Streets upgrade around West Hampstead rail interchange

The Council's consulting local residents on their views about plans to spruce up the busy streets around the West Hampstead rail interchange: widening paths, improving pedestrian crossings and providing new bus stops to enhance the look and feel of the area, ease congestion and make it safer for pedestrians. Details here, after analysing the consultation responses, the Environment Committee will decide on the appropriate measures in October.


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Food waste collection extends into parts of Swiss Cottage

Roger Freeman visited the Camden recycling centre to discuss the new weekly food and garden waste collection service coming in next week in parts of the ward. Starting next week Camden's trial for this collection comes in for the Elsworthy/King Henry's Road and Winchester Road area. Caddies for collection of food waste are being distributed and roads in these areas will have a weekly collection of dry recycling and a separate one for food waste, as well of course as the two standard general refuse collections. Starting April next year this service will be extended to the whole borough including the rest of Swiss Cottage Ward.

Another excellent development: as of October you will be able to put tetrapak and mixed plastics in the general dry recycling.

More detail on QK/Marlborough Hill schools redevelopment

Westminster officers are sending out a letter to nearby Camden residents with a bit more detail on timetable. Not sure how far from the site this is being delivered. The following is text from the letter:

The following plans relate to the first phase of consultation which concerns George Eliot Infant and Junior Schools and Beachcroft School (Pupil Referral Unit).

Late September/early October 2009 – two evenings mid-week, when we will update you on the scheme. This will focus on the new George Eliot Schools and the southern end of the site. At this event we would also like to hear your views on the site masterplan, particularly the facilities you would like to see, and any you would make use of, on the site as a whole.
Early November – two evenings mid-week, when we will show you how the designs have been developed in the light of the issues raised at the previous consultation and listen to your ideas on any final refinements that may be needed before the planning submission.
November 17th, St John's Wood Forum – Discussion of the proposed site masterplan and community uses.
Late November/early December – A planning submission will be made for the new George Eliot and Beachcroft Schools.
December 2009/January 2010 – A public exhibition to coincide with the statutory planning consultation period.
First quarter of 2010 – Formal consideration by a Planning Committee.
Second quarter 2010 – Start on site of Phase 1 works.
Following the planning application, plans for the main secondary school scheme and community facilities will be developed further. These will be subject to further relevant consultation processes in the New Year.

Planning application on Haines plant hire site, Loudoun Road

This application is now in, and nearby residents should receive a letter from Camden Planning asking for comments on the application - these need to be received by 7th August.

The proposal is for the redevelopment of the site to provide a part-four, part-seven and part-eight storey building to provide 42 dwellings with associated access, car parking, cycle storage, servicing and landscaping. It would be car-free, ie no residents would be eligible for a parking permit.

To view the application, click here and then search by putting in the application number 2009/2946/P. You can then send in comments to env.devcon@camden.gov.uk.

Roger Freeman and Andrew Marshall are members of the Development Control committee which will determine the application, so cannot express a view at this stage. Our colleague Don Williams is more than happy to work to represent residents views in the consultation and at the Development Control meeting.

New lighting arrives in Acol/Aberdare/Goldhurst

It's difficult to take an interesting photo of a street light, but I'm delighted the new lighting has arrived, for which Roger Freeman and many local residents have campaigned for a long time.

It's white light, which is substantially better and has been shown to double driver peripheral vision and increase driver brake reaction time at least 25%.

I was intrigued by the different styles of lights and council officers explained that the lighting columns in Aberdare and Acol are side entry style and therefore lanterns were fitted to suit this application. In Goldhurst they are what is known as a post top fitting so in keeping with the area staff fitted the most suitable post top lantern. The light source is the same on both these lighting units.

Factoids of progress..

The Council's annual report is being approved by the Executive on Thursday (along with many other important items including primary school places and the Local Development Framework). A couple of factoids caught my eye that may be of wider interest:

In the last year, the number of car club bays in Camden has grown from 66 to 92 bays and is still growing. Very encouragingly, car club membership, with a variety of operators, has risen from 2051 to 4050 and is still growing fast. Camden is part of the "Car Crunch London Scheme" whereby if you give up a resident's permit, you get 2 years free membership with a car club operator.

In the last year, the Council has requested that 670 new residential units are "car free", which means that no parking is permitted either on site or on the street. In addition another 160 units are "car capped", which means parking is permitted on site, but not on the street.

The Camden Activity Zone site, which was launched last year as a one-stop online service to help young people find out about events and activities locally, has now attracted 12,255 visits, of which 6,849 were unique users.

