Queen's Cottage Cafe

The application for increased hours and to sell more kinds of alcohol was rejected yesterday by the licensing committee. Jan spoke on behalf of residents living nearby who were not keen on the proposal.

Thanks to everyone who got involved on this issue - we hope this is a satisfactory outcome.

Lee

JPS School Planning Application ...

... was refused tonight at Westminster's Planning Committee. More soon.

Jan

JPS Planning Application: Committee Date Changed

The planning committee date for the JPS planning application has now been moved back by a week, from 8th to 15th July.

Lee

Dibdin House: Planning Application

Pathmeads, the managers of Dibdin House, have filed a planning application to convert the "disused" creche into a flat.

We have asked for more details on this application. From our reading the application is fundamentally flawed - not least that the creche is actually a community hall and the suggestion that it hasn't been used for around eight years is incorrect (because we held meetings in it just a few years ago).

We'll keep you informed ...

Alastair

JPS Planning Application: Decision Date

Back in March we reported that a planning application had been submitted by the JPS School to build several new stories on top of the existing building on Andover Place.

A decision date has now been set for the application - the committee will hear it on 8th July at City Hall.

You can find out more about the application (and comment on it) by clicking here.

Lee

Andover Place

Just a short note to say that the planning application from JPS on Andover Place - which was due to be heard by Westminster Council's planning committee last Thursday evening - was deferred to another date at the last minute.

The application will now come in front of the committee in a few weeks time (date to be confirmed). As soon as we know, we'll let you know.

Alastair

Andover Place planning application

Several years ago, the local JPS preparatory school on the corner of Andover Place and Kilburn Park Road was granted permission to build two new storeys on top of the existing building. At the time, as local Councillors, we opposed this building because of the potential to affect residents living close by in Torridon House and Dibdin House, both from a sense of enclosure and overlooking.

Despite JPS having permission to undertake the development they have not, to date, begun works.

Westminster City Council recently received a new application from JPS for a slightly amended version of the above proposal. From our initial briefing from planning, we understand that the application is a for a similar, potentially even slightly larger build.

We have circulated a letter to nearby residents to ask their views on the application.

Jan, Alastair and Lee

Gritting situation

We don't normally print part of Council press releases verbatim, but we thought this one was important:

"A national salt rationing scheme was imposed by the Government last Friday restricting supplies to individual councils, who have been ordered to cut gritting by 25%. Today that was extended to cuts ranging from 40 - 50%. The activation of the emergency national system of salt allocation means that normal gritting will not be possible due to dwindling stocks of salt.

Westminster, due to its central location with 1.1million daily visitors and 600,000 car journeys, normally aims to grit all its roads and pavements. It is therefore hit particularly hard by the restrictions which means its gritters are only able to spread around one sixth of the salt they normally do during the severe weather."

Before the introduction of the restrictions we were in touch with council officers regularly and did manage to get really icy patches in the ward (including a part of Maida Vale near a bus stop outside Dibdin House) re-salted when residents reported them to us.

Jan, Alastair and Lee

St. George's: Problems with Lorries

A number of residents have alerted us to some serious concerns regarding the redevelopment works at St. George’s school which started two months ago.

Prior to the works beginning, we spent a significant amount of time negotiating with the building contractor to ensure the impact on local residents would be minimised as much as possible. We managed to get agreement on three important things to do this:

• a reduction in the size of the site compound;
• that the compound will be moved in mid-2010 away from Glasgow House upon completion of the major part of the works on the new sports hall;
• that the number of lorry movements would be limited to an average of 5 per day and would not occur before 9.15am without prior permission of the Estate Office.

Lanark and Glasgow residents have been in touch over the last couple of weeks to say that the builders have not adhered to the agreement on lorry movements. We immediately took this issue up with the builders and with the Council department coordinating the activity and raised again raised it at two meetings (last week and this).

The builders do appear to have allowed much larger number of lorries on to the site on numerous occasions since the end of May, apparently because of “unforeseen soil conditions” (whatever that is).

We have been very clear with the contractors that this is completely at odds with the agreements that they voluntarily signed up to only a few months ago. Furthermore, having publicly committed to being a considerate neighbour, to break those commitments within a few weeks is not an auspicious start for a project which will take several years to complete.

As a result, an unequivocal apology letter will shortly be distributed by the contractor to all affected residents.

The contractor has also committed in the letter to the following:

• that from 13th July, the number of lorries visiting the site will be limited to 6 per day (unless the Estate Office have been notified in advance);
• that they will write to their suppliers outlining that lorries should not arrive at the site before 9.15am not after 6pm (and should not all arrive at once causing traffic). In addition, a traffic marshall will be deployed outside of these times to try to stop lorries entering Lanark Road ;
• that no works will be carried out before 8am or after 6pm;
  that extra checks will be made on the generator to ensure it is switched off at night (and so not causing noise for nearby residents), and;
  that a new “Resident’s Hotline” (0800 083 5575) will be set up so residents can inform the contractor of any problems or issues they have.

