Finchley Road graffiti

This high-level graffiti on Finchley Road is an absolute eyesore and does nothing to improve the attractiveness of Finchley Road as a safe shopping street.

I'm asking council staff what they can do to fix this. In 2007 we introduced a new free graffiti service for private properties as well as council-owned buildings. This service is mainly organised however to deal with graffiti that is accessible from ground level, so I'm not sure how we can deal with graffiti which has been sprayed at considerable risk to the perpetrators off the roof of a three storey building.

Marking out on streets of disabled bays

Roger Freeman writes:

"We know the concern of many local people, especially those with disabled bays, about Camden Council obliterating the painting in the street marking out 'disabled bay' and 'permit holder only bay'. You need to know that this comes from a policy directive from the Ministry of Transport. Given the comments that Camden's Officers have received both from residents and ourselves as Councillors, no more sign obliteration is taking place and Camden is in talks with the Ministry of Transport to get an exemption. Traffic wardens have been instructed to take a pragmatic approach to parking infractions arising out of this."

For any comments/queries contact Roger Freeman.

New natural play areas in Camden

The Council has just announced 16 new natural play areas for children, as part of the second year of the Government's Play Pathfinders scheme (Camden is one of 20 pilot authorities).

None of the sites are in Swiss Cottage ward, though one is very close. This is partly due to lack of suitable sites (which generally have to be in council ownership already) and partly due to criteria that prioritise areas with deprivation and lack of open land.

The full list is here, the three closest sites to Swiss Cottage are:

• A site by Burnham on Adelaide Road
• A site at Iverson Road in Fortune Green
• sites at the Abbey Road Co-op and the Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate in Kilburn, in addition to the larger-scale Adventure Playground which is planned for Kilburn Grange Park in year two with Play Pathfinder funding and
• a site at the Lymington Road Estate in West Hampstead

Air quality at Swiss Cottage/Finchley Road

The air quality around Finchley Road is a serious matter of concern. Camden is required to submit a report to DEFRA each year, identifying trends in air pollution levels from all our monitoring sites.

PM10 (particulates) and NO2 levels are particularly high on the Finchley Road due to the significant levels of heavy goods traffic using this road. These breach government air quality objectives (not in fact uncommon in London) and were actually getting worse from 2004-7, though there has recently been a slight improvement.

The main monitoring station is located on the Finchley Road kerbside, so measurements will be elevated. The council also has nitrogen dioxide diffusion tubes located in residential areas around Swiss Cottage and Hampstead – many of these in fact also breach the Government's annual mean air quality objective for nitrogen dioxide, though obviously the further away a monitoring site is from a busy road the lower the NO2 levels will be.

Improving air quality is a priority for the Council and we have produced a new Air Quality Action Plan which will soon be publicly available. Unfortunately Camden has no direct control over traffic management on the Finchley Road, as this road is the responsibility of TfL. Finchley Road does fall within the London Low Emissions Zone and there should now be progressive reductions in PM10 and NOx emissions from heavy good vehicles using this road. Also, TfL are cleaning up their taxi and bus fleet, with the whole bus fleet being converted to hybrid buses over the next few years. The Mayor's new Transport Strategy and Air Quality Strategy will also be published over the next 12 months. Both this and Camden's plan will include measures to reduce traffic, improve vehicle emissions and increase sustainable transport which should help reduce air pollution levels.

Sushi bar licensing application at 75 Fairfax Road

There's a new licensing application for 75 Fairfax Rd, the old Fairfax Plaice site. You can see the details here, it's applying for alcohol sales from 11-24 seven days a week together with recorded music. Relevant representations must be received by the council by 11th June.

The applicant is T&S Enterprises (London) Limited, which seems to be a sushi bar business. If this is what they plan for Fairfax Road, it probably doesn't represent too many problems, though it was a shame that Fairfax Plaice closed - sit-down fish and chip shops have become pretty rare.

Swiss Cottage Market parking getting sorted at last..

I'm delighted that my colleague Cllr Chris Knight has overseen the introduction of special new signs that will make the vexed issue of parking around Swiss Cottage Market easier to understand and enforce. The signs, which have a motorised flip down plate, change depending on whether the market is open or closed, and should stop the use of the pedestrian market area as a free car park.

The Council decided to use the changeable signs instead of putting down double yellow lines and installing multiple signs, in order to preserve the clutter free look of the pedestrianised area. Special Department for Transport permission was granted for this approach.

