Kings Cross access latest campaigning………

Posted on January 11, 2007 by William Perrin

Kings_cross_station_3_4 I have raised this with Emily Thornberry MP today – i spoke with her office and wrote to her as attached below.  I am asking her to escalate this issue that will have such an awful impact on the community.  Email is not the best way to communicate with Emily who prefers paper or face to face but you can try emailing – make sure you include your name and address (she has to know that you are a constituent).  Or you can phone her on 020 7697 9307 between 1400 and 1700 Mondays Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Or write to her c/o house of commons, SW1A 0AA.  Download emilythornberry_letter.doc

113 wonderful people have now signed the petition at the Downing Street site. 

Camden has received the revised Network Rail plans and will begin a new consultation on Monday for 21 days.  The case officer at Camden is Gavin Sexton on 0207 974 2231.  I am waiting to see what they say but i am not expecting much.  When the plans are on the website on Monday i shall circulate the link.

I have also written to the Board member for communities at Network Rail  Victoria Pender as attached, though she has not got back to me yet (i am chasing).  Her email address is here (i think this is right). Network Rail’s handling of the community has been abysmal – high handed disdain and simple lack of recognition.Download victoria_pender_network_rail.doc Why not ring them on 0207 557 8000 and ask for Victoria’s office or Charlie her assistant ?

UPDATE 21 January

Kingscrossaccess In perishing cold Stephan, Sophie, Simon, Alison, Paul and I gathered for a photo shoot for the Gazete this Sunday morning.  Thanks to everyone for turnign out.  I also took some video of what people thought (view it here at youtube) and will make this into a longer film in a week or two.  Cllr Convery has been contacted by Network Rail to set up a meeting (at last only a month after i wrote to a board memeber) – will update further as details emerge.

UPDATE Monday 15 Jan

A holding reply from the office of Victoria Pender at Network Rail.  Paul Convery has written too and the Gazette is on the case…..

Dear Mr Perrin

Thank you for your e-mail below. We apologies for the delay in coming
back to you, we are currently looking into your query and will have an
answer for you shortly.

Kind Regards
Charliy Butcher
PA to Victoria Pender
Group Director, Government & Corporate Affairs
Posted in #googlebridgeKX, Kings Cross Station Refurbishment | 1 Comment

Our community against crime…..

Posted on January 10, 2007 by William Perrin

Snlogo Crime has fallen massivley in Kings Cross in the past four years.  But there is still soo much disturbing anti social behaviour. But everyone has differnet priorities – should the police focus on overweight lorries on Copenhagne Street, or kids on the Bemerton, or sex workers in Northdown Street, or street drinkers on the Cally Road.  It is really easy to have your say and help set priorities for the police in the next couple of months. 

Simply turn up on Thursday evening at 7.00pm at Safer Neighbourhood Panel at the church hall of the Blessed Sacrament on Copenhagen Street (opposite Bemerton Street).  I know from attending this meeting that it really works – the police listen, go away and do something.  Freaky.  There is a document on crime in the Caledonian Ward here Download offences_reported_in_caledonian_ward_to_nov_2006.pdf

You can talk to the police and with other residents about crime issues in the neighbourhood.  And  if you feel like a cup of tea and perhaps a biscuit on a cold winters evening and meeting some of your neighbours, this is a good way of doing it.

Posted in Current Affairs | Leave a comment

St William’s Yard, Gifford Street and Bingfield Park

Posted on January 8, 2007 by William Perrin

Williamsplace Work has now started on the William of York School site on Gifford Street that backs onto Bingfield Park. There is a long and sorry planning history to this huge site  – years ago the old school buildings, locally Listed were mysteriously demolished without permission.  Then the Council badly messed up planning procedure allowing a completley inappropriate development of 150 flats to sneak through.

Williams_yard_building_site_1 Residents on Gifford street fought tooth and nail and did manage to amend the design to make it less hideous (one proposal for a 14 storey tower was especially nasty).  Phil and Diana even managed to get it raised in the House of Lords i think.  Cllr Paul Convery has been in touch.  The development will be called St William’s Yard (at the link is one of those wonderful breathless estate agent spiels – no mention of the Bemerton Estate right next door why on earth not ? why don’t they link to my piece about rough sleepers on the site ?) – as you might guess it is a fortress style gated development looking like a late 1970s student hall of residence.

There is some Section 106 money due to the community to compensate for the impact of the development – most of this will be spent on community facilities in Bingfield Park.  There is more money due the Bingfield area from the Railways Lands 106 so Cllr Convery is suggesting getting some people together for a park trust of some sort. This is a good idea if we can find people with enough spare time.  If you are interested email Paul above (see the email attached here) Download convery_email_williamofyork.doc

Access to the park will be unreasonably messed about by the building works – a temporary entrance will be created between Sparkplug and Crumbles Castle.

