Cycle hire scheme going live - good docking station coverage in Camden

Very exciting that Boris's cycle hire scheme is going live this weekend, the culmination of a lot of work by TfL officers but also of course Camden Council officers in getting all the docking stations approved and in place. There's good docking station across the south of Camden up to Camden Town, see map of Camden docking stations below along with some background.

The Mayor of London will launch Barclays Cycle Hire on Friday 30 July with almost 5000 bikes available across the zone 1 area of Central London. Users will be able to pick up a bike from a docking station, use it as they like and then return it to any docking station. A total of 37 docking stations will be operational in the southern part of Camden for the scheme launch.

Only scheme members will be able to use the bikes for the first month after the scheme launch. More information, including how to register, is available on the TfL website - www.tfl.gov.uk/barclayscyclehire

QK/George Eliot redevelopment - planning application is in - consultation deadline 13th August

Westminster Council's application for the Marlborough Hill Campus project - ie the rebuilding of Quintin Kynaston and George Eliot schools - has now been lodged and the deadline for written submissions is the 13th August.

The pre-consultation engagement with Westminster led to some changes though the concerns of Swiss Cottage ward residents about height and bulk at the northern end of the site will remain. What I haven't yet found in the documents (68 in the full planning application) is anything about whether pupils will be allowed off the campus at lunchtime - we would hope for their sake and that of local residents that they will be kept on campus.

As the Westminster 21 day consultation period gets underway, Camden will also conduct a parallel consultation, inviting local councillors, Abbey Road Housing Co-operative, Hilgrove Estate Residents Association and local residents to comment direct to Westminster with a copy to Camden Planning Service. Unfortunately, and unlike Camden, the Westminster planning process does not allow deputations by residents or councillors at their development control (planning) meeting, which presumably would consider this in September. Without defending Westminster's approach, they obviously need to have a system that allows for the handling of very high volumes of applications across the City of Westminster. As ward councillors Roger, Don and I will look through the materials, liaise with those we know are concerned, and put in our representations to Westminster.

You can find all the application documents here:

http://www3.westminster.gov.uk/planningapplications/currentsearch-details.cfm?CASENO=10%2F05869%2FCOFUL

And here are the two parts of the design and access statement which may be the most useful thing to look at initially:

http://idocs.westminster.gov.uk:8080/WAM/doc/Background%20Papers-1879778.PDF?extension=.PDF&wmName=&wmTransparency=0&location=volume22&pageCount=1&contentType=application%2Foctet-stream&id=1879778&wmLocation=0

http://idocs.westminster.gov.uk:8080/WAM/doc/Background%20Papers-1879779.PDF?extension=.PDF&wmName=&wmTransparency=0&location=volume22&pageCount=1&contentType=application%2Foctet-stream&id=1879779&wmLocation=0

Unemployment in Camden - higher in Hampstead and Kilburn than Holborn & St Pancras?

Latest constituency level unemployment complaint count data shows - perhap surprisingly - that Hampstead & Kilburn unemployment at 3.5% is now higher than in Holborn and St Pancras at 3.4%. Unemployment rose 1.3% over the last 12 months in H&K compared with a 0.8% fall in Holborn and St Pancras.

The Council has done some detailed work on understanding these figures in the past. The figures certainly underline the scale of unemployment in the new H&K seat, with the two Kilburn wards no doubt making a considerable contribution. But there may also be a greater recession impact from white collar/private sector unemployment in H&K than in HSP. HSP on the other hand is almost certainly more dependent on public sector employment and may well sadly be harder hit over the next year and more.

The simple unemployment figures of course are only a small part of the overall level of worklessness, which includes incapacity benefit etc - and here I suspect (and recall previous figures showing this) that HSP has a higher level of challenge. In HSP something like one child in three is born in a home where no-one works, which is a very depressing statistic about inter-generational worklessness.

The problems of getting people into jobs in Camden is structural, not just linked to recession or government spending cuts - the work of making people more attractive in a vastly changed labour market will not cease any time soon. What is certain and needs to be more widely understood is that it's undoubtedly the private sector and the opportunities it offers that will account for most of new job growth over the coming few years. Meanwhile we should all keep an eye on local worklessness figures and of course the lives and difficulties behind the figures.

BSF and Camden – a Conservative Statement

A statement from Cllr Andrew Mennear:


BSF and Camden – a Conservative Statement

That the Government has had to stop the bulk of Camden’s Building Schools for the Future Programme is a huge disappointment. Local Conservatives are strong supporters of our local schools and recognise all the work which headteachers and their staff, school governors and Camden officers put in towards the development of plans which were not just about new buildings but also about transforming the type of education available in our secondary schools.

Cllr Andrew Mennear, the Conservative Group Leader on Camden Council, knows better than most how much work went into these plans having spent 2006-2010 as Camden’s Executive Member for Schools, putting a great deal of effort into keeping Camden’s plans on schedule and on budget.

“Of course I’m disappointed – we all are,” Andrew commented. “We moved heaven and earth to stay on schedule and on budget, taking on Judicial Reviews at the High Court and a determined anti-Academy campaign, as well as working hard to maintain the character of Camden’s secondaries within our BSF plans.

“However, while Camden was on schedule and on budget, the BSF scheme nationally has been characterised by overspends, delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy. I struggle to think of any BSF project that was completed on time.

“Labour left us with the largest deficit in our peacetime history, and £1 in every £4 they were spending was borrowed. The new Government is setting up a capital review team to look at every angle of departmental capital spending to ensure costs can be driven down, buildings built more quickly and a higher proportion of the money going directly to the frontline. So I hope it will be possible for the cancelled plans to be looked at again in the near future when the economy has recovered.

“In the meantime it is vital that the Labour Council does everything it can to ensure that the UCL Academy, new Swiss Cottage Special School and South Camden Community School, which are still under review, are given the go-ahead. These schemes deliver eight new secondary forms of entry which Camden, with our growing population, badly needs. I have already been in touch with Education Secretary of State Michael Gove’s office to stress the importance of these schemes. I hope Labour Camden will act in a similarly responsible fashion rather than setting up an oppositional campaign in denial at the state of the national debt that the Labour Government bequeathed to the country.”

Update from local police team: ATM thefts, street robberies, overall crime down

Here's a very useful update on local crime from Sgt Nick Parry who leads the Swiss Cottage Safer Neighbourhoods team:


Some of you may recall a previous e-mail about suspects distracting you when you're getting money out of ATM's, they then take your card and steal money from your account.

In the last few weeks we've had a couple of these types of thefts at the ATM's outside Barclays bank on Finchley Rd, NW3 and the ATM's inside Swiss Cottage tube stn.

They all follow similar lines, one of the suspects gets up close to the victims and watches them type their pin number in. This suspect remembers your pin number, then either the suspect who's been standing behind you or another member of his group draw your attention to a £5 which is on the ground. As you look away from the machine they steal your card, or your card and money and make off. They will then almost immediately go to another ATM nearby and take more money from your account.

So when you're using an ATM always have a look around to make sure no one is standing directly behind you and would be in a position to see you pin number. Secondly if anyone tries to get you to look away from what you're doing, ignore them until you have retrieved your card and any money from the machine.

Secondly can I draw your attention to a series of robberies that have taken place in the North of Camden Borough over the last month, none of these have occurred in Swiss Cottage. The offences have been in England's Lane, NW3, Eaton Ave, NW3 and Fellows Rd, NW3. The most recent robbery took place on Sunday 4th July, at approximately 15:00 hours in Lymington Road NW6.

75-year-old man was parked in Lymington Road NW6, when he noticed a motorcycle parked behind his car. Two suspects approached, one on the nearside and the other on the offside of his vehicle. One suspect opened the driver's door and grabbed his car keys whilst the other entered the vehicle via the passenger side and grabbed his right arm. They demanded he hand over his wallet and watch and when he struggled, he was struck once on the arm.

The suspects stole his watch and cash and then sped away on the motorcycle. It's believed that the two suspects made off on a moped rather than a motor bike, we think that one of the rear panels of the moped/bike is either red or orange in colour.

Having said all of the above crime in Swiss Cottage has gone down again over the last year, the team is now fully up to strength and we are working very hard to keep these crime figures going down. For those of you who live within the dispersal area, the order has been renewed and will continue to run until January 2011.

If you need anything further please feel free to contact me.

Nick Parry PS 87EK

( Phone: 020 8721 2755 / 020 7161 9193
( Metphone: 789193
( Mobile: 07717 451987
2 Fax: 020 7161 9198
: E-mail: Nick.Parry@met.police.uk

+ Mail: Station House
9-13 Swiss Terrace
London. NW6 4RR

Roadworks and construction works...

I've been dealing with a few different issues about noise and disruption from roadworks and builders. Here's a quick update on a couple of matters:

The National Grid/North London Gas Alliance roadworks around the Belsize Rd roundabout are scheduled to be finished by 16th July. I've got council officers to check with National Grid today, and it seems it is on track and work should be finished next week.

I have taken up with Network Rail complaints about nighttime noise and lights as part of the emergency wall repair works around South Hampstead station, which have been going on for some months. Of course there is some need for night working given the fact this work is close to the railway lines, but there should be closer liaison with residents and much more consistent consideration for the disruption they are suffering.

We've also been asked about builders working at the weekend, in Aberdare and in Goldhurst for example. The position is clear - building work should be limited to 8-6 on weekdays and 8-1 on Saturday, with no working on Sunday. Anyone who wants to work outside these hours needs to apply to Camden Building Control with clear justification of the need for this. So if anyone sees work outside these hours, they should contact building control via http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/content/contacts/council-contacts/environment/contact-building-control.en
or drop a line to us as ward councillors.