Kings Cross Access via Wharfdale Road entrance – closure date

Posted on April 15, 2009 by William Perrin

Kings cross access sign If you enjoy the dry, safe, well-lit walk up Platform One out of the top of the station onto York Way for Macmillan or the Guardian, or just to get home then Friday 24 April will be your last chance.  Despite huge local anger Network Rail today inform me they will close the entrance into the station at the junction of York Way and Wharfdale Road for the last time on 24 April.  There will be no alternate provision, you will have to schlep down York Way in the wet.

Sophie Talbot has catalysed a great local campaign for a bridge across the tracks at this point to continue easy access to the station for people on the Islington side of Kings Cross.  You can find out more about that here – please join in the camapign to see if we can prevent the community being cut in half.  Given the huge amounts of money sloshing around for capital projects in the rail system right now a bridge would be easily affordable for Network Rail. 

If you work at the Guardian and are wondering why your handy route to work has been removed ask your management.  They wrote a desperately unhelpful letter to the Camden planning committee a couple of years ago saying broadly that they had no interest in this issue – they has assumed the entrance would be closed before you all moved in.

Posted in #googlebridgeKX, Kings Cross Station Refurbishment | Leave a comment

King’s Cross “Lighthouse” Building Gets Approval

Posted on April 10, 2009 by Stephan Schulte

Unbeknown to local Islington residents, Camden Council just approved plans to re-develop the Lighthouse Building on the corner of Gray's Inn and Pentonville Roads this past Thursday evening.  You can see the full story online at the Camden New Journal.

The full planning application can be found on the Camden Council website for those interested, but here are some of the proposed elevations that I've downloaded.

Pentonville_Rd_elevation

View-from-KX-station Gray's-Inn-Road-elevation

The decision has now been made so now all we have to do is wait to see what happens given these poor economic times.

Posted in Planning, Licensing and Regulation | 9 Comments

Your community needs YOU!

Posted on April 4, 2009 by Sophie Talbot


Poster2 With the start date for TolpuddleKX 2009 fast approaching, there are lots of jobs to be done. So far the festival has been organised by a completely voluntary committee comprising local people, unions, LB Islington staff and a housing association. Now, we need you to help make the festival a real success.

Ways you can help:
1. Buy tickets for comedy night with local hero John Hegley and ranter Steve Parry! Monday 20 April. This is the only fundraising event we'll be running during the week, all funds go to the festival organising fund. Anything left over (if we are so lucky!) will be donated to appropriate groups and we'll let you know if and when that happens. All other festival events are free, aside from film night.

2. Volunteer to help with the door taking tickets on comedy night.

3. Volunteer as a steward on the big day, Saturday 25 April. We need lots of reliable folk to help guide the march down the Cally and keep a watchful eye on events in Caledonian Park and Edward Square.

If you are able to volunteer some time, you will be given a full briefing and lots of support by the festival organisers. And of course, your main reward in heaven! Just email us for more information. Further details about the festival are available here.
Posted in Arts and Entertainment, Community groups | Leave a comment

Mayor went to bed on seeing heavy snow, did nothing until following morning

Posted on April 3, 2009 by William Perrin

In these troubled times a major city has to be prepared for disasters, natural and man made.  The way the heavy snow was handled in London was poor, despite the sterling efforts of many individuals working in public services.  The London Assembly's snow report  said that:

'The Mayor is the Chair of Transport for London and has strategic responsibility for a wide range of public services in London including the Police and Fire Brigade. His role as Chair of Transport for London, in part, is to challenge senior officers about decisions that have been taken to help ensure that everything is being done to respond to unusual situations.

'It is reasonable to question whether the Mayor could have been given the opportunity to be involved at an earlier stage in coordinating the response to what was the most severe disruption to the capital’s transport network in decades.' 

Neither Boris nor Ken seem(ed) to relish the accountability of being Mayor – they don't seem to value cross examination by Assembly members.  Ken had many bad sessions and yesterday was Boris' turn with MPs – the  plentiful coverage has focussed on the Mayor's behaviour (we all have bad days and personally i would rather have colourful politicians) – but that isn't as interesting as his final answer about alertness to a problem and speed of response.

The snow fell on Sunday evening (1 February) following a severe weather warning at 1130 on Sunday.  On Monday we all woke up to a whiteout and transport chaos.  It became clear during the Sunday evening to the various transport authorities and TfL that there were increasingly bad problems. The buses were called off at 1210am on Monday. The Assembly report makes it clear that niether Ken nor Boris had put warning systems in place to escalate problems to the Mayor's team.  The Gold Command emergency structure isn't activated by snow.

The Mayor's final answer to the committee (see video clip) perturbs me – on the Sunday evening it appears that he looked out of the window, saw heavy snow falling and went to bed, not engaging with his officials until 0700 the next day – by which time London was totally shut down.  We don't know any more as it was at that point the Mayor left the session. 

Leadership in responding to crisis is about speed of action at the top and making sure that you have the systems in place to enable you to do so. London did not have either as the snow crisis began to build.

Posted in Transport | Leave a comment

Do you, or do you not, want more tall buildings in the Borough?

Posted on April 3, 2009 by Stephan Schulte

Triangle-section It's a simple question…yes or no.  Please humor me by responding with a comment below if you're interested in making your voice heard.  Hopefully members of the local press that read this will pick-up on the responses.