Posted in Planning, Licensing and Regulation | 5 Comments

www.kingscrossenvironment.com

Posted on January 8, 2007 by William Perrin

Communitychest The West Area Committee of the Council has given me a small grant from the West Area Community Chest to do a few things to underpin this website  – the first of which is to create a proper web address for the site (i can never remember the http:\typepaddooodahhdoodah bit).  So the site can now be reached via the much more memorable www.kingscrossenvironment.com Any links you may already have will still work so don’t worry. I am about to set up the .co.uk and .org variants (which is surprisingly expensive).  The rest of the money is going on the subscription to Typepad the weblogging service that powers this site and makes it flexible and easy to update. 

Naturally i won’t change the editorial line.

I am really pleased to have some offical recognition that this site is a part of the local community, as well as the generous comments from contributors. 

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

Can you design for a community in new development ?

Posted on January 5, 2007 by William Perrin

Schoolgatessmall_1 There is an interesting article here on what makes a community by the urban design team Holistic City.  The piece is an good discussion on how urban designers can build physical infrastructre that helps to make a community happen.  They identify six important factors:

  1. special places of easy contact (such as school gates in the diagram)
  2. encourage pedestrians rather than vehicle speed (bring back the benches on the Cally Rd)
  3. a sense of place/identity/belonging (is there a distinctive look and feel about the area)
  4. awareness of other people as a source of advice and help (knowing who to talk to)
  5. online communities to support real communities
  6. good local services.

It is very interesting stuff with much relevance to Kings Cross – both for the wave of peicemeal devleopment in which developers ofen want to lock their residents in fortresses and when we get to the detail of the major railway lands scheme in the next year or so.

Posted in Planning, Licensing and Regulation | 1 Comment

Resolve to get involved…..

Posted on January 4, 2007 by William Perrin

How_to_get_involved_thumb People pulling together have helped turn Kings Cross around from a warzone in the mid nineties to one of the most exciting and stimulating places to live in London.  Every bit of the community has worked with each other, the Council(s), the police, property developers, local companies and charities.  People who want to help often find it hard to work out where to start.  If you feel like getting involved in the New Year then over coming weeks this website will feature oppotunities for you to find out what is going on and how to get involved.

As a starter, if you are interested in local democracy and what our councillors get up to a good place to start is the West Area Committee on Tuesday 9 January at the Barnsbury Centre, Offord Road, N1 – details including agenda here all your local councillors for the Kings Cross area (North of Pentonville Road) answer questions in public and debate local issues.  These issues can include, according to the website:

  • information on council services and those provided by other organisations, such as recycling, streetlighting, rail and road improvements
  • consultation on proposed local council projects such as controlled parking zones, traffic calming schemes and improvements to parks and open spaces
  • information and consultation on major developments and projects led by other organisations, like the Arsenal stadium, Cross Rail and Kings Cross Central
  • consultation on borough wide policy, such as the council’s budget and the borough transport spending plan
  • discussion on matters of local interest and concern. If you think an item should be discussed at area committee, please contact the chair of your area committee.
Posted in How to get things done locally | Leave a comment

Horrible crime at Coatbridge House

Posted on January 3, 2007 by William Perrin

Islgazette_logo_2 The pre-Xmas edition of the Gazette reports the grisly trial of Halil Ates for a savage attack in Coatbridge House on the Bemerton Estate.  In 2004 Ates beat, imprisoned and tortured a Polish guy to whom he had illegally sublet his sister’s council flat in Coatbridge. Pawel Borycki had rented the flat no t knowing it had been illegally sublet.  When a housing officer turned up to ask routine questions the fiddle fell through.  Ates turned up with a gang of 20 people to evict Borycki for ‘shopping ‘ him to the authorities.  Borycki’s hands were bound and he was gagged with tape before being beatne with and iron bar and attacked with a knife.  Ates was found guilty of wounding with intent and false imprisonment.  Sentencing is on 16th Jan.

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

ASBO – Anti Squirrel Behaviour Order

Posted on December 22, 2006 by William Perrin

In police camera action style  i have managed to film a theft in progress in Bingfield Park.  There are three different squirrels who raid the bird feeder – though one of them falls off spectacularly in the middle of the film.  I have now put up a new Gardman feeder with a weighted sleeve (see also optimistic diagram in picture)
Squirrel_1 to deter squirrels some more (Robert Dyas have them on sale right now).  The last one was only squirrel resistant – that’ll teach me to read the label more carefully in future.  Let’s see if it works.

UPDATE……So far the squirrel has been foxed (can you ‘fox’ a squirrel?) by the new peanut feeder.  But only a single pair of blue tits are using it. I have now ordered a seed feeder to a similar design with perches that the chaffinches can use.  However the seed feeder that starred in the film above has been vandalised.  Complete theft was thwarted by having padlocked it to the tree with some wire
but it is unusable now.

MORE…. new seed feeder now hanging still no sign the squirrel has worked out how to demolish the existing Gardman peanut feeder.  Have seen squirrel sitting on branch above looking down at feeder but it can’t figure it out yet. I gave a friend one of these Gardman feeders for Xmas – she had given up on bird feeding due to squirrel raids and her (obese) squirrel hasn’t yet figured it out.  The trick seems to be to ensure that it hangs far enough away from other vertical surfaces so that the squirrel can’t leap sideways onto it. And of course to padlock it to the tree and hang it very high so that people can’t nick it

Posted in Bingfield Park | 2 Comments