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.

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

£1 million boost for West Hampstead Overground

£1 million boost for West Hampstead Overground

Just announced by Norman Baker, the Lib Dem Rail minister at the Department for Transport:
West Hampstead Overground station will have disabled lifts installed with a £1 million investment as part of the government's Access for All programme.
Here is the DfT's press release; and here is the list of the winners. Also on the same line Hampstead Heath and Kensal Rise are also set to get similar improvements.
The most important thing about this announcement is the impact the station improvements will have on Ballymore's West End Square proposals (see previous post).
If the developers and Overground don't get together and work out how to get the best of the currently cramped entrance to the Overground station it will be a massive missed opportunity.
With the new Thameslink station about to open (and its lifts already operational), our transport future is definitely looking brighter
!

Against siphoning-off Fortune Green to Finchley and Golders Green

Below is the join submission by councillors in West Hampstead and Fortune Green against proposals to put Fortune Green in with the parliamentary constituency of Finchley and Golders Green.

You can put in your own views by going to http://consultation.boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk/

We, the councillors of the wards of Fortune Green and West Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden, are writing to express our concerns about the Boundary Commissions initial proposals. The suggestion that the wards of Fortune Green and West Hampstead are split between two different constituencies which cross two different local authorities is ill judged. Leaving this arbitrary line on a map unaddressed will lead to confusion and frustration for years ahead.

We understand that administrative boundaries will always have an element of arbitrariness about them. However, splitting Fortune Green and West Hampstead is so arbitrary to be perverse.

We therefore wish to add our voice to others who we believe have also contacted you about this issue - including local residents, local amenity groups, local clergy, Camden Council and the three main political parties. All these, and more have advanced arguments about keeping West Hampstead and Fortune Green together.

Throughout our close interest in this matter we have found no-one in the area who considers the current proposal to be a good solution.

West Hampstead is a much larger area than that covered by the Camden ward.  Most people living in Fortune Green ward consider themselves to live in West Hampstead. Indeed large parts of West Hampstead and Fortune Green used to be contained in a ward called West End ward.

The sense of belonging to a single community and the facilities jointly used is an important factor and should not be lightly dismissed.  Shared facilities in our area include libraries, shopping precincts, community festivals and schools. All these are considered by residents of West Hampstead and Fortune Green to be central to their community life. They are also often the focus of political controversies and most people wish their MP to have a common identification with the same area that they have concerns about.

However, in addition this sense of community – there are a number of organisations which have set up links across the ward boundaries that would be hindered by splitting the parliamentary boundary across West Hampstead and Fortune Green:

·        The Police Safer Neighbourhoods teams in the two wards work in tandem and share a common Sergeant.  As a united force they work well understanding the whole community on both sides of the arbitrary ward division.

·        The Area Action Group (a council based consultation forum) is set up on a ward by ward basis across most of the borough. However, West Hampstead and Fortune Green have so many issues in common it is always chosen to run their meetings jointly.

 ·        One of Fortune Green's primary schools, Emmanuel, is currently having a new building completed across the road in West Hampstead.  They will retain the existing building so will be split across the two constituencies. But would their MP be the one for Fortune Green or West Hampstead?

·        West Hampstead Business Forum is building useful links between traders in the area, drawing active members from both West Hampstead and Fortune Green wards.

·        The local transport and amenity group WHAT comes together and makes representations to political bodies about proposals affecting the area.  Their work will be much more complicated if they are looking to two MPs.

There are many more such initiatives which aim to overcome the lines drawn across this natural community by administrative necessity. We spend much of our time as councillors supporting such moves. Splitting these wards would do much to undermine this work and would be a massive retrograde step.

In addition to the concerns about natural communities, we are very concerned about the administrative complexity your current proposals will have. 

