You are invited to…

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Sophie Talbot

Exciting things have been happening in Caledonian Ward over the past six months. In July, the Cally Festival saw over 6,000 people come to the Caledonian Road, to experience some fantastic entertainment and more importantly to see what the shops and services in the area have to offer. Since then, Team Cally has been working hard to build on the success of the Festival and is bringing many of the local traders together to work to improve the shopping experience for everyone using the Caledonian Road.

We are proud to announce that thanks to this work, the Caledonian Road will not only be one of the few shopping destinations in Islington that will have Christmas lights this year, but that the lights will be sponsored by the traders themselves.

We can all achieve more if we work together. Team Cally has been set up to improve the way that decisions are taken in our area. The Ward Partnership is led by the three local Councillors so that services are better coordinated and really meet the needs of local people. Team Cally coordinates the meetings of the Caledonian Ward Partnership, which is a twice-yearly meeting of residents, local organisations and members of the Team Cally Partnership.

We would like to invite you to the next Ward Partnership meeting so that we can tell you more about how Team Cally is working to change more things for the better in the ward, and to hear your views on how else things can be improved.

The agenda includes, emerging developments on the Kings Cross Central site, feedback from the Cally Festival and reviewing the Team Cally ward priorities.

The meeting is an opportunity for you as residents to meet your local ward councillors, shape the future of neighbourhood management in the Caledonian Ward and decide the priorities for Team Cally. We hope that you will join us.

Your meeting is on:

Wednesday 30 November, 6.30pm to 8.30pm
Jean Stokes Community Centre
Carnoustie Drive
N1 0DY

For further information please contact Mohamed Hammoudan, Team Cally Neighbourhood coordinator

Tel: 020 7609-8959 Email: bvmoteamcally@btconnect.com

Mobile: 07960670435 Website: http://www.teamcally.org.uk

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

Remembrance Day projection on Camden Town Hall

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Clare Hill

Camden Town HallThe Town Hall’s walls are serving as a canvas for a short film on World War I this week.

The projection has been provided by the Belgian Tourist Office, which has also had a food van driven over from Brussels to sell Belgian frites. Proceeds are going to the Royal British Legion (RBL).

RBL volunteers in WWI uniforms were selling poppies on either side of Euston Road. They told me the collaboration with the Belgian Tourist Office was something new and unusual.

The film combines stark black and white images, animated maps, dates, moving type and graphic touches of red – somehow managing to hold its own against the visual din and light pollution of Euston Road.

The Camden New Journal recently reported on this being perhaps the first of many projections for the Town Hall and a new revenue source for the council.

Clare Hill

Posted in Arts and Entertainment, Film | 2 Comments

Another commercial planning breach

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Sean Murray

Follow up to the concern of a re-application of the unit at 2 York Way to trade after 23:00 and change of the conservation area approved shop-front.

A new fast food style shopfront has been installed. I’ve checked with the planning team at LBI and planning approval of the re-application has not been given and, even if it had, the new shopfront is nothing like the plan that was submitted.

The unapproved shopfront

We’ve been promised swift action to restore the ground floor of the building to its original state.

Posted in Planning, Licensing and Regulation | 4 Comments

Deep in life

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Clare Hill
Deep Lee memorial

Around 70 friends, fellow students and teachers paid tribute to Deep Lee in an emotional memorial event at Central St Martins on Thursday evening.

The fashion student died after a collision with a lorry on the King’s Cross gyratory exactly a month ago.

Deep Lee’s tutor Christopher New told of how Ms Lee was in final year of fashion design, and of her immaculate style and meticulous work. He said that the college would arrange for suit from the menswear designer’s final collection to be realised.

Anne Smith, Dean of Fashion and Textiles, also commemorated Ms Lee and her design talent, and said she would be awarded a posthumous degree. Ms Smith said that the college had reacted quickly to organise cycle training and safety awareness for the students. The first event is on Friday 4 November, and one-to-one cycle training is now being offered.

In the cavernous hall, a slideshow played of an always elegant Ms Lee in what looked like a happy life in London for the past three years with her boyfriend, Kenji Hirasawa, who tearfully described how he had given up on arguing with her to stop riding her bike.

The memorial finished with a walk from Central St Martins for friends to place more flowers on Deep Lee’s ‘ghost bike’ at the junction where she was killed. The bike is now hidden by all the blooms.

Poignantly, the procession passed a stack of Arts London Newspapers with the ghost bike and headline on the cover: “How many more must die?”

Central London has always drawn in scores of young, passionate, creative people. Cycling is a natural transport choice for so many of them. It shouldn’t be a deadly choice. When will Transport for London start protecting this creative capital, that in some ways, drives London?

