Donate online to local young people’s charity – CYP

Posted on July 11, 2008 by William Perrin

Donate90x90_2 Recent tragedies have thrown into the spotlight the challenges facing local young people.  The Copenhagen Youth Project (CYP) is the large scale provider of things to do for young people in the Cally area.  Last year 445 young people attended 5,000 times things run by the charity CYP – that is 5,000 occasions on which young people were not hanging around with nothing to do or getting up to trouble.  It costs a lot to reach hundreds of young people through 13 part time youth workers and one full timer. CYP never has enough money – the more you give the more it can do. 

Unlike sponsoring a goat or a life boat you can see the result of CYPs work on your doorstep. I like goats and lifeboats but we have an urgent problem in our neighbourhood that we can help by donating.

Every donation makes a a difference – when I wrote about CYP before several of you asked for online donations, so here they are.  Donate by clicking the ‘Donate Now’ button/picture above or by clicking here.   This takes you to a totally secure site run in partnership with the Cooperative Bank and that doesn’t charge the charity a commission.  You can give as much or as little as you like .  I am a Director of CYP and can vouch that it is efficient, well organised and has very low overheads. 

Through July and August I shall feature CYP’s work on this site.  To remind you what CYP does click here to see a slide show featuring kids art or click to play the slides below if you are on the website.

http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=cyppresentationjune08-1214428260328948-8

Posted in Young People | Leave a comment

Better Bingfield – a new Sparkplug building – public meeting Monday 21st July Randell’s Road

Posted on July 10, 2008 by William Perrin

Better_bingfield_2 Sparkplug is a fantastic project based in Bingfield Park – it works with small numbers of the hardest to reach young people through motorbike safety and maintenance courses.  They have a great little website (partially completed). 

The Council is rebuilding the Sparkplug building, a former public toilet !  Bingfield Park used to be a warzone but thanks to local campaigning, the Council has invested over £0.5m to turn it into an urban gem.  Sorting out this building is one of the final pieces of the jigsaw. 

Catherine Wright from the Council is organising a public meeting to discuss the proposal on Monday 21st at 6.30pm in the Paget Centre, 18-28 Randells Road, London, N1 0DH (map). For architecture fans out there, the Paget Centre itself home of a Christian Mission is an interesting architectural curio – a purpose built mission hall.

If you can’t make it to the meeting but would like to see the proposal, drawings will be on display in Crumbles Castle Adventure Playground from Monday 21st July to Friday 25th July 11am to 6pm.  The leaflets linked to here give more info – feel free to download and put some up. Download bingfield_leaflet_a5.pdf   Download bingfield_poster_a3.pdf

There are some tensions around this proposal – some just want to get on with it, others would like a more flexible community space, others are concerned about their loss of view into the park.  That’s what meetings like this are designed to address.

All we need to do now is control the dog owners and poo problems and the park will be fully reborn.

Posted in Bingfield Park | Leave a comment

New local trust takes on greenwall project

Posted on July 9, 2008 by Sophie Talbot

Wall_1_2We’ve been a bit quiet on the Wharfdale Road Greenwall Project front, but here’s part of the reason why…. We just got charitable status for King’s Cross Community Projects. It’s great news and has taken a fair bit of time and effort to get done. Thanks to everyone involved including Billy Reilly of The Driver pub whose pledge of £5000 towards our first project made a real difference!

The first project the new local trust takes on will be the greenwall. We can now start fundraising with a vengence. Our first major application is in and we wait with bated breath to hear whether we’ve been successful.

Posted in Green Wall Project | Leave a comment

Latest Planning News for 62-68 York Way, July 08 Amendments – Look Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!

Posted on July 9, 2008 by Stephan Schulte

6268_york_way_july_08_proposal If the developer of the proposed building at 62-68 York Way had spent money on construction rather then new planning applications, by now we might almost have a completed building.  But alas, we only have yet another revision to the most recent Planning Application P080767.  This latest entry has "shrunk" by 1.3 meters in height from the previous plan submitted in April, yet is still taller then the structure in plan that has been approved since 2002, and "started" in Nov 2007.