If you're wondering what prompted this question, it's the email that I just received from the Council which highlighted the results of a recent consultation they did.  In it, one of the questions was near and dear to my heart – it was about whether or not local residents wanted more tall buildings in certain areas of the borough.

As I have been a campaigner against more tall buildings, I was keen to see how others felt.  However, I was quite surpirsed by the answer which prompted me to look a little closer.  Below you will see my comments to the Council:

Dear XXX (sent to the person who published the results)

Statistics get a bad name as folks have now realized that oftentimes the way you ask the question can influence the response.  In fact now-a-days, most people are leery of Government statistics for just that reason.  In the following, I illustrate a clear example of what I mean.

First however, to ensure you understand my motivation for writing, you should know who I am – a campaigner against more tall buildings in the Borough.

I’ve just looked at the headline results for the Your Neighbourhood, Your Islington (otherwise known as the Core Planning Strategy) Study that has just been completed.  I draw your attention to the phrases highlighted in bold type as examples of how your questions most likely influenced the answers.

3.8 Tall buildings

(Your conclusion) Opinion was greatly divided on the approach to tall buildings. Almost half of respondents were in favour of allowing tall buildings in five restricted locations, whereas the same proportion wanted to restrict the height of new buildings.

(And here are the two choices you gave folks to respond)

Allow tall buildings in five restricted locations to help meet demand for housing and employment. At Archway station, Finsbury Park station, Holloway Road station, Kings Cross Triangle and some sites in south Islington that border the city.

Restrict the height of new buildings in all locations so that they are no higher than surrounding buildings, although this could mean less space for housing and employment.

Why were these emotive phrases added to the simple question of “do you or do you not support more tall buildings in certain areas of the Borough?”   It seems to me you have tried to tie the Council’s justification in seeking more tall buildings to the issue of housing and employment and who would not want more housing and employment!

I find it especially interesting that even with these phrases added that the results are split, leading me to believe that had you not inserted these phrases, the results would clearly have tipped in favour of no more tall buildings!

From this observation on one point of the study, I now have no faith in the entire study.

So now over to you, the public.  Do you want to allow tall buildings in five restricted locations - at Archway station, Finsbury Park station, Holloway Road station, Kings Cross Triangle and some sites in south Islington that border the city?  Please respond with a yes or no in the comments section below.

Posted in Planning, Licensing and Regulation | 6 Comments

Michelle Obama (almost) in Kings Cross

Posted on April 2, 2009 by William Perrin

Obama at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson At the risk of succumbing to Obama-mania I was delighted to see that the First Lady visited the local Elizabeth Garrett Anderson school today, which educates many Kings Cross girls.  Lots of pictures at this link here and all over the press.  Video here from the BBC. (Picture – Democraticunderground)

Posted in Young People | Leave a comment

Grafitti and tipping clean up

Posted on April 2, 2009 by William Perrin

Carn more graff If you report stuff to the Council they do tend to sort it out.  So i have reported about a dozen grafitti tags, illegal posters and some fly tipping in the North Kings Cross area over the last 24 hours (Gifford Street and Carnoustie mainly).  Usually a simple emil to contact islington (contact@islington.gov.uk) with a precise location and a photo does the trick. Or you can use the excellent Fix My Street service.  If it doesn't get sorted in a few days then just keep hassling gently until the work is done.  Basic stuff seems to get done rapidly these days.

Some problems though are intractable and you have to nag away for months, even years.  The website can help here – by keeping an incontrovertible public  record of when things were first raised.  This episode with a street light for instance.

Ferodo downpipe I have just noticed that two broken downpipes under the Ferodo bridge has been fixed in the last few months – they used to flood the bus stop area in the rain.  I raised this over two years ago but it took Network Rail ages to sort it out.  Persistent polite nagging and involving the Council were vital.  Kings Cross has lots of big problems, but you have to tackle the small things – together they add up to a bigger picture.

Posted in Broken Stuff on the Street | 1 Comment

Park – the screening

Posted on April 1, 2009 by Sophie Talbot

Justine If you have kids aged between 16-25 then you may have heard about award winning director Justine Gordon Smith's film making project in which our young folk will get to participate in making their own film from beginning to end focussing on the anniversary march to commemorate the 1834 great demonstration in support of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Justine is enrolling young people for the project which will be based at Half Moon Tenant's Co-op community centre for the duration.

For a real taste of Justine's innovative community-based film making style you'd be well advised to get to the screening of 'Park'. Set in Elthorne Park the film is a unique insight into urban Britain and the people in the city. It's an amazing view into our parks and the people who use them, live in them and in some cases die in them. Justine is interviewed about her approach to film making and about Park on the film website Shooting People.

The film is a revealing urban portrait of a local park and the rich assortment of characters who spend time there or just pass through. This documentary, made over five years, gains the trust of its subjects and offers a unique insight into one of Londons lesser known green areas. In an age when entertainment and documentary are often difficult to distinguish it is refreshing to find a non-fiction project that approaches its subject with intelligence and integrity. The film looks at the little things that can help us all to make our own judgments and see the bigger picture.

Park will be shown on April 27th at Stratford Picture House as part of the East End Film Festival 2009. We'll give more details as soon as we have them…
Posted in Arts and Entertainment, Young People | Leave a comment