priority roads remained open and many side roads are also passable with care.

We will continue to grit priority roads throughout the day and evening as necessary.

Cleaning services remain suspended today with all staff redirected to snow clearance and pavement gritting. We will focus on priority areas such as hospital entrances and high footfall areas.

Refuse collection services have been suspended this morning so staff can assist clearing snow but we expect the service to resume by 2pm today. On Sundays we only collect from the main high roads so we are not expecting this to be a significant problem and we aim to catch up with the collections when the service is resumed.

All parks are now open, but some parks on the higher ground areas, such as Waterlow and in the Kilburn area, were opened later due to access difficulties.

Parking enforcement will be affected today.

North of Euston Road, main roads only will be enforced by both CCTV and on foot patrols. Main roads are bus routes.

South of Euston Road, bus lane and moving traffic contraventions will be enforced by CCTV and there will be on street foot patrol on main roads.

More detail on Camden's website at http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/content/transport-and-streets/clean-streets/winter-weather.en

Planning Application for Hampstead Garden Centre Site in Iverson Road

A planning application has been submitted to Camden Council to develop the former Hampstead Garden Centre site on at 163 Iverson Road, West Hampstead, adjacent to the new entrance to the Thameslink station.

The application is for a development of 33 flats and three 3-storey townhouses consisting of 3 studios, one 1-bedroom, 23 2-bedroom and nine 3-bedroom units. 7 of the units will be for "affordable" housing.

The design is similar to the one presented to the Development Forum held at the Sidings Community Centre in late 2011, the "treehouse" concept on stilts is still there but the "aircraft wing" element has been replaced.

A constraint on the proportion of "affordable" housing included appears to be the bespoke design and high quality materials.

The application can be viewed at www.camden.gov.uk/planningsearch at reference No. 2012/0099/P. The closing date to submit comments is 17th February, 2012

Please let your Councillors have your views on this application, either on this blog or by email.