Overall usage on the Council's website rose by 27% over the year, with use of electronic forms up by 27% Over 200 different e-forms can now be lodged on the website, and the Council gets about 9,500 e-forms a month now. None of this means we shouldn't still provide other means of accessing services, but this efficiency can help improve both customer service and cost.

Camden Council is backing the London cycle hire scheme

The Evening Standard had a seriously misinformed story on Wednesday that suggested Camden wasn't supporting Boris Johnson's cycle hire scheme. Nothing could be further from the truth, in fact the Environment Committee approved the plan this week to get all our docking stations ready on time. Here's the reply our colleague Chris Knight sent to the paper to set the record straight:


Dear Sir,

Your article on the London Cycle Hire Scheme misrepresents Camden Council’s position. We are committed to playing our part in bringing this new and exciting environmentally friendly form of public transport to London.

As we all know space is extremely limited in central London so a few pay and display parking bays in our borough could be converted to docking stations.

This is a far cry from defying the plans as your article ‘Councils reject cycle hire plan to keep parking cash’ states. We think the benefits of introducing the cycle hire scheme far outweigh this small loss of parking revenue.

Right now we are finalising where sites for the docking stations which will complement Camden’s local streets. We are involving residents, businesses and interested parties to make sure the sites are where they should be – for example making sure they don’t block pedestrians’ way .

Cycling is a quick, affordable and environmentally friendly way to travel and a great way to get active and have fun. The new cycle scheme will make it much easier for people to make more of their journeys this way or even try out cycling for the first time.

Cllr Chris Knight
Executive Member for Environment
Camden Council

Preserving conservation areas and Article 4 directions

Tonight, at my urging, Camden's Environment Committee postponed the introduction of Article 4 directions in the Holly Lodge Estate Conservation Area in Highgate, therefore not approving the officers' recommendations in the committee report to introduce Article 4.

The background is complicated, but in essence we've not yet been able to persuade residents on the estate that Article 4 directions are vital to preserving the architectural detail that makes the Holly Lodge estate special. These directions, which are in common use in other London boroughs, take away residents "permitted development rights", ie various small categories of external work that don't usually need planning permission. Residents in an area with Article 4s do have to apply for planning permission for such work, so that it can be controlled and period features retained and renewed. Article 4s are really the tool that gives teeth to conservation areas, as English Heritage outlines on its website highlighting conservation areas at risk.

In Holly Lodge we'll see where things end up next year when we consult on the update of the Conservation Area appraisal and on Article 4. Hopefully residents and the local CAAC will generate a better understanding of the necessity of Article 4s.

This decision, in the fairly unique circumstances of the Holly Lodge estate, in no way lessens our commitment to bring in Article 4 directions in Hampstead, Belsize and Swiss Cottage conservation areas, with consultation from September to December starting with Belsize in late September for six weeks. But as we've said, there needs to be a significant degree of support for Article 4s to work and become largely self policing.

Swiss Cottage Community Festival

A great festival yesterday, despite the rain. We are a disparate community and days like this bring us together, help us get to know our neighbours, and demonstrate that together we can often achieve more for the place we live in.

Thanks to everyone from the Committee, the Community Centre, SCAP, the Council, the Winch etc who helped organise it, and thanks to everyone who ran stalls and activities.

Here's Cllr Don Williams and Erim Metto of the Community Centre about to launch the balloons at the end of the day...

Quinton Kynaston/George Elliot schools redevelopment

Yesterday I went to the exhibition held by Westminster Council’s Childrens Department on the redevelopment of Quinton Kynaston (QK) and George Elliot (GE) schools. It’s a very early stage consultation (and unfortunately very poorly advertised in the adjoining areas of Camden); there will be a bigger consultation in the autumn and there aren’t detailed plans at present, just concept boards. But it’s a big scheme which will affect residents in our ward – in terms of education, construction, movement of children and traffic – so this is a longer post capturing what I learnt. Naturally as ward councillors for Swiss Cottage, we will be looking to represent the interests and concerns of our residents as it goes forward.

QK and GE are substandard 1960s buildings that no longer do a good job for children. Westminster has now secured Government funding under the “Building Schools for the Future” programme and the primary capital programme to rebuild QK and GE. Originally the idea was extensive renovation and some rebuilding of QK, but the plan now is for a full rebuild of QK and GE.

Around 37% of QK pupils and over 95% of GE pupils are from Camden, many from Swiss Cottage, so the improved education facilities this rebuild will offer are important considerations, especially as QK has become such a high performing school in recent years.

The project will take place in several stages, allowing both schools to continue operating throughout the redevelopment, so that children’s education is not disrupted. This is the rationale behind the plan to move GE from the northern end of the site to the southern end. The new GE would be built at the southern end, which is mainly open space at present, and when complete GE would move to the new building, which would then allow construction of the first phase of the new QK on the northern end of the site.