We have experience of parliamentary boundaries crossing borough boundaries from the 2010 General Election when Hampstead and Kilburn crossed the boroughs of Camden and Barnet. The problems this brought about for Camden’s administrative team were significant. The boundary commission’s current proposals would have Camden officers working across 5 borough boundaries (Camden, Barnet, Brent, Westminster and The City of London).

It is significant that a central plank of Camden Council’s own submission that the number of borough crossings should be reduced.

In order to overcome all these problems – we propose a simple solution.

The London borough of Barnet contains enough electors to have three constituencies within the +/-5% criteria set down by parliament.  However, your self-imposed rule - without any legislative justification – is that existing ward boundaries may not be split. Barnet’s wards are particularly large. If just 1 ward in Barnet was shared amongst two (or potentially three) of the Barnet constituencies there would be no need to make up the numbers by bringing in Fortune Green to Finchley and Golders Green.

It is our strong contention that this solution is much simpler administratively. The administrative problems that would result from splitting one ward between 2 (or three) constituencies within the same borough would be small compared to crudely appending one ward of a different borough would do – especially considering the community confusion caused to the greater West Hampstead area your proposals will cause.

We therefore urge you to reconsider your self-imposed rule where you will only draw parliamentary boundaries on top of existing ward boundaries and create three Barnet constituencies within the borough of Barnet.

For these cultural and administrative reasons we add our voices to the many who have urged you not to split the West Hampstead and Fortune Green communities, and instead keep Barnet self-contained and administratively simple.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr Russell Eagling (Fortune Green) Cllr Nancy Jirira (Fortune Green) Cllr Flick Rea (Fortune Green) Cllr John Bryant (West Hampstead) Cllr Keith Moffitt (West Hampstead) Cllr Gillian Risso-Gill (West Hampstead)

Benches and Beggars

At the West Hampstead Safer Neighbourhood Team meeting on Thursday 10th November the panel heard about the latest work the team has been doing to address the problems caused by street beggars in our area.

The previous work of the team led to the discovery that most beggars on our streets, usually operating close to stations, are not homeless at all but use their begging skills to feed drug or alcohol habits. The police liaise with Camden Council's street services team to ensure appropriate interventions for support are made, but eventually our local police team has applied and secured ASBOs against those who persist.

Currently the team are monitoring four people at different locations and will apply for ASBO's if necessary. The discussion reminded me of a current consultation taking place in response to requests for more street benches in our area.

Currently the Council is considering requests received from community groups for four new benches at -

1) West Hampstead Library (1-18 Dennington Park Road)

The bench would be at the back of the footway, between the two existing trees.

2) The pavement outside Sanoling, (260 West End Lane)

The bench could be located either at the front of the footway, opposite the Sanoling Chinese Medical shop, or in the middle of the footway, in line with the existing tree.

3) The footway opposite Unique Star (222 West End Lane)

The bench would be located between the tree and the lamp post at this site.

4) On the footway outside Pizza Express (319 West End Lane)

The bench would be located at the front of the footway, between a sign post and a lamp post.

What your ward councillors are trying to weigh up is the balance between the needs of the elderly and disabled who need a place for a breather when out shopping, and the potential for the benches to be commandeered by street drinkers or beggars.

Please let us know if you have strong views either way. I don't think there is a case for all 4 benches and so expressing a favourite position for one would help.

The panel on Thursday night suggested using the new space created by the new Thameslink station on Iverson Road as a further possible location. What do you think?

Traffic and Cycling Consultations for West Hampstead

Camden Council are carrying out two consultations with West Hampstead residents:

1) Introducing a 20mph limit on West End Lane and residential streets on the west side and traffic calming measures including repositioning of islands and changes to the footways.
2)Improvements in cycle permeability to provide safer cycling routes between Kilburn High Road and Finchley Road. The principal road to be affected in West Hampstead is Sherriff Road, but other roads in Kilburn and Swiss Cottage Wards are affected.
Information leaflets on both consultations are available online at www.camden.gov.uk/consultations.
Responses must be received by 11th November 2011, including your postal address.