Chief Executive Visit

Last night we welcomed Peter Rogers, Chief Executive of Westminster City Council, to Maida Vale for a tour of our neighbourhood and a discussion of the major issues affecting it.

We spent two hours showing Peter around almost all of the roads in our ward, and discussing the individual issues of each. We particularly highlighted:

• the need to improve security at Oak Tree House and Beechcroft House, on Shirland Road
• the continuing issues with City of Westminster College on Elgin Avenue
• the real need to address the problem of insufficient parking on Randolph Avenue
• the need for greater support for Paddington Boy's Club on Lanark Road
• the works about to start in Dibdin House
• the need to further improve and make secure the Tollgate Gardens Estate
• the planning application which has recently been lodged at the top of Kilburn Park Road
• the failure of Brent to resurface Kilburn Park Road
• the continuing difficulties created by Thames Water throughout the ward
• anti-social behaviour on the corner of Grantully and Ashworth Roads

We're very grateful to Peter for taking the time to come up and discuss Maida Vale. We are also hopeful that actually taking the officers to the issues on the ground - both yesterday and the other week with the Director of Transportation - can focus attention on how we can make Maida Vale even better.

Jan and Lee

Bike Racks Update

The plans for the new bike stands in Maida Vale (see earlier story here) have now been published by Westminster Council.

In our area, the Council is proposed new installations at the following:

• close to Oak Tree House on Shirland Road
• the junction between Lauderdale Road and Ashworth Road
• the junction between Elgin Avenue and Castellain Road
• the junction between Lauderdale Road and Biddulph Road
• the junction between Castellain Road and Sutherland Avenue

We've been sent all of the plans by the Officers at the Council (one can be seen above). If you'd like to see the rest, please do e-mail us at maidavale@maidavaleconservatives.com. We'll be lodging our comments on the proposals shortly.

Alastair

Carpeted

Thanks to whoever left all of this waste carpet in Kilburn Park Road on Tuesday evening!

We've arranged for the Council to collect and dispose of the bags.

Dumping - in all forms - is very anti-social, particularly when Westminster Council will pick up two bulky items for free! For further details, click here or phone the Environment Action Line (7 641 2000).

Lee

National Downshifting Week

This week is the 3rd National Downshifting Week, aimed at reducing everyone's impact upon the environment around us.

As local Councillors, we're very keen to promote events like this. National Downshifting Week strikes me as a really worthy attempt to promote environmental awareness and change in the only way that is really going to have a long term effect - on an individual-by-individual and household-by-household basis, from the ground up.

You can find out more here.

Lee

Rayne House Visit

Last week, Jan welcomed Westminster Council's Older Peoples' Champion, Cllr Christabel Flight, to Rayne House, on Delaware Road.

Jan took time to show Christabel around the property, and to speak to residents and staff. Jan was very keen that residents had the opportunity to provide feedback on their experiences, which could be taken back to feed into the Council's Older Peoples' Strategy.

Rayne House is one of the premier housing blocks for older persons in Westminster. The property contains around two dozen apartments, with additional services and amenities provided by onsite staff, led by Anne Beatty. Rayne is a great example of how older peoples' needs can be met in the community.

Jan

Moving forward on Randolph Avenue and Kilburn Park Road

Last week, we once again invited the Director of Transportation to Maida Vale for a ward visit to discuss the continuing problems with parking and road surfaces.

It has been just under six months since we took the Director on the last walkabout (see here). In that time, some progress has been made. Definite proposals have been drawn up to increase the number of parking spaces in Randolph Avenue, and are currently being commented on internally within the Council. We hope to bring these out for external consultation shortly, and look forward to local residents having their say on this very important matter.

Kilburn Park Road continues to prove difficult. Brent's promise to resurface the part of the road for which they have responsibility before April 2007 has not materialised, due to budgeting problems. Instead, they are now promising to resurface before April 2008, and we are working hard with Westminster Council Officers to highlight to Brent how important the resurfacing is. In the last few weeks, after requests from local residents, Brent have made a couple of temporary repairs to the road surface. We inspected these last week and they are not of a particularly high standard.