The Council will continue to leaflet cars parked illegally in the area to ensure people understand the controls, as well as issuing tickets where appropriate. The new approach will ensure that residents and shoppers can make full use of the pedestrianised market without the disruption and congestion of illegally parked cars. The new signs will replace the access bollard, which was a good idea but has proved unreliable. Without a current alternative method of parking enforcement, the space was being used as a free car-park, but this should now be stopped by the new signs.

Elsworthy Road and St John’s Wood Draft Conservation Area Appraisals and Management Strategy Consultation

The Elsworthy Road Conservation Area document is about ten years old. This process is essentially an updating to produce a higher quality and up to date document. Don’t be alarmed, there is no intended weakening of the conservation area here; in fact the more up to date a conservation area appraisal is, the more planning weight it can have (the council has a rolling programme of updating these for the 40-odd conservation areas). We know some residents are sceptical about whether a conservation area “means anything”. We understand that, but do remember that if the applications for 18-20 Elsworthy had not been in a conservation area, they would probably have gone through. It does provide a measure of additional protection in many cases.

Camden’s St John’s Wood conservation area is a tiny conservation area (obviously there is big conservation area in Westminster). It consists simply of Queen’s Grove and Norfolk Rd in our patch, together with a few streets over in Kilburn. All the same points apply as to Elsworthy.

The draft documents (including maps showing the borders etc) are available online at the links below. There will be a public exhibition at Swiss Cottage Library on Wednesday 20th May from 3-7.30pm witih conservation officers on hand to answer any questions. The closing date for comments is the 16th June. I’m not sure the communications around the consultation have been as good as we would like (there was an advert in the paper this week), which is why we are sending this out.

I would stress that there will be nothing very controversial in here, and I realise most people won’t want to read through it all, but I have no doubt those most concerned with planning and conservation in the area will want to check it carefully and provide comments. There will then be a draft report coming to the Council’s Executive Environment Sub-Group (on which I sit) to approve the new conservation area appraisals, detailing the consultation feedback. Generally this body is inclined to accept comments from residents and amenity groups, who can play a valuable role in improving the documents. It’s also worth saying that the draft document makes interesting local history!

The links are here Elsworthy and St Johns Wood:

New dog bins

We've now got six new dog bins in the Gardens area, in Aberdare Gardens, Belsize Road, Harben Road, Priory Road and West End Lane. Hopefully combined with continuing education and some enforcement action (warnings and fixed penalty notices) by our street officers together with the Safer Neighbourhoods team, this should start to make a difference. Let us know what you think.

Senior Camden LibDem Activist joins the Conservatives

Nigel Rumble, a senior Lib Dem activist in Camden and member of the party’s borough executive, has resigned and joined the Conservatives.

Rumble has lived in Camden most of his life, and has a long track record as a community activist, working on housing issues and the need for extra primary places in the Belsize area. He blogs at http://belsize-activist.blogspot.com/

In a resignation letter to Keith Moffitt, Rumble explained his reasons saying:

“This was not an easy decision. It has become clear to me for some time that on national as opposed to international issues, there is often a “setting on the fence mind-set” in the Liberal Democrats, which I find this hard to accept in these difficult and challenging times.

“Locally I have become increasing frustrated at the way in which high hopes and expectations are offered to communities of Camden but with an uncertain ability on how to deliver.

“Frustration with this “setting on the fence” style of governance has helped persuade me to make this move to the Conservatives, who offer a demonstrably more inclusive community vision approach, ushered in under the leadership of David Cameron.

“At the local level here in Camden I firmly believe together with my local Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Cllr Chris Philp for the new constituency of Kilburn and Hampstead in 2010, we have the vision and business experience to deliver solid “value for money” schemes, keeping the perspective on the achievable rather than spreading thinly a veil of open-ended pleasing gestures to the electorate.

Welcoming Rumble to the Conservatives, Cllr Chris Philp said “I’m delighted to welcome Nigel to the Conservative party. He’s recognised that above all the key choice facing us in Britain and in Camden is about who will form the next Government – a bankrupt Labour party or David Cameron’s Conservatives with our progressive policies and inclusive approach.”

Camden Council Conservative leader Andrew Marshall added: “This shows how the Conservatives are now attracting people who have contributed to their communities and want to be part of a practical fresh start locally and nationally. Following on from the decisions in this seat by former Liberal Democrats Norsheen Bhatti and Havard Hughes to join us, this shows the momentum we’re gaining locally. Nigel has an outstanding track record standing up for community concerns in Belsize, and we all look forward to the contribution he’ll be bringing.”

