Roger Freeman was at the Feb 22nd Public Meeting of the Swiss Cottage Safer Neighbourhood Team.
Crime figures in the three tracked categories- Burglary, vehicle crime and robbery/snatches- were down a bit over the last three months compared to 12 months earlier. There continues to be issues with opportunistic break in to vehicles to steal things on display and burglaries arising from unlocked tool sheds and access from communal Gardens still features.
6 people have been arrested for burglaries in the Gardens area.
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Monday, 27 February 2012
Sunday, 26 February 2012
Peacocks closes on Finchley Rd, SpecSavers opens...
More bad news than good news on the health of the Finchley Road Shopping Arcade. The new owners of Peacocks decided that the Finchley Road branch was one of the branches to be closed; this happened on Wednesday. The restaurant/coffee shop next to it closed just before Christmas. This bad news has been partially offset by the opening this weekend of SpecSavers next to the old Peacocks store.
The state of Finchley Rd as a shopping centre is naturally of concern to us as ward councillors, though the council's direct ability to influence local retailing is limited. The council does have some commercial properties on the road, though not in this strip. The issue with commercial properties is of course that maximising rent is important for funding other council activities, so it's not easy when as the local authority there are a variety of conflicting policy aims.
The state of Finchley Rd as a shopping centre is naturally of concern to us as ward councillors, though the council's direct ability to influence local retailing is limited. The council does have some commercial properties on the road, though not in this strip. The issue with commercial properties is of course that maximising rent is important for funding other council activities, so it's not easy when as the local authority there are a variety of conflicting policy aims.
Takeaway use at 47 Fairfax Rd refused by Camden Planning Committee
The application to convert the shop at 47 Fairfax Road (currently trading as Hampstead Gallery Antiques) into a takeaway has been refused planning permission, as such a takeaway would result in an increase in late night activity, noise and disturbance to the detriment of the amenity of local residents.
Saturday, 18 February 2012
Review of Camden's parking controls coming up
We've got some updated information from Camden officers on this. The public engagement exercise will take the form of an online questionnaire which will include questions regarding controlled parking zone hours of control, whether the current hours are too long or too short, and if weekend parking controls are needed in zones that don’t already have them. The questionnaire will also ask for opinions on the maximum stays in pay & display bays across the borough.
The questionnaire will be available on Camden’s website for anyone to respond to with paper copies available on request. It has been somewhat delayed but will now be available from early March. The Council will be notifying all resident associations when the questionnaire is finalised with the dates on which the engagement will start and finish.
Obviously we as ward councillors will be trying to ensure the review is genuine and any changes represent a real improvement. We would just add though that in parking zone and hours policy, it is often hard to reconcile differing resident views and get consensus, not least in areas like Swiss Cottage where there is great pressure on parking places.
The questionnaire will be available on Camden’s website for anyone to respond to with paper copies available on request. It has been somewhat delayed but will now be available from early March. The Council will be notifying all resident associations when the questionnaire is finalised with the dates on which the engagement will start and finish.
Obviously we as ward councillors will be trying to ensure the review is genuine and any changes represent a real improvement. We would just add though that in parking zone and hours policy, it is often hard to reconcile differing resident views and get consensus, not least in areas like Swiss Cottage where there is great pressure on parking places.
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Harben estate heating update
This has been a terrible situation and we've a number of questions we'll be asking the Council, but in the meantime we've been pressing for the fastest action to restore heating and hot water. Below is the latest update from the Council, which is encouraging, especially with the temporary boiler, but it cannot come soon enough.. We'll update as we get more info.
"The first new boiler (boiler 1) is now built and awaiting final connections, ready for commissioning tomorrow morning. The Partners engineers worked through the night and will complete later this evening ready to commission.
The second new boiler (boiler 2) will be installed on completion of (boiler 1), we anticipate that this will be completed before the end of the week .
In the meantime we have ordered a temporary boiler which is likely to be on site and operational by Wednesday.
We will have throughput tomorrow which will be noticeable by the residents before tomorrow evening and subsequent additions to this throughout the remainder of the week, the two new boilers running the system will hold up the base demand with the temporary plant providing back up."
"The first new boiler (boiler 1) is now built and awaiting final connections, ready for commissioning tomorrow morning. The Partners engineers worked through the night and will complete later this evening ready to commission.
The second new boiler (boiler 2) will be installed on completion of (boiler 1), we anticipate that this will be completed before the end of the week .
In the meantime we have ordered a temporary boiler which is likely to be on site and operational by Wednesday.
We will have throughput tomorrow which will be noticeable by the residents before tomorrow evening and subsequent additions to this throughout the remainder of the week, the two new boilers running the system will hold up the base demand with the temporary plant providing back up."
Sunday, 5 February 2012
Sunday night snow update
Latest update from Camden Council as of 1800 Sunday:
No snow is forecast tonight but the temperature is set to drop below zero, so the greatest hazard is road and pavement surfaces freezing over.
The gritting of priority roads will continue through the evening and early morning as necessary.
All cleaning services will remain suspended tomorrow with staff re-diverted to clearing ice and gritting pavements and side roads from 6am.
Grit bins will be topped up tonight.
The usual Sunday refuse collection service – which is collections from main roads - was resumed earlier today.
A decision will be made on domestic refuse collection services tomorrow at 5.30am.
We will put out a further update tomorrow morning before 9.30am updating you about other affected services.
We are not anticipating the severe weather to affect schools opening or staff getting into work using public transport.
Please continue to check our winter weather web pages for the latest service information.
No snow is forecast tonight but the temperature is set to drop below zero, so the greatest hazard is road and pavement surfaces freezing over.
The gritting of priority roads will continue through the evening and early morning as necessary.
All cleaning services will remain suspended tomorrow with staff re-diverted to clearing ice and gritting pavements and side roads from 6am.
Grit bins will be topped up tonight.
The usual Sunday refuse collection service – which is collections from main roads - was resumed earlier today.
A decision will be made on domestic refuse collection services tomorrow at 5.30am.
We will put out a further update tomorrow morning before 9.30am updating you about other affected services.
We are not anticipating the severe weather to affect schools opening or staff getting into work using public transport.
Please continue to check our winter weather web pages for the latest service information.
Snow update
Had good walk around ward. Priority roads gritted but of course that's not most roads. Plan and Budget for winter weather was agreed by last LD/Con administration and unchanged by current Lab one, so no grounds for party point scoring. Need to check further on how well grit bins working. Am sure Don will also have update from his end of the ward. Ideally we'd be able to do more on estates given older residents and will check on this. Couple of pics below. Raising a few problem points with officers shortly.
Our colleague Cllr Gio Spinella reminds us of the gritbin location map across Camden, highlighting the bins at Goldhurst/Priory and the Belsize Rd roadabout for example.
Our colleague Cllr Gio Spinella reminds us of the gritbin location map across Camden, highlighting the bins at Goldhurst/Priory and the Belsize Rd roadabout for example.
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