For the record, this seems to be another in a long line of attempts to increase the size of the building and carve out five more years to do nothing but wait for the property market to improve.  Just to remind all, there have been approved plans for this site since ’95, but alas, no building has taken shape!

I will again be writing to Council to object, in spite of this recent amendment to the plan.  Not becasue I don’t want the building, but rather because I do – the building that’s already approved!  As Councillor Rupert Perry pointed out at the last refusal in Nov 07 – "why don’t you get on and build the building we gave you permission for in 2002?"  This was seconded by Councillor Convernd agreed by the rest of the Planning Committe.  No only did the developer take no heed, he has appealed that decision as well as submitting this latest new plan!  Woe is me, i’ve now had to put a table of contents on my website, to keep track of all thes new applications and twists and turns!

Progress_8july08_2For those of you who continue to follow the saga, and agree with our Councillors, please drop me a line at stephan@kingscrossenvironment.com and I will suggest what you might like to do.  I do look forward to hearing from many of you.

Lastly for your enjoyment, here’s the picture of the progress of the new building in the approved plan. Is that grass growing, or my imagination?

Posted in Planning, Licensing and Regulation | 2 Comments

Kings Cross Station behind the scenes tour

Posted on July 9, 2008 by William Perrin

Kings_cross_tour Many of you were interested in a station tour which Network Rail kindly offered.  It’s a fantastic building with a great history.  Hopefully I have mailed almost everyone who replied – apologies if I missed you in the email avalanche that is my inbox it’s nothing personal !  Alastair at Network Rail has came back as follows, get in touch with him (click here) to arrange a slot:

‘Regarding potential tour slots, there are two broad times which seem to be the most amenable to taking a group of people around the site for July. These are 10-11.30am on (Tuesday 15 or 22 July) or 2.30-4pm on a Thursday (17 July). I appreciate that this might be difficult for some people with work commitments etc., but hopefully there will be some on the list who can hopefully make one of the slots. The reason for the time relates to avoiding the rush hour of the station and to highlight some of the building work going on.

‘As a rule, it is looking like these two time slots (on Tuesdays and Thursdays) are something we can carry on (if demand is there) in the Summer (holidays depending).

‘Jon Burden, who used to be the Duty Station Manager at King’s Cross will be on hand to take people around along with myself, hopefully giving as close an insight into the station as it’s possible to give while work is going on.’

It’s a shame they can’t offer evening slots but i can see why given the rush hour.  It’s a great building well worth bunking off work for – perhaps you can arrange a ‘meeting in N1’…..

Posted in Transport | 1 Comment

Argent property developers try to throw resident out of Kings Cross planning exhbition

Posted on July 9, 2008 by William Perrin

Sophie_talbot Sophie Talbot was asked to leave Argent’s planning exhibition by security guards for trying to talk to the developer’s representative Bob Evans and Islington planning officials.  Sophie had gone to the exhibition in the German Gym which has a huge model of the development with a bridge over the tracks at Wharfdale Road which is unfunded by Network Rail.  Sophie has posted the below on our sister site ‘KingsCross Access‘.

‘I asked if I could show him [Bob Evans] what I was concerned about on the model, he was reluctant as several LB Islington Planning bods were about to arrive for a meeting with him. As he said that, the planning bods arrived and I asked them all if I could take two minutes of their time to share my concern – I handed them each a leaflet. From there on in it went badly wrong. Bob said I was being misleading about the bridge and the boulevard, he said he did not like the way Michael Edwards etc were dealing with the issue (Michael is a member of King’s Cross Railway Lands Group). I asked if I could talk to him about all that because it is not my intention to mislead anyone. He said, ‘not right now’ and I asked if I could make an appointment to meet with him – he gave me his card.

‘I was then approached by the security guard and a member of staff attached to the exhibition. They asked me to leave and I said I wanted to see the exhibition… long story short, eventually they let me see the exhibition – which is not just about King’s Cross Central.’

Argent says it was all a bit of a mix up.