As local Councillors, we are extremely disappointed by the contractors early failure to adhere to the agreements that we put in place – and we have told them, in no uncertain terms, our thoughts. The letter will not make up for the inconvenience that local residents have experienced over the last few weeks but we hope that the message has now got through to the contractor that they will have to consider local residents during the build.

Going forward, we’ll keep watching the contractor to ensure they are keeping their end of the bargain. Thanks to those residents who got in touch with us to report the problems with the lorries. We hope there won’t be but, if there are any further issues going forward, please do get in touch again – and we will take it up again.

Alastair, Jan and Lee

St. George's Update

Another success on St. George's!

One of the main issues we were concerned about for Lanark Road, Carlton Vale and other nearby residents, was the movement of lorries to service the St. George's redevelopment once it got underway. Lanark Road, in particular, is a relatively narrow road and we needed to be sure that deliveries to the site had been thought through so as not to really inconvenience local residents.

After a lot of negotiations, we are pleased to say that the building contractor has agreed to a number of conditions that will hopefully reduce the impact of the St. George's works for local residents. These conditions are:

• that lorries can only access the site from 9.15am unless they have informed the Estate Office in advance. The building contractor had asked to be able to access from 8am - which we thought was too early and was likely to coincide with the busy time of day for Lanark Road.
• that no more than 5 lorries should access the site on a daily basis - which will ensure that local residents aren't affected by continuous lorry movements all day, every day.

We know that the next year or so is going to be challenging - large scale building works so close to a residential area always are. We hope, though, that the conditions we have negotiated - on lorry movements, on the location of the compound and also on its size may help reduce the impact on local residents as much as is possible. We want to thank local residents near St. George's in advance for their patience and support for this important project.

And, of course, as your local Councillors we are here to help. We've delivered a letter containing all the conditions to nearby residents, so that they can check the contractor is fulfilling his side of the bargain. If local residents have any comments at all, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us.

Jan, Alastair and Lee

St.George's Update

Success! Good news for Glasgow House residents.

Further to our last update on the St. George's redevelopment works, we're very pleased to report that the school have now agreed to our request to re-locate the building compound after the construction of the new sports hall.

The compound, which is to be sited between Glasgow House and the school, was initially due to be in place from now and last until the end of the works in mid-2011. At our request - and following lengthy discussions with the school - it has now been agreed that the compound will be moved in the middle of 2010 (there are two options regarding where to place it - both on school land).

We are very grateful to the Diocese and the Governing body for being so helpful on this matter and being a good neighbour to Glasgow House.

The main outstanding issue with St. George's is now lorry movements on Lanark Road. We're continuing to discuss this issue and will come back with an update shortly.

Lee

The little things ...

Over the last couple of months, a few bits and bobs which we’ve done to keep Maida Vale clean and tidy:

• Lanark Road: we’ve had one of the partially-blocked gulleys close to the Boy’s Club and Glasgow House checked, cleaned and unblocked.
• Elgin Parade: we reported a failure to reinstate paving by EdF very close to the tube station and, after some bureaucratic wrangling, this has been sorted. We also have reported some graffiti on the sign across from Boomerang deli.
• Kilburn Park Road: we’re arranging for a paint spillage reported at the Area Forum to be cleaned in the first week of April.
• Elgin Avenue: we’ve asked for the now-unused plinths which used to hold the parking ticket machines to be removed in the next couple of months.
• Shirland Road: we’ve reported graffiti on the side of 123 Shirland Road and asked for it be removed.
• Kilburn High Road: additionally, we’ve reported graffiti on the side of a shop on Kilburn High Road and had removed some flyposting on the side of Dibdin House.
• Tollgate Gardens: we’ve had the Estate Office remove over 3 tonnes of fly-tipped concrete down near the garages, removed graffiti on the garages themselves, remove a dead tree stump near Godwin House and a load of dead branches at the back of Wingfield House.
• Forty Tree Green: we asked that the litter which had built up over the winter was removed (completed mid-February).
• Randolph Avenue: we’ve reported some graffiti close to Elgin Mews South.

If you have any issue which you would like us to tackle on your street, get in touch (maidavale@maidavaleconservatives.com).

Lee

St. George's Update

An update on the issues associated with the redevelopment plans for St. George’s, which we’ve been working through over the past few weeks:

As you’ll remember St. George’s was granted permission for the building of a new block, close to Glasgow House, which would allow the school to expand to take more pupils from our local community. This redevelopment is expected to take two years to complete and, when concluded, will see an almost totally refurbished school able to support the great work that the new headmaster, Martin Tissot is doing.

As local Councillors, it is our job to make sure that these works do not cause unnecessary inconvenience and problems for the local community. Residents of Glasgow House, Lanark Road, parts of Dibdin House, Andover Place and Carlton Vale are all going to have to live next to a building site for some/all of the next two years and it is crucial that their interests are considered.

At our last meeting with residents, three major issues were identified – (i) the position of the building site compound, (ii) the encroachment of that compound into Lanark Road and (iii) the lorry movements that will be associated with the building works.