Clare Hill

Posted in Road Safety in Kings Cross | 2 Comments

Air quality summit to be held in King’s Cross

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Clare Hill

AirQualitySummitFlyerCamden Council and Islington Council are jointly hosting this event, and the summit’s stated aim is to inform about “the health effects of air pollution, how you can protect yourself, and what is being done to improve London’s air quality.”

It will take place on Monday 21 November, Camden Town Hall, Judd Street WC1H 9JE from 5 to 8.30pm.

Speakers include:
Isabel Dedring – Deputy Mayor for Transport
Professor Frank Kelly, on health consequences – Kings College London
Simon Birkett – founder of Clean Air London
Roger Madelin – Joint Chief Executive of Argent, of the King’s Cross development

To register, email airquality@camden.gov.uk or phone 020 7974 6981.

For more information see camden.gov.uk/airqualitysummit

Clare Hill

Posted in Community Health and Welfare | Leave a comment

Excellent Camden New Journal road safety article

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Sophie Talbot

This week’s Camden New Journal, sister paper of the Islington Tribune includes a strong article about the possible corporate manslaughter charge being brought against Transport for London following the tragically avoidable death of 24 year old student Deep Lee (Min Joo Lee, pictured below) on the notorious King’s Cross gyratory system on 3 October.Fashion student Deep Lee

Posted in Bad Gyrations KX Campaign, Road Safety in Kings Cross | Leave a comment

9 Caledonian Road – SEX SHOP APPEARS

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Stephan Schulte

For more then ten years No. 9 Caledonian Road has been a Licensed Sex Shop…. but most local residents never realized this as it’s license from the Council contained several Conditions that probhibited the premises from advertising “adult” materials in the window and forbad the use of the typical red neon sign Adult Sex Shop (allowed only inside the store and not visible from the street).

Suddenly however and without notice to local residents (or even our local Concillors), this has changed as the shop has “redecorated” its frontage.  This new look has created outrage as  it now looks like what it is – a sex shop.  Already numberous emails expressing displeasure have been directed to our Councillor who appears to have been just as surprised as local residents.  He has responded quickly, and his response follows:

Dear all,

The latest update:

I have now been briefed by Jan Hart, the service director for public protection. She will be visiting the site on Friday.

She says the annual license renewal was implemented through delegated authority (i.e. Council officers need not present to the licensing subcommittee for decision). This power is meant to be used in situations where the renewal is routine and/or there are no objections. I have firmly emphasised to her that the public consultation notices about the annual renewal gave no indication this involved any significant change to the conditions and the consultation was therefore defective.

I have made it very clear that I expect this situation to be resolved by our officers in a way that restores the status quo and consequently the business will refit the store front to comply with the previous condition.

It turns out that the rear and basement of the shop have been combined with parts of number 11 Caledonian Rd (the “do, buy & drink” store) and number 9 has given-up the space previously used for the adult material. I have asked for a careful review of how this information was presented to the licensing officers because, if the owners have suggested this was some event beyond their control, then they have misrepresented the circumstances and can be shown to have misled the Council.

Several addressees have submitted complaints and these will be replied to by Jan Hart in due course. You may already have received holding replies.

Rest assured, this matter does not just represent an affront to residents and those of you who have tirelessly campaigned to clean-up KX. It has revealed an alarming gap in both the systems, procedures and working culture of our licensing service which needs to change. As I am now one of the small number of Exec Cllrs actually running the Council I can no longer just rant about this, it’s now my responsibility to sort it out.

I’ll keep you informed as further developments arise.

Paul Convery
Labour Councillor for Caledonian Ward, LB Islington Executive Councillor for Regeneration, Planning, Transport and Leisure Town Hall, Upper Street, London N1 2UD

This type of immedate and thorough response by our elected representative is appreciated, but these actions must be supported by greater local involvement.

Your individual emails to the Public Protection Section at the Council  addressed to Jan Hart, Director will register your feelings on this matter.

Posted in Planning, Licensing and Regulation | 6 Comments

King’s Cross Square: the plans submitted for approval

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Robert Milne

King’s Cross Square is the main topic at the next meeting of the King’s Cross Development Forum. There will be presentations from Network Rail (partly for London Underground) and the architects, Stanton Williams. You should come to the meeting if you want to comment on, or just know about, the plans that have now been submitted to Camden Council for approval.

The meeting is the annual review meeting, so it will also look at past and future developments in and around the King’s Cross Central area. More details of other topics, such as King’s Cross Central development money spent on community benefits, are here.

The meeting is at 7:00 p.m. on Friday 4 November in Committee Room 1 of Camden Town Hall.

Posted in Kings Cross N1C, railwayslands, Kings Cross Station Refurbishment, Planning, Licensing and Regulation, Road Safety in Kings Cross | Leave a comment