We'll keep pushing - we are determined to find solutions for both of these roads for the benefit of local residents.

Lee

Shirland Road pavement works

We noticed last weekend that National Grid Transco had dug a small hole on the pavement on Shirland Road. We asked for further details on Monday and it seems that there was a small gas leak which forced Transco to excavate.

The leak has been plugged and, when we walked past last night, it looked as though the works were finishing up and would be removed soon.

If you see a random hole in Maida Vale and would like an explanation, please do let us know and we'd be delighted to find out for you.

Lee

Westminster: Value For Money

As local Councillors we are very proud that Westminster is able to provide excellent services and the second lowest council tax in the whole of the UK.

But don't just take our word for it - in a letter last week, the independent Audit Commission has again commended Westminster for "providing very good value for money" and judged that we are a "strongly improving" council.

Westminster Conservatives - delivering for Maida Vale and Westminster.

Alastair, Jan and Lee

Meeting Thames Water (part two in a series)

Last Thursday, for the second time, we summoned Thames Water to City Hall for another meeting on the replacement programme which is underway in Maida Vale.

We had a productive meeting and we're glad that there has been some progress by both Thames and Westminster Parking Services towards resolving some of the problems we have highlighted. In particular, Thames have begun to tighten up on their operations and Parking Services have temporarily relaxed their enforcement rules in affected roads (which has been a huge help).

We re-iterated, however, that there were still significant areas where improvement was needed:

• that Thames must not operate in areas where they do not have the correct permission (they're getting better, but still seem to be trying their luck in places)
  that there was too much variation in the quality and effect of the works between roads in Maida Vale (no more Essendine, Wymering or Morshead Roads please)
• that works were still taking too long (and residents were being inconvenienced as a result)

We have asked Thames/Parking Services/Council Officers to take action on a number of other issues:

• that Thames provide a short report of their activities-to-date in every road in Maida Vale where they have operated, with information on the reasons for late starting/delays/late ending etc.
• that a revised schedule of future operations is provided
• that Parking Services provide information on the effects of the changes to the parking enforcement rules
• that a discussion takes place on how suspension signs can be removed quickly once work is finished (we pointed out the obvious answer to this one)
• that more consultation is undertaken before future locations are chosen for the storage containers (such as the large white ones on Wymering and Widley)
• that an explanation is provided for the burst water main on Sunday 8th April on the Elgin Avenue-Randolph Avenue junction

Overall, as Councillors, we believe that Thames are slowly getting better - and they have displayed a commendable willingness to listen in recent weeks. The next test is how they work on new roads like Delaware, Castellain and Lauderdale (and whether they finish speedily in the roads they are already on). As we've already noted, Thames moved into Delaware on Monday and we're watching closely. We'll have no hesitation in hauling them straight back into City Hall if standards do not carry on improving.

Alastair, Jan and Lee

PS Please let us know how you feel the Thames water works are going. We'd be delighted to help in any way we can.

Westminster brings back the park keepers

After a decade of absence, the traditional park keeper is coming back to Westminster!

As part of our new Open Spaces Strategy, Westminster City Council is to take the lead in bringing back park keepers into our 54 major parks. The move is an attempt to make the borough's open spaces, like Paddington Rec, even cleaner, greener and safer. One of the main roles will be to forge links with the local community and engage with young people.

Lee

Delaware: Hurdle One Jumped

So far, so good in Delaware Road from Thames Water.

On the first day of the parking suspension, work actually seems to have begun. Areas are cordoned off, skips have been set down and excavation work has commenced.

The next challenge is to minimise the inconvenience to local residents and to work in the correct areas (where parking suspensions have been applied for). We are watching ...

