£100,000 Your Way: Elgin Parade Update

One of the key priorities you highlighted during our Summer '£100,000 Your Way' consultation was the need to spruce up the shopping area on Elgin Parade.

Last week, we held a walkabout with the Deputy Cabinet Member for Street Environment, Cllr Lindsey Hall, and a council officer from our Civic Streets department, to talk about the potential changes that we could make to the Parade. As a Council, we already have an existing set of projects around the city which seeks to inject new life into larger shopping streets (like Praed Street in Paddington or the Harrow Road) - so we were hopeful that officers who have already worked on these programmes would be able to provide some good ideas.

We spent a good while walking around Elgin and then sat down for a lengthy meeting about what we might be able to do. Council officers have agreed to come back with a set of suggestions based on our budget in the New Year.

We'll let you know when we have more news.

Thanks to Lindsey and Martin for being willing to go on a walkabout in the dark on a freezing evening in December!

Alastair

Kilburn Park Road: Street Surgery

Last Saturday, we held one of our regular street surgeries, talking to local residents and checking that they were happy with their local area and the services that Westminster Council provides.

This month, we chose Kilburn Park Road, one of our much-valued border roads we share with Brent. We spoke to a lot of local residents who were very happy with the improvement they have seen in the last few years – the road resurfacing which we were successful in securing last year and the continued attention the Council is giving to maintaining high standards of cleanliness.

Following our conversations we’ve taken away a number of small issues regarding housing and trees growing over from Paddington Rec. We also continue to see that Brent are not providing the needed level of service on their side of the road – particularly with regards to graffiti. We’ll take this up.

Lee

Bowling Green: Update

It has been a few weeks since we last provided an update on the proposals to ‘redevelop’ the bowling green in Paddington Rec and provide additional tennis facilities.

The short answer is, that in the last couple of months, nothing of significance has actually occurred. At the Rec meeting in late September, we successfully argued that council officers (who are proposing the change) had not compiled a comprehensive or detailed-enough proposal for comment to be made. Officers were then asked to go away and create such a proposal.

Since then, additional information has been provided but still not to the level of detail that we feel is needed to allow the Cabinet Member for Parks (who will take the ultimate decision) to make an informed decision. As a result, we continue to file information requests with officers on the proposal, the existing performance of the bowling green and the use of the existing excellent tennis facilities.

We have been guaranteed a meeting with the Cabinet Member for Parks before any decision is taken and we are currently awaiting a date to be set for this – which, with Christmas coming up, looks as though it may now be in the New Year. At this meeting we will press for a full public meeting where local residents can provide their views on the proposal.

As local Councillors, we continue to oppose the current plans for ‘redevelopment’ and will continue to press for the bowling green to be given the support needed to get it back into proper and regular use. We’ll keep you informed.

Jan

Westminster to freeze council tax ... again

We're a bit early this year, but a few weeks ago, we announced that the Council was again freezing its share of the council tax for financial year 2009/2010. That's the second 0% increase in a row.

Coupled with Boris's announcement that he is also freezing his share of the council tax that means Maida Vale residents will pay the same amount as last year - a total freeze which hasn't happened at all in the last decade - and has only been made possible by a Conservative Mayor and a Conservative Council.

As councillors, we know that you are being taxed too much already and so we are determined - in whatever small way we can - to help you.

Lee