This move of GE to the southern end of the site seems quite fixed with Westminster officers, for the reasons above, and it’s one of the elements with the biggest implications for our residents.

Pupil numbers – there is no meaningful increase planned in the roughly 1,500 pupils now on this site. The only addition is that the Beachcroft Pupil Referral Unit (24 pupils) is also coming on the site.

Community facilities - The plan is for a couple of health rooms, presumably with nurses – not a GP surgery but providing some services for pupils and their parents. A stronger Police presence is also planned, as the police as keen to move their Abbey Road ward Safer Neighbourhood team here.

Community sports facilities – these would include a full size astro turf pitch (of great interest given what we lost in the Swiss Cottage redevelopment!).

Floor area and bulk – there is no overall increase in the total floor area or bulk on the site, partly because modern education construction, apparently, is more space efficient than in the 1960s.

Height – the maximum height is likely to be five storeys, whereas at present the school goes up to six storeys. But with QK at the middle and northern end of the site, clearly there will be more height and bulk there, and this will be a key concern for Hilgrove estate residents in particular. The slope of the site will mitigate this somewhat.

Greenery – the plan is to maintain and even increase the green fringe of trees around the site.

There is no sell-off of land for other purposes, nor any housing planned. The private nursery on the Marlborough Hill side of the site will stay, as it has a long lease. This, plus the American school beyond the site to the south, do some cause school run traffic in Marlborough Hill.

Travel to school – the data shows that very small numbers of secondary QK pupils are taken to school by car (as is true for all Camden secondary schools). A higher proportion of primary GE pupils travel by car, with problems in terms of illegal use of the Hilgrove estate internal road by parents for this purpose.

Pupil access to the schools - Some thought has been given to how pupils would get into and out of the school. One of the considerations is that simply using a single entrance on Finchley Road is potentially dangerous, given the traffic and the volume of young people involved. The initial thinking is that different gates would be opened and closed at different times of the day. So one of the entrances would on Boundary Road, but this would not be used for exit, which would be via Marlborough Hill and Finchley Road. It is also hoped that by making the central area of the campus more attractive, pupils would be less likely to wander outside at lunchtime, for example hanging around the chip shop on Loudoun Road.

GE catchment area – as GE would move to the south, its catchment area would slightly change. In particular, once the St Johns Wood barracks site with its social housing flats is built, it would be likely that perhaps 6-7 pupils a year from that estate would be closer than Camden children, adding slightly to the current challenges we have with primary places in Swiss Cottage/Belsize/West Hampstead.

Planning permission – the demolition and rebuild will of course need planning permission. This would go to Westminster planning committee, perhaps late this year after the more detailed consultation process in the autumn. As the applicant is Westminster Council, the special protections that apply when the applicant is also the planning authority would apply. Nearby Camden residents will be consulted and will have the right to written submissions and deputations. As your councillors, we will be ready to go to Westminster’s planning committee to represent the concerns of our residents.

Construction – construction noise and traffic is undoubtedly one of the most worrying aspects of a scheme like this. There aren’t detailed plans yet, but two constraints are obviously the fact that turning around on Finchley Road is impossible, and that the residential streets to the west of the site have residents parking and lorries need to be kept off these streets if they are not going to cause gridlock. One possibility is a one way system only for construction traffic, in other words north on Finchley Road, west on Boundary Rd, south on Marlborough Hill and east on Marlborough Place. There would be a construction management plan to manage the impact as much as possible, with a liaison group involving local residents.


So it’s a big scheme on which there will be many views locally. As ward councillors, we’d like to work closely with residents associations and active residents in the parts of our Swiss Cottage ward that are most affected, so we can get as much of what we all want as possible out of the consultation and planning process. Please let us know what you think, and we'll add you to our email list for updates on this.

Quinton Kynaston redevelopment - information session on Friday

As we just heard, Quinton Kynaston and George Elliot schools are going to see a major redevelopment, with the main entrance potentially moving north, with implications for Swiss Cottage ward residents.

We've just learned that there is an information session being held by Westminster Council staff at QK between 2-6pm tomorrow Friday. Communication by Westminster to Camden residents (and councillors) nearby has been very poor, a point I have made at a senior level. I'll be there towards the end of the session tomorrow to meet Westminster education officers and understand more, so we can stand up for the legitimate concerns of our residents over traffic, construction issues etc.