Lee

Thames into Delaware

Residents of Delaware Road will be thrilled to know that they will be the next recipients of Thames Water's maintenance works. The suspension signs begin today.

Note to Thames: we're watching and we expect lessons to have been learnt from elsewhere in the ward ...

Lee

PS Please let us know if you are having any problems with Thames Water and we'd be delighted to help.

Alastair's Surgery This Tuesday

Alastair will be holding his surgery this Tuesday, 17 April, between 7pm and 8pm at the Maida Centre, Lanark Road.

If you have any problems or issues we can help you with, please do come along.

Alastair

Improving Paddington Rec: Pathways

We forgot to post this a few weeks ago:

After lobbying from all three of us, the Council's Parks & Leisure Department have confirmed that works to improve some of the worst pathways in Paddington Rec have now been completed. This should make it much easier for local residents with mobility problems to enjoy the Rec.

Thanks to Cllr Daniel Astaire for all his help in this matter.

Jan

Meeting with Thames Water Chief Executive

Last week, the leader of the Council, Sir Simon Milton, and the Cabinet Member for Street Environment, Alan Bradley, held a meeting with Thames Water's new chief executive, David Owens.

At the request of all three of us, Simon and Alan raised the problems currently being experienced in Maida Vale and highlighted how Thames's working practices needed to be improved. Mr. Owens agreed to take those issues back to Thames and to work towards finding a resolution.

Our next Thames Water meeting is tomorrow (Thursday). Please do let us know if you have any further comments you'd like us to raise.

Alastair, Jan and Lee

Yellow Pavements

One of the associated problems with the Thames Water works is the mess they are making of the pavements. Most pavements on affected roads have been dug up at intervals to allow access to the pipes supplying individual blocks. As a result, numerous roads have taken on a patchwork look, with yellow boards covering open works at regular intervals.

The length of time that it is taking for Thames to complete works is meaning that these covers - temporary at best - are beginning to move and some are a potential hazard. We've reported this to the Council and have forced several of the boards to be removed and the holes to be filled on Morshead Road. We'll continue to press Thames to tidy up quicker on the roads that they are working on.

Please do let us know if you see any yellow boards which need attention.

Jan

Jan's Surgery Tomorrow

Jan is holding her surgery tomorrow morning (Saturday), between 10 and 11am at the Pavilion in Paddington Rec.

If you have any problems that we can help you with, please do come along.

Jan

More Thames Bad Behaviour

Thames Water continue to irritate and frustrate. Despite having pointed out a dozen or so examples of transgressions a month ago, a further survey of Morshead and Essendine Roads in the last week has identified a further five issues:

• works underway on Essendine Road without a parking suspension notice in place
• four separate instances of transgressions/no application for parking suspensions in Morshead Road

This really isn't good enough. We discussed this in our last meeting and would be told that they would improve. This clearly hasn't happened on two of the roads where residents have suffered the most.

Our next meeting with Thames is a week today (Thursday 12 April) and we intend to keep up the pressure until Thames learn that they cannot inconvenience Maida Vale residents in this way.

If you have any comments or issues you'd like us to raise, please do let us know (maidavale@maidavaleconservatives.com).

Alastair, Jan and Lee

PS Thanks to our colleague Cllr Evans for his assistance on the Thames problem recently.

Randolph Avenue: Cracking down on suspended bays

On Sunday we noted that around 5 parking spaces on Randolph Avenue had been suspended incorrectly by a scaffolding company working on the PCHA properties.

In this case (and we'll give them the benefit of the doubt this time) the company claimed not to know the procedure for suspending bays to allow access for the works they were completing. They've promised not to do it again and a bill is winging its way to them for payment.

Parking bays can only be suspended by Westminster Council and they are only valid if accompanied by a yellow suspension sign setting out clearly the reason, the date and the times. If you see any suspended bays that don't have these, please do let us know.

With the Thames Water works, parking in Maida Vale is already under incredible pressure. Anything we can do to alleviate that slightly, we will.

Lee