Kings Cross access – no movement forecast from Network Rail

Posted on December 20, 2006 by William Perrin

Kings_cross_station_3_3Camden planning officials knocked back Network Rail’s plans for refurbishing Kings Cross – in part due to the lack of access from York Way.  Network Rail’s revised plans are due in the next day or so.  However it seems that they have ignored the views of the community and still have not relented on access from York Way.  Cllr Convery has posted here a read out from Islington Planners who made the case to their Camden Counterparts.  This chimes with a conversation i had on Monday with Camden officials.  You can see how stupid the situation would be with the graphic below you can click on it to make it bigger (if there are any good graphics people out there who can knock up something better than my amateuish effort that would be great)

Kingscrossaccess_3 You rarely win a race at the first hurdle, so we need to up the pressure to prevent Network Rail splitting our community in half.  I shall post some letter writing and other campaign materials and a plan of action here in the next day or so.

The Downing Street petition meanwhile is coming along nicely with 95 signatories – keep getting friends to sign everything helps.

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

CCTV on the Bemerton Estate

Posted on December 16, 2006 by William Perrin

Cctv_camera_1 A correspondence with David Renton who lives there has revealed a big argument raging on the Bemerton about whether to have CCTV and how to fund it.  The history in complex but basically the residents are being asked to pay for CCTV to help combat problems arising from bad design of the estate, local drug addicts housed there and a restless element amongst the local youth, some of whom are into quite serious crime.  The annual cost will be quite high for people who don’t have much money. Leaseholders will be stung for more than tenants.

Memorably described in the Guardian as a ‘vast high rise gulag‘ the Bemerton’s problems stem from a generation of underfunding, poor design and weak management.  There has been huge improvement in the past three or four years as money has been poured into structural security modifications (simple things like locking doors) refurbishment and improved management.  It seems fundamentallty unjust to me that the residents of very prosperous Thornhill Square should get free CCTV from the Council on Bridgeman Road.  When at the same time residents only 50 yards away on one of London’s poorest and more troubled estates should be asked to pay.

The who pays argument has also spread into a ‘should we have CCTV, does it work, won’t it affect my privacy’ debate.  Carefully managed CCTV on main routes can be effective (as anyone who lives in South Kings Cross will testify).  And indeed a gang of kids threw a large lump of stone at my head unprovoked from about five yards away as i walked through the middle of the Bemerton this week so i would favour some sort of monitoring. 

Would be interesting to hear people’s comments, particulalry if you live on the estate.

Posted in Anti Social Behaviour, Crime etc | 3 Comments

Pembroke parking problem

Posted on December 16, 2006 by William Perrin

Tracks The building site at the old Marquis of Salisbury pub at 64 Pembroke Street staggers slowly on.  The guys who work there habitually drive their vans over the grass verge to park them behind the bollards on the old stub of Tilloch St (that used to run across here before the Bemerton Estate was built.  I am no forensic scientist but the pictures seem to make it very clear what is going on.  It makes a mess and encourages others to do things on this street (see here for past misdemeanours).  In the interests of open-ness here are the number plates of the vans parked there this Saturday morning.

Van_one Van_two

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

Cally Road glory hole continues to attract trash

Posted on December 16, 2006 by William Perrin

Glory_hole_caledonian_roadThis niche under the Ferodo Bridge (interesting history of Ferodo bridges here) on the Caledonian Road continues to attract junk and trash.  The site is owned by Network Rail and the Council occasionally cleans it out, but it really needs bricking up.  Will have another attempt to resolve with Chris Demetriou of the Council.

Posted in Street Tipping, Mess, Trash | 1 Comment

Council remove licence from local shop selling alcohol to teens

Posted on December 16, 2006 by William Perrin

Under_age_drinkingThe shop attached to the garage on the Cally Road was caught three times selling alcohol to under age kids all witnessed by undercover police.  The Council has now taken their alcohol licence away – quite right too.  The Gazette report is here.  Good work by the police and the council – that’s what the new licensing laws are for.

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

The thieving magpie…..

Posted on December 16, 2006 by William Perrin

Magpiephoto I spent 18 years living in remote countryside and i really miss the birdlife now i live in Kings Cross.  Bingfield Park only has the dreary urban mix of magpies, pigeons and the odd crow.  This is mainly because the park trees only date from the 1970s and so don’t have old rough bark to foster insects, which are vital for smaller birds nor do they have holes in which small birds nest.  Magpies, crows etc build their own big rickety nests, rather than find a hole and are quite happy living on garbage – i often see magpies fighting with squirrels over rubbish that spills out of the bins.  There is hope though, i did once see a Greater Spotted Woodpecker (to my astonishment) enthusiastically attacking a tree next to Rufford Street. 

So i bought some bird boxes and a bird feeder and put them up in the trees at the  West end of the Park.  The birds have studiously ignored the boxes, so i moved them higher up with help from birding neighbour Simon Lee.  One of the boxes mysteriously disappeared. Most recently i put up a squirrel resistant bird feeder for seed filled with blue tit mix.  And strangely this disappeared too.  So anyway i have put up a new one, this time padlocked onto the tree with a steel cable.  Let’s see what happens.  If anyone sees magpies at work, perhaps wearing hoodies, let me know…….

UPDATE

A good first day for the feeder – a pair of blue tits, a male chaffinch and a male blackbird with loads of pigeons scurrying around like hoovers on the ground picking up spillage

Posted in Bingfield Park | 1 Comment

CEMEX more progress

Posted on December 13, 2006 by William Perrin

Cemex_plant_rufford_street There has been a lot of work going on with CEMEX over the past couple of months to improve their noisy behaviour on Rufford Street.  The Council noise officers convened a meeting between the CEMEX plant manager Paul Betts, Joanne WIlson of CEMEX environmental compliance, Rufford Street resident Stuart Cottis and I yesterday.  CEMEX have already:

They have also undertaken to do (amongst others)

  • stop tipping lorries arriving before 0830 (hurrah)
  • lag the inside of the aggregate silos to reduce the noise from aggregate tipping
  • replace the broken curved acoustic shield to contain noise from waiting concrete mixers
  • install a new acoustic shield next to the aggregate silos
  • move the tipping lorry fleet over time to use white noise reversing beepers (the ones that sound like a croaky frog rather than a loud beeper)
  • examine how to use banksmen to back the lorrys up safely on the street
  • tidy up the external appearance of the plant including a proper sign
  • invest in community activities to help local youth
  • notify us as they improve things so we can help judge what difference is made
  • undertaken to preserve the horse chestnut trees that shield the plant
  • buy rubber shovels to reduce the noise of clearing up spilt gravel (not a joke)

Overall we are pleased at what seems to be a substantial and well funded intent to improve the performance of the plant.  Many of the problems are being blamed upon poor managment and low investment when RMC ran the plant.  It has been a long haul over about six months to get to this point, but it is promising.  Many of the things on my list are being done.  However the community has to remain vigilant to ensure that this work is carried out.  The Council noise officers have been exceptionally helpful throughout.  WIll continue to keep this up to date.

Posted in Noisy CEMEX concrete plant Rufford Street | 3 Comments

Bye Bye Blue containers……?

Posted on December 11, 2006 by William Perrin

Dsc01176_1Don’t count the chickens but Cllr Convery has received an email suggesting that  United House will try to remove the containers before Xmas.   However, given this saga only believe it when it happens.  And, if you live on a nice roomy street in a poor area where council officials think no one will complain watch out for large blue visitors…………..

Posted in Anti Social Behaviour, Crime etc | 4 Comments