Randolph Avenue: Parking Change Consultation

All residents living on affected parts of Randolph Avenue should by now have received a consultation letter from Westminster City Council outlining proposals to alter the parking arrangements.

Randolph Avenue residenst have long suffered from the problem of double parking on the street. At the last election we promised to work with Council Officers to bring forward proposals to help alleviate this issue. The consultation now underway is the result of that process. Our survey in Randolph Avenue last year showed an overwhelming number of residents to be in favour of changes to the current parking arrangements. If you believe something needs to be done about parking, please do take the time to respond to the Council's consultation. If there is insufficient support from local residents, the status quo will remain.

If you are a resident and have not received this document, please do let us know and we can arrange for the Council to send you one. The consultation ends on 6 October.

Alastair

Essendine School meet the Lord Mayor

The Lord Mayor of Westminster, Cllr Carolyn Keen, invited children from Essendine Primary Schoolup to City Hall for tea and a tour of the treasures in the plate room on Thursday.

Together with 4 of their teachers they spent time enjoying the tea, admiring the view and spotting landmarks. The pupils also spent around 40 minutesdiscussing the role of the Lord Mayor with her and hearing some of the history of Westminster. We're very grateful to the Lord Mayor for showing support for the terrific primary schools in our area.

Jan

St. George's

The Independent runs a profile on St. George's and its new head, Martin Tissot.

See here.

Lee

Proof: Thames do work on a Saturday (occasionally)

The lesser-spotted Thames contractors (Laing O'Rourke) were spotted in both Wymering Road and Castellain Road on Saturday morning. Yes, we were speechless too.

Next Saturday: Lord Lucan is expected to cover a double shift in Starbucks, Randolph Avenue.

Lee

Late and inadequate? Here you go, have £400 million

From the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7007324.stm

The whole Metronet contract has been a farce from the beginning - illustrated not least by the overrunning of works in Maida Vale tube until October.

And the people who began all of this silliness? Gordon Brown, Ken Livingstone and our Labour MP, Karen Buck.

Lee

CityWest Homes Meeting

Last night I attended the first meeting of the CityWest Homes new Service Delivery Committee, which replaced the North Area Board (for previous reports see here and here).

It was quite a full agenda:

• 'Community Build' discussion - Community Build is Westminster Council's proposal to increase the number of homes in our area for those that really need them - whilst we all welcomed the proposals as a good thing, some of the committee reminded CityWest about the need to involve residents as early as possible. We also had a discussion about the type of tenancies which any new properties would be offered under - I've agreed, along with some of the other committee, to continue to be involved in looking at this.
• Illegal satellite dishes - which continue to be monitored, with action being taken against some offenders. Jan, Alastair and I intend to keep pushing for this. CityWest are also bringing forward proposals to equip all villages with digital TV, removing the need for most of the dishes
• Telephone aerials - the committee unanimously recommended that CityWest Board refuses to allow the siting of any further aerials on CityWest properties until Orange remove their aerial from Falkirk House

We also went through quite a hefty performance report and flagged up our concerns about the length of time taken to complete repairs, and the method for alerting residents to when workmen were due to visit. CityWest suggested that they expected changes by the next meeting in November. We'll keep you posted.

Lee

Photo of Braemar House courtesy of CityWest Homes

Alastair's Surgery Tomorrow

Alastair will be holding his surgery tomorrow (Tuesday 17 September) between 7pm and 8pm in the Maida Centre, Lanark Road.

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

Alastair

Wymering Road: Thames Water get a slapped wrist

Wymering Road has had the dubious pleasure of Thames Water works (for the second time this year) over the last couple of weeks. The second stage of the works in the road began last Monday and is due to last until next Friday (21 September).

Sneakily (and very irritatingly), Thames Water requested that the second stage of works would need parking spaces in the street to be suspended around the clock for the 12 days they were working. Most previous works have generally been limited to 8.30 - 5.30pm Monday - Friday.

