Have your say on local issues – West Area Committee 26 November

Posted on November 19, 2009 by William Perrin

Compass People often grumble about how hard it is to get their voice heard in the neighbourhood – well here's your chance to contribute to some important issues in disucssion with your local councillors.

Councillors local to our area meet in the 'West Area Committee' on 26 November and will discuss the following topics – i've translated them in brackets:

MAGPI and Holloway Ward SNT (policing and anti social behaviour)
Waste Management in Islington (the bins to you and me)
Planning Biref – Gifford Street Railway Embankment (the green bit behind Gifford Street and the top of Carnoustie Drive)
Review of sustainability standards within major developments (how green do big new buildings have to be)
Issues and Options Consultation for Development Management Policies and Site Specific Allocations Development Plan Documents (i couldn't understand this one but i think it is about the thematic approach the council will take to development – so it's important gobbledegook)

If you have any questions the endlessly helpful clerk Nodlaig.Stoddart@islington.gov.uk will help you out.  Or click for the agenda and papers which get published as the meeting gets closer.  The meeting will take questions from the attending public on all these issues.

Unfortunately the meeting will be a the Town Hall  – 7:30 pm Islington Town Hall, Upper Street, Islington, N1 2UD so it is a bit far away from Kings Cross.

These meetings are rarely a barrel of laughs, but it is democracy, being done live, not vaudeville.

Posted in How to get things done locally | Leave a comment

Kings Cross gas holders – more gas

Posted on November 17, 2009 by William Perrin

Gasholder The omniscient Google informs me that there is a winner inthe Kings Cross gasholder design competition.  Building Design have a piece – excerpt follows:

'Bell Phillips & Kimble has beaten 80 other firms to win a competition to design a new use for one of the King’s Cross gasholders.

'The brief was to turn the decommissioned gasholder into an events space, and the firm has exploited the towering structure’s canal-side location to design a roof top water pool and amphitheatre below.

'It is hoped that full concept design work will begin on the project, which has a £2.5 million budget, in 2011.'

The strong conditionality at the end 'hoped', 'concept' 'begin' is to be expected given the current market for speculative development.  It is hard to see who would lend money to somone hoping to build an events space, with the construction risks of this unusual structure in central London right now.

Posted in Kings Cross N1C, railwayslands | 2 Comments

Get your Sunday Crumpet in King’s Cross!

Posted on November 13, 2009 by Sophie Talbot

Sunday crumpet front 600 Neil (one half of the Su Pollard Connection) and local boy Andrew Elvers of Balfe Street DJ together at Heaven on Friday nights. On the 22nd November, along with their pal Kevin (the other Su), who is resident at Carwash, they bring it all on home to King's Cross and for free!

For years now they've been talking about doing a night playing proper old skool gay disco – the kind you just don't hear anymore, yet it was so influential and fabulous!  They had a false start last year and then considered another venue this year but decided against. And then along came an offer of the Kings Cross Social Club. They felt this was right right and so are going for it.

Andrew says,

"We will be including the big cross over tracks too like Grace Jones, Weather Girls, Laura Branigan, Abba etc so it should still be accessible for those not total trainspotters like we are!"Sunday crumpet back 600

King's Cross Social Club has brought what used to be the Golden Lion, on King's Cross Road, back to life after it's sad closure last year. Let's support this new local venue… after all, there is nothing that can bring us all together for good old traditional knees-up as successfully as a stonking great gay disco.

See you there on the 22nd, don't forget your glitter, loons and stilletoes and if you can't wait till then, click here for a boogie-at-home taster!
Posted in Arts and Entertainment | Leave a comment

Kings Cross Square – bin there done that

Posted on November 12, 2009 by William Perrin

Photo Well done to Sean Murray who has fought a long battle with Camden to get some bins on the dismal forecourt of Kings Cross station.  Sean got some bins, that then vanished.  Now the bins are back, near the bus stops and hopefully will reduce the amount of litter that drifts around there.  Well done to anyone who chipped in with Camden to help Sean.

Posted in Broken Stuff on the Street | 1 Comment

Transeuropean Tip on York Way

Posted on November 10, 2009 by William Perrin

ATT1231997(2) The prominent bit of land outside Transeuropean Autos has been a tip for years.  This website has been covering the problems there since 2006 (when photo was taken).  Since then Transeuropean Autos has won back some of the land and left a narrower, scruffier strip and move their awful stockade fencing closer to the pavement.  Who owns the land is questionable, leading to it being neglected.  Neighbour Stuart Cottis has raised it again with the council recently and Islington's Chris Demetriou is getting it cleared up.  Stuart has also done some good work recently sorting out the pedestrian route amongst the works on Goods Way that people are forced to use when going to St Pancras.