Here’s the progress on each:

• Position of the building site compound: We asked the team coordinating the redevelopment to look at alternatives to the compound being next to Glasgow House for the entirety of the building programme. Glasgow House residents (and those close by on Lanark Road) will endure a disproportionate amount of inconvenience and hassle due to these works and, by the middle of 2010, the majority of the work being undertaken close to Glasgow will have been concluded (the project then moves to the refurbishment of the existing school buildings near Carlton Vale). We’ve asked the school if they might consider moving some/all of the compound onto the land they use over the road to give Glasgow House residents a respite (and to say thankyou for putting up with the works). We’re currently in discussions and will let you know the outcome.
• Encroachment of building compound into Lanark Road: We’re very pleased to say that we’ve had some success with this, following discussions with the builders. The original plans were for the compound wall to extend out several feet into the road – which we thought was unacceptable and could affect driving down the road. Now the builders have agreed to pull the compound back off the road – it will now only go up to the edge of the pavement. Every little helps!
• Lorry movements on Lanark Road: We were very concerned to see that the builders wished to operate lorry movements from quite early in the morning and all the way through the period when kids were coming and going to school. In addition, Lanark is a busy road with many people wanting to access the Maida Centre and the Boy’s Club. We’re continuing discussions with the builders about regulating and reducing lorry movements when Lanark is likely to be busy.

The builders have indicated that the works are likely to start in the next few weeks, so we’ll continue to work on these issues and let you know the outcome. We have a meeting in the next couple of days, so we’ll report back then.

Lee

Licensing Application: Quality Hotel, Kilburn High Road

We've been alerted to a licensing application that has been made for the Quality Hotel, 53 - 59 Kilburn High Road (over the border in the borough of Brent) which has the potential to affect residents at the top of Maida Vale.

The application is for an alcohol and music licence until 5am every day and permission in addition for live music until 2am on Fridays and Saturdays.

As the application is over the border in Brent, as local Councillors, we don't get the opportunity to comment on it formally - although we will be putting in representations anyway. If any resident feels strongly, then they should place those concerns in writing to Brent Council before 25 March. The address to send your comments to is London Borough of Brent Health, Safety & Licensing, Brent House, 349 - 357 High Road, Wembley, HA9 6EP.

Jan

More on the Dibdin House bike racks ...

Good news!

We heard this morning that the bike racks had arrived and will be installed in the next week or so in Dibdin House.

If you are a resident of Dibdin House, please let us know how you get on once they have been put in. We can feedback your comments to Stephen and Michelle at Pathmeads.

Lee

Dibdin House: Bike racks

A number of residents have been in touch over the last few months to enquire about the possibility of bike racks within Dibdin House. Encouraging cycling and providing the infrastructure to do this is something as local Councillors we are very supportive of.

We've been asking Pathmeads for a good few months now whether they would consider installing some bike racks within Dibdin House. Although times are tough and money is tight, Pathmeads have confirmed that the bike racks have been ordered and will be installed as soon as they have been received. This, we are told, should be in a matter of weeks.

We'll let you know when we get more information.

Lee

Further meeting on BSF

On Tuesday evening, we held a second meeting with the Building Schools for the Future team at City Hall to talk through the plans for St. George's and St. Augustine's.

Following the granting of planning permission for the works to go ahead last Tuesday, it is now crucial that the team take into account the impact on local residents around both schools. We all know that major building works will inevitably affect the local community and residents living particularly closely to the sites will be affected. The important thing is to ensure that Maida Vale and those residents are affected as little as is humanely possible.

The majority of our meeting on Tuesday was taken up discussing St. George's, where the local community on Carlton Vale, in Dibdin House and particularly on Lanark Road will be quite severely affected during the works. We spent a long time going through all of the works plans in detail and challenging many of the assumptions that had been made to ensure they were water-tight.

The plans envisage a site being constructed to the south of St. George's, close to Glasgow House. Thankfully, officers at the Council have already reduced the proposed size of the building site and tried to mitigate the effects on Glasgow House residents by moving the temporary office block out of sight from their balconies.

We remain concerned about the size of the office block and the length of time the site compound will be close to Glasgow House (March 2009 - early 2011). We have asked the BSF team to look again and they have agreed to do so. In particular, we are very concerned about the proposed traffic movements and want confirmation that the planning has been done on this. Around 10 parking spaces will have to be temporarily suspended for the duration of the works to allow the delivery lorries to turn into the site. We want confidence that the lorries can fit down Lanark Road (so no more parking spaces are taken off) and also that they are limited in the times when they can deliver (to avoid gridlock and lots of children being about).

The BSF team have agreed to come back to us on each of these points.

Jan

St. George's Redevelopment Plans Approved

Last Tuesday, Westminster Council's Planning Committee gave its approval to the redevelopment proposals for St. George's School on Maida Vale.

Starting later in the Spring, St. George's will be comprehensively redeveloped to add space for one more form (with numbers increased from 600 to 750 pupils). A new three storey extension will be added to the school comprising a new