We raised the matter with Thames Water last Thursday and pointed out that permanent suspensions just weren't on. And, as if by magic, Thames agreed and suspensions have been lifted in the evenings and at weekends, to ease the inconvenience caused to residents. We're glad to have been able to help in this case, but it's infuriating that Thames were content to mess around Wymering residents in the first place.

We'll keep watching. And if you spot Thames stepping out of line, let us know.

Lee

CityWest Leaseholder Fair 2007

CityWest Homes will be holding their second 'leaseholder fair' on Monday 24 September at the Porchester Hall in Bayswater.

The event, which will run between 1 and 8pm, will include information and advice for all CityWest lessees in Maida Vale. This will include (according to the flyer) advice on service charges, repairs and ways to pay. Stalls present will provide information on (amongst other things) Service charges and billing, Key lessee scheme, Online payments, Future plans for your estate, Community Safety, Energy Advice, Home Improvement Grants, Recycling, the Noise Team and Age Concern.

If you are intending to go along, you can phone 7 245 2106 for more information.

Alastair

Update from Maida Vale Police Team

The Maida Vale Safer Neighbourhoods Team have provided an update on what they are currently up to:

• Priorities: the two main priorities are currently motor vehicle crime and Paddington Rec youth anti-social behaviour
• Paddington Rec: Photographs are being compiled of ASA gang members, with 93 individuals currently on film. 7 youths have been banned from the Rec to date. 3 individuals have been successfully prosecuted 3 individuals for 5 different graffiti offences and 2 Public Order offences
• Westminster College: letters have been sent to individuals identified as causing issues - behaviour seems to have improved since then

Lee

Dibdin House: How are the improvement works going?

It's been some months now since improvement work began on Dibdin House, intending to 'design out' anti-social behaviour and improve security for local residents.

If any residents have any comments on the progress of the works, we'd like to hear from you. Large projects such as Dibdin take time to come good, and it's our job to help you if you have any issues.

Please get in touch at maidavale@maidavaleconservatives.com

Jan

A day in Customer Services

One of my greatest pleasures in life is call centres. The opportunity to fill 20 - 30 minutes of my day with snatched bits of songs from The Lighthouse Family/Rod Stewart/The Cheeky Girls whilst being told by a recorded message that my call is "important" is, I find, one of the best ways to relax and unwind after a long day.

All of which is why I jumped at the chance of being part of a Council taskgroup investigating our approach to customer services. We've spent the last few months looking at Westminster's approach to contact with residents, taking evidence from leading consultants, questioning officers and reading reports. One of the things I thought very important, though, was actually to get onto the frontline and see what actually happens.

Last Saturday I spent several hours listening to calls received in several of our call centres - queries ranging from asking about library opening times, finding out how to dispose of bulky rubbish, enquiring about parking in the West End and services for older people. The whole experience really was fascinating - listening to the way in which residents interact with their Council and the level of services they expect. I was particularly heartened by the professional and courtous manner in which Westminster's employees handled each call and, particularly, the minimal waiting times to be connected.

Last night I reported back to the meeting of our Customer Services taskgroup and we had a wide-ranging discussion on the future for Westminster. The organisation - as every other Council and company in the UK - still has some way to go and I know officers are committed to making improvements. Council officers are preparing a Westminster 'standard' of customer service to build upon our strong foundations and make sure that we are dealing properly with every customer who gets in touch.

If you'd like to discuss your experience of Westminster's customer services, please do get in touch.

Lee

Area Forums: What would you like to talk about?

Preparations are underway for the next Maida Vale Area Forum, which is due to be held on 13 November 2007.

The Council is currently asking local residents what they would like to talk about at the next meeting. If you have any ideas, please let us know in the next week (before Monday 10 September).

Jan

Bob Crow: Doing what Bob Crow Does Best

Aaah, I see the RMT are back from their summer holidays ...

Tube strike planned for Monday - see here.

TfL say it won't bring the network to a standstill. Let's hope so. At the very least it's going to delay (the already delayed) work that Metronet are doing at Maida Vale. Great stuff.

Lee