‘We do however have an art installation upstairs as part of the London Festival of Architecture and people have been coming in, on a managed basis, to see that. So when you asked Eric (the doorman/security guard) if you could come in to see the exhibition, that is what he thought you were referring to. If there was a misunderstanding about access to the building, then I apologise.

‘I had arranged to meet some representatives from Islington Council and other organisations at the Gym for a site tour and it was those guests that you met. I freely admit that you caught them and me by surprise, and that is no doubt what you saw "in my eyes"’

Not great community engagement from the developer whose corporate ‘aim’ is: ‘To be the most respected and successful developer in the UK’.  Argent support the bridge across the tracks but don’t seem prepared to lobby Network Rail to get it built.  The exhibition is part of the London Festival of Architecture and is open 10:00 to 1530 until 20 July – link here. Go along and have a look, just don’t mention the bridge.

Posted in #googlebridgeKX, Anti Social Behaviour, Crime etc, Kings Cross Station Refurbishment, Planning, Licensing and Regulation | 1 Comment

The Hub, 34B York Way is granted its liquor license

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Stephan Schulte

Hub_graphic_2When faced with a new “club” to be known as The Hub opening on York Way and seeking a 24-hour license to sell liquor, number of local residents (including myself), were concerned about what this would do to the local area.  So prior to the licensing hearing, I took up an invitation to meet with Mike Thompson and Jonathan Robinson two of the club’s Directors.  The meeting took place at their temporary premises at 5 Torrens Place in Islington, and what I found was quite a different place to what had been expected.

Apparently The Hub is a private members club for business folks to actually meet, conduct business and have meetings.  The central area was filled with young entrepreneurs working at their computers, and there were smaller areas dotted around to allow smaller and more private business meetings – not the kind of “club” I was expecting.

I spoke at length to the two Directors, who explained that the reason for the license was really so that they could provide some refreshments to their members and guests working and attending meetings at the premises….more like the occasional beer or glass of wine!  They also explained that in the future they wanted to hold events and serve refreshments – but again, not events oriented around drinking but rather things like “product launches” and “talks” by business folks and the occasional film.  For more specific information, you can take a look at the Hub’s Brochure Download the_hub_kings_cross.pdf


As our discussion continued, it became clear that they now understood the reasons for the community’s concern and realized that by asking for a 24-hour license they had done themselves more harm then good.  In the end, they decided to modify their application to more acceptable hours and accordingly have now been granted their License to serve alcohol during the following hours.

Monday to Thursday and Sundays:

0930 – 2330

Fridays and Saturdays :

0930 – 0030

(Note they can still serve refreshments after these hours, but no alcohol).  They accept that should they need to ask for a later license, they will do so on an individual basis and hopefully after gaining the “trust” of the local community for acting responsibility for the hours initially granted.

It looks like this has become a win-win situation for all concerned.  The Community can now look forward to a new exciting business that will definitely add value to the reputation of King’s Cross.

Mike and Jonathan have also promise there will be an open-house for local residents to see the premises and get a better understanding of The Hub’s concept which they hope to bring to other cities.

Posted in Arts and Entertainment | 2 Comments

Streamlined steaming at Kings Cross – Sir Nigel Gresley 60007

Posted on July 6, 2008 by William Perrin

Nigel_gresley Hearing that an A4 Pacific was coming to Kings Cross I gave in to my inner trainspotter on Saturday and shot a little footage of this wonderful steam train.  The Sir Nigel Gresley was the 100th of its class named after the engineer who commissioned this timeless design that makes the Eurostar look ordinary.  In case Sir Nigel seems familiar the engine is a sister of the famous Mallard that hit 126mph on July 3, 1938 and Saturday’s run was to mark the anniversary.  Although the train is beautiful the amount of smoke and filth is extraordinary – it is hard to imagine what the area must have been like before the diesels came in.

Thanks to Stephan for the early morning coffee and the vantage point.  If you are reading this by email click here to see the film in YouTube or if you are on the website click below.

Posted in Transport | Leave a comment