Interested in Recycling?

Westminster's Recycling Team are organising a trip for local residents to inspect the recycling facility we use in Greenwich. If you'd like to know how the Council disposes of its waste for recycling, please do come along!

The trip will likely be in the early Autumn. Please let us know if you'd like more details.

Lee

Dumping on Randolph Avenue

A number of residents have been in touch to discuss the cleaning problems being caused in Randolph Avenue as a result of the Thames water works. It appears that our cleaning services have been having real problems in collecting and replacing the Big Black Bin at the top of Randolph (near Elgin Avenue) because of the cages that Thames have erected as part of their works.

We have contacted the Head of Street Cleaning at the Council and the immediate dumping issue has been addressed this afternoon. We have also requested that the Street Cleaning Team undertake regular checks to ensure rubbish does not build up once again (having driven down again this evening a washing machine has already appeared).

Please let us know if you have any comments on the cleanliness of your street.

Jan

Kilburn Park Road to be resurfaced

After many months of lobbying from residents, councillors and council officers, Brent Council have finally set a date to begin resurfacing their parts of Kilburn Park Road.

This is great news and one of the key issues we promise to resolve in the last election. The surface quality of the parts of Kilburn Park Road that Brent have responsibility is abysmal and it will be welcome relief to residents that the road is to be resurfaced.

However, we'll wait to see some actual works begin before we fully believe this is happening - particularly given that Brent were supposed to do this last year and then ran out of money. Fingers crossed and we'll keep you informed!

Lee

Randolph Avenue: Parking Proposals

Tomorrow night, Council Officers will present their proposals to change the parking provision on Randolph Avenue to the Maida Vale Area Forum (see here). The proposals, which have been in development for a number of months, seek to reduce the problem of double parking on Randolph.

The most significant changes will be an increase in the number of parking spaces between Elgin Avenue and Carlton Vale by 14. Additionally, the long-standing, unused bus bay will (hurrah!) be removed. New signage will also be put up covering the doctor's bays closer to Elgin Avenue, to make it clearer that they are released for residents parking in the evening and (at limited times) in the evenings.

We're very pleased that officers have been able to create a workable proposal for Randolph Avenue, after many months of lobbying and hardwork. If the changes are approved, implemented and work well, there may be scope to increase the number of echelon parking spaces in future. Officers (and ourselves) are now looking for feedback from local residents on the proposals. Please do e-mail us at maidavale@maidavaleconservatives.com and we'll pass on your comments to the officers.

Jan

Andover Place Planning Decision

Last night, the Planning Committee at Westminster Council declined the planning application from Saatchi Synagogue on Andover Place.

The application, submitted to the council earlier this year, requested permission to increase the height of the building to four storeys to provide a new art room for the school and 8 new flats for teachers and staff.

I represented all three of us at the meeting earlier tonight. As a team, we opposed the planning application on the basis of parking provision in the area and the likely effect to Kilburn Park Road, Torridon House, Andover Place and Dibdin House residents from doubling the height of the builiding. The Council Officers also recommended a refusal, based on parking.

Major planning applications are often difficult for local residents and organisations. It is never easy when one neighbour disagrees with another. On balance, as Councillors, we did feel that the potential disruption to local residents was likely to be too great to support the application. However, we look forward to continuing to work the Synagogue to finding a compromise solution which supports all the wonderful work that they do in the local community.

Alastair

New Bike Shed for Essendine School

As part of Bike Week this week, Essendine Primary School got a new bike shed this morning, opened by our colleague, Cllr Margaret Doyle.

You can find out more about Bike Week here.

Jan

Let there be light!

Last year we were contacted by residents and ABC Co-op asking for the trees close by to the cut back. The kitchen of one particular resident that we visited in Braemar House was incredibly dark, caused by quickly growing trees and branches obscuring light for the majority of the day.

A couple of weeks ago, following requests from ourselves, we managed to have the trees outside Atholl, Braemar and Dundee cut back. Residents have already said how much of a difference it has made already.

If you have a similar kind of issue in Maida Vale, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Alastair

Thames into Widley and Randolph

The latest roads in Maida Vale to be subjected to the Thames treatment are Randolph Avenue and Widley Road. Thames went into both last week and is due to be in Widley until early July and Randolph until mid July. The Randolph works are likely to have quite an impact, with the road between Sutherland and Elgin becoming one way for the duration.