Swiss Cottage Community Festival this Saturday

Here's hoping for decent weather this Saturday for the Community Festival, running from noon until 8pm. My colleague Don Williams, who is chairing the hard working committee, tells me that attractions will include: live bands, family games, the outdoor gym launch, football tournament, flea market, meet the author, table football, facials and manicures, balloon race, plaiting and massage. And apparently I've agreed to be one of the targets in a sponge throwing competition...

Help for businesses in Kilburn High Road

As part of the council's Love Your Local High Street campaign, we're working with a company called Vision-On to provide free training for businesses in Kilburn on customer service and visual merchandising. More Details here.

Update on primary places position

Given the importance of this issue, here's the latest update on the progress the Council has made in resolving this problem.

Background
The Council’s policy is to offer places in reception classes of primary schools either in September or January of each year, when pupils are usually still four. This is in line with good practice and with arrangements elsewhere. The Council’s statutory duty is to provide appropriate education to pupils in the term after their fifth birthday

Current position
As of 2 July, there were 93 pupils either without an offer of a place or where the parents have turned down a school place.
There were 10 vacancies to which officers and schools will make allocations from the unplaced list. This leaves 83 pupils without a place or the offer of a place (down from 133 in May). There is usually movement in and out of the borough and there will be some further changes to the numbers, but this year not enough for the problem to be solved by September without further action
At present approximately half of the unplaced pupils are due places in September and half in January.

Options examined
The Council has sought to secure additional places at our schools. Officers wrote in May to all primary schools about the situation, asking for their assistance in identifying suitable sites for possible temporary classrooms. Discussions were held with eight schools. One school may well offer five additional places. However no other school has offered to accept temporary classrooms for 2009/10 academic year, although a number have indicated that they will consider it for September 2010.

When identifying sites that may be able to accommodate a temporary classroom, officers considered the capacity of the school to take additional pupils and the location of the primary school, concentrating on the wards closest to those children currently without an offer. These wards included Belsize, Fortune Green, Gospel Oak, Frognal and Fitzjohns, West Hampstead, Kilburn and Swiss Cottage.

A working group of parents was set up with around 15 parents to explore possible options. Several suggestions for alternative provision have been made at the working group and these have been or are being investigated by officers.

Proposed solution
One of the suggestions made was to use premises of Hampstead Hill school, an independent school, on Courthope Road, NW3 which this school does not need. The Council has reached in principle agreement with the school to lease the premises from them as soon as is necessary to be able to have the site ready for September. Although details still need to be finalised, this is the best option available within the timeframe.

Our education officers are confident that the premises are entirely appropriate for reception age children . The Council will set up, under appropriate Education Act powers, a directly managed education centre (for legal reasons it cannot be called a school) to take children from the start of next term. A senior primary teacher has been recruited to head this unit.

The Council will be commencing a consultation process next week including press notices and leaflet drops to properties in the local area, and expects to be able to have sufficient details to be able to give parents a good indication of the solution at the next meeting of the working group on 8 July. Admissions arrangements are amongst the issues which are still to be resolved. These need to be clearly defined, transparent and equitable.

Medium to longer term
Clearly this may well be more than just a short term problem, and we will need to examine all the options and the financial and property implications. The meeting of the Council's Executive on 22 July will receive a report from officers explaining the process and options for the future.

Our colleague Andrew Mennear, Executive councillor for Schools, has been working very hard on this and would of course be happy to meet groups of parents in the Swiss Cottage area, which we know is one of the problem areas.

Quinton Kynaston school redevelopment

The stories in the Evening Standard last week and in the Ham and High today may have caused some concern to local people. I've been in touch with Westminster council officers - I think they could have been rather clearer so far in consulting across Boundary Road, but I am assured this is very much the start of a long consultative process.

Clearly, the transformation of Quinton Kynaston as part of "Building Schools for the Future" may be very good news for Camden (and other!) children who go there. But any reconfiguration on the site of QK and George Elliot - possibly with the main entrance to QK further north on the site - could have negative construction and traffic impacts for people in our Swiss Cottage ward.

We will liaise closely with Hilgrove Estate TRA and other local residents groups in the Boundary Road area, and will be meeting Westminster officials shortly to find out more. We will then want to see the outline of a much broader consultation, ensuring that people have good information at every stage of what will no doubt be a complicated process over a number of years.

Manufacturing employment in London

Local government guru Barry Quirk has just highlighted that manufacturing jobs in London have fallen from over 1m in 1971 to under 200,000 today. Food for thought for our Camden Working programmes.

Sent from my iPhone

Heatwave advice

I'm at the Local Government Association conference in Harrogate this week, trying to learn some things that other councils do well.

I checked yesterday and Camden council staff are working closely with the local NHS to watch out for those most vulnerable to the heat wave. Here's the NHS advice.