UCL Academy timetable update

At a recent residents association meeting, we got some questions on the likely timetable for the new UCL Academy. The latest timetable is as follows:


June 2009 – start of procurement process with several bidders – companies who would construct the school as a PFI-style “Local Education Partnership” with Camden Council
June to September 2009 – development of outline solutions by the potential bidders for the Adelaide Rd site and also the expansion of South Camden Community School
October to January 2010 - development of detailed solutions with two bidders as second stage of “competitive dialogue”. Input from local community into this process
May 2010 – appointment of preferred bidder and submission of planning application (NOTE – the Adelaide Rd site received outline planning permission last year, but a full planning application (ie on the details) is still to come, with full consultation with residents
August/Sept 2010 – planning approval, contracts with successful bidder
October/November 2010 – enabling works including temporary accommodation for Academy and Swiss Cottage School
February 2011 – main Academy construction starts
September 2011 – Academy opens in temporary accommodation
September 2012 – Academy construction works complete
October 2012 – main Swiss Cottage School construction starts
February 2014 - Swiss Cottage School construction complete

We have stressed to council officers the importance of regular dialogue with residents and there will be a public information meeting in September (date to be fixed), with information being circulated to each household in advance. Obviously the full planning application has a consultation process of its own, and if planning approval is granted, then during the construction phase we would need to set up a liaison group so that residents could have direct input into the construction company and the council to minimise the construction impacts.

Leisure Centre wins bronze; learner pool reopens

Swiss Cottage leisure centre won the bronze award in the Smooth Radio Love London awards last week. The award follows the centre's success in attracting 547 people into physical activity through the Give it a Go scheme, which offered a free month's gym membership for people over 60 or on low incomes. 1118 people decided to Give it a Go through the scheme at Camden leisure centres overall, which was funded by Camden's Primary Care Trust.

As it happens, the learners pool has had to be temporarily closed this week, due to technical problems with the movable floor, but the very good news I have just heard is that it's all been sorted and it will be reopening at 7pm tonight, in time for the Fleetwell Disability Centre's class.

Welcome decision on St Johns Wood barracks plan

I'm delighted that councillors in Westminster have thrown out the proposed redevelopment of the St Johns Wood barrack, just outside Swiss Cottage ward. It was clearly overdevelopment with a very unsympathetic design for the conservation area. Very good news that the Eyre Estate and its advisors have been told to think again. Read some sensible comments from Westminster planning chief Cllr Robert Davies and the St John's Wood Society's Andrew Mainz here.

Public meeting re primary school places in the area

On Thursday 14th May 2009 from 6.30pm-8.30pm there will be a public meeting organised by Camden Council at Swiss Cottage School, Avenue Road to discuss pupil places planning in the Belsize ward and surrounding areas.

The meeting will include information on the current admissions position for pupils, arrangements for children without a school place, details of the Council’s existing plans, future pupil projections and next steps. The meeting is open to all residents in the Belsize ward and surrounding areas.

The lack of primary places, especially in community rather than church schools, in the Belsize/Swiss Cottage area has been a matter of increasing concern. Well done to my colleague Cllr Andrew Mennear, the Council's executive member for schools, on organising this meeting.

Tescos banners again..

Tescos have now got a huge banner up again on the railings by their Belsize Road local store. It's unsightly and they don't seem to have the necessary planning permission. I've chased enforcement officers on the progress of the investigation they opened last month at our urging.

Roger Freeman update on Supersave licensing review

Roger Freeman reports:

"I attended and spoke at the licensing review on Wednesday for the Supersave Off License at 93 Fairfax Road. This review was instigated by the Managing Agent for the block of flats above the off license; it followed visits by Camden's Licensing Enforcement Officers who had found infractions of the license conditions. While they did put some minor conditions, the Committee decided not to alter the licensing hours, ie the times during which alcoholic drinks can be sold; remember that neither the Licensing Committee nor indeed Camden Council have any powers to control opening hours of shops as long as they are not selling alcohol or food.

I know that many residents will share my disappointment and frustration at this outcome, especially as we approach the summer months.This is an area where the local residents can and do play a very useful eyes and ears role; contact me if you have any concerns with any of the off licenses by the Fairfax/Fairhazel roundabout."

Cllr Roger Freeman