We'll give Thames some credit for performing adequately in Delaware Road - and we're grateful that they've learnt the lessons of the last few months. Widley and Randolph are the next tests. Otherwise, we're watching.

Lee

Visit to Saatchi Synagogue

Last week, Jan took up the very kind invitation of Rabbi Levy to visit the Saatchi Synagogue.

Jan was taken on a tour of the synagogue, which is based on the corner of Kilburn High Road and Andover Place. She saw all of the many activities which are available for members of our local Jewish community and the school which is part of the synagogue. Jan also spent a significant amount of time with Rabbi Levy to discuss the recent planning application which has been submitted. The application seeks to increase the height of the building by a further 2-storeys, something which local Councillors and residents in Dibdin House, Kilburn High Road, Torridon House and Andover Place remain very concerned about. Jan put forward the concerns of local residents regarding the potential loss of light and parking difficulties to Rabbi Levy, who was keen to listen.

The next step is the Planning Committee, who will determine the application on 21 June. We'll let you know what happens.

Our thanks to Rabbi Levy for his time and to our colleague, Cllr Cyril Nemeth for organising the visit.

Jan

Next Maida Vale Area Forum - Agenda (Tues 26th June)

The next Maida Vale Area Forum will be held on Tuesday 26th June at The Amadeus Centre, 50 Shirland Road, between 6.30 and 8.30pm.

There will be an informal surgery between 6.30 and 7pm where Councillors and council officers will be around to discuss any local issues.

Workshops are available from 7pm on (i) Westminster's volunteering opportunities, (ii) changes to parking (including the Randolph Avenue proposals), (iii) tackling unemployment in Maida Vale and (iv) the new smoking legislation imposed by the government.

Please do come along and have your say!

Lee

Alastair's Surgery This Evening

Alastair will be holding her surgery this evening (12 June) 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

Thames Water Apology: Coming to a letterbox near you (Finally)

After a few more prods from us, Thames Water have finally pulled their finger out and begun to distribute an apology for the unacceptable problems they have caused recently.

Here is the text of the letter, 3,500 of which are currently being distributed:

"Dear Customer,

Thames Water would like to thank you for your patience and understanding during our essential works to replace Victorian water mains in Maida Vale. We understand your concerns and would like to apologise for the inevitable inconvenience and disruption this type of works causes.

To address specific concerns raised by residents, we have been consulting Westminster City Council, Transport for London and, more recently, the Maida Vale ward councillors. As a result, Thames Water will continue to support a full time member of staff on Westminster City Council’s parking team, dealing with parking suspensions.

In addition, our future correspondence will include information of concern to residents, such as changes to the working schedule, work interruptions or suspension of parking bays.

If you would like to contact us to discuss any aspects of our VMR programme, please call our project office Customer Service Team on 0845 603 4002 between 8am and 5pm Monday to Friday (or email to twlot6customercare@laingorourke.com).

Your ward councillors have provided their details so that, if you wish, you may contact them. We are in regular contact with them. They are:
Alastair Moss (amoss@westminster.gov.uk), Jan Prendergast (jprendergast@westminster.gov.uk) and Lee Rowley (lrowley@westminster.gov.uk).

Yours sincerely,

Paul Hammond"

Please let us know if you are still having problems with Thames. Unexpectedly their works in Delaware Road seem to have passed off without incident - yes, we were surprised too!

Lee

Cycle Racks Coming ...

Good news on the cycle rack front - funding for the latest installations has now been secured by the Council and the racks in/around Shirland Road, Lauderdale Road, Ashworth Road, Elgin Avenue, Castellain Road, Biddulph Road and Sutherland Avenue should be installed by the end of next month.

We're really pleased that we were able to get things moving on this issue on behalf of local residents.

Lee

Thames Apology Letter

Thames Water have e-mailed through to say that they will be distributing their apology letter for their recent behaviour this week.

We've spent the last couple of months working with Thames to improve the way they work in Maida Vale, and we are pleased to report that some improvement has been made. One of the things we insisted, however, in our meetings with Thames was that they apologised to residents in roads such as Shirland Road and Wymering for the massive inconvenience and difficulty that they caused.

Lee