Stuart's email exchange with the council:

>Please could you arrange for the grass verge at the junction between Randell's Road and York Way (i.e. on the eastern side of York Way) to be cleared of litter and tidied up. It is, at present, a forest of weeds strewn with take-away boxes, soft drink cans etc…..It is an eyesore and is attracting more and more rubbish so I would be grateful if somebody could take action as soon as possible.
Many thanks
Stuart Cottis

>Thank you for your email..Due to the area being an eyesore we will arrange for a special one off clearance whilst we try and ascertain who owns the land in question. Our intention is for the landowners to maintain this land and we can use a range of enforcement tools to ensure that they do this.

Chris Demetriou

Posted in Anti Social Behaviour, Crime etc, Broken Stuff on the Street | 3 Comments

Age of Stupid – All Saints Church Saturday 14 November

Posted on November 9, 2009 by William Perrin

Age of stupid2Climate change begins at home – Martyn Saunders is screening Age of Stupid on Sat 14th Nov 7:45pm, £5 (£2 concessions) at All Saints Church, Caledonian Road (next to the canal).

Much cheaper than the Odeon and less hassle than downloading it.

Posted in Arts and Entertainment | 1 Comment

Exhibition – Ben Kinsella: Sketchbook Tuesday 17 November, Caledonian Road

Posted on November 6, 2009 by William Perrin

Ben kinsella sketchbookCYP is a wonderful local charity that works with large numbers of local young people many of them from challenging backgrounds to give them things to do, hope and a pathway to a better life. They have a remarkable and haunting new exhibition.

If you wish to donate securely to CYP click this button.

Charity choice

'CYP Culture, 165 Caledonian Rd London N1 0SL

6pm-8pm Tuesday 17 November 2009  
     
“On the morning of Sunday 29 June 2008, a 16-year-old boy called Ben Kinsella was stabbed to death. He is another name to add to the long list of those killed by knives. No one suggests Ben Kinsella was anything other than totally blameless. This was not a war zone far away. This was Islington in London." – the words of Nicholas Hilliard QC at the murder trial of the three young men responsible for Ben’s senseless killing in April 2009. Ben was out celebrating the end of his GCSEs when he was murdered. He never got to find out that he had passed the exams with a string of A-grades, and an A* for his artwork, which would have been a springboard for his ambition to become a graphic designer.
 
“Seeing what Ben’s death has done to everybody around me has influenced me to want to make a change of culture and a change of thinking of young people. With art and design all round us, I am determined to use my passion and skills for design to make a difference.” – the words of local young person.
 
Copenhagen Youth Project (CYP) were asked by the Kinsella family to mount a show featuring the exceptional art work produced by Ben, who was a CYP member.  The show at CYP Culture, 165 Caledonian Rd, is part of our ongoing programme of exhibitions and social education for over 400 local young people a year, including those who are disadvantaged and vulnerable. The venue is used to deliver innovative, creative work, which examines and challenges the street culture that gives rise to knife crime, and to showcase young people’s work in partnership with other local projects. The programme is part-funded by the City Bridge Trust, Central St Martin’s School of Art and the Home Office, and needs further funds to build on and progress the work.
 
The “Ben Kinsella: Sketchbook” exhibition will be in the upstairs mezzanine and window space at CYP Culture, 165 Caledonian Rd, the downstairs space will be used as a retrospective and to show some projects that CYP’s creative social education programme has delivered recently.This includes a film made by CYP young people with the film company Only Connect, and an award winning architectural project, in partnership with ‘Design Matters’ as part of Central Saint Martin’s widening participation initiative.
 
The private view is on Tuesday 17 November 6pm- 8pm. A catalogue of Ben’s Kinsella’s art work will be available.
 
Donations to the CYP can be made by visiting the Contact page of the CYP’s website <www.cyproject.org> and clicking on Charity Choice.

For further information please get in touch with the CYP office:
Tel: 020 7607 6050 or 07852 262915
e-mail: info@cyproject.org

Posted in Arts and Entertainment | Leave a comment

Local Bicycles Electronicly Tagged for Free!

Posted on November 5, 2009 by Stephan Schulte

Logo 
Local Community Support Officer John Argyrou just wrote into the Community Bulletin Board to let local folks know that the Safer Neighbourhoods Team will be out again fitting electronic tags to resident's bicycles. This is the 3rd such event hosted by the Team.

These tags are being provided as part of a continuing initiative to lessen the liklyhood of bicycle theft and ensure that any bicycles that are stolen and are recovered can find their way back to their rightful owners.  The electronic tags are hidden in the frame of the bicycle and cannot be removed.  They have a unique code number which corresponds to information stored on a local database which is available to officers 24 hours a day. As part of the registration process, owners receive a "photo ID with their details and a photograph of the bicycle to certify ownership and to assist identification, if necessary.

The electronic tags are being supplied and fitted by the Local Safer Neighbourhoods Team in partnership with Islington Council.

The tagging will take place on Wednesday 11 November outside the Caledonian Swimming Pool (Caledonian Road at Twyford Street ) from17:00 to 19:00.

For further information please contact Caledonian Ward Safer Neighbourhood Team on (020) 7421-0271, or email them at: Caledonian.SNT@met.pnn.police.uk

Posted in Anti Social Behaviour, Crime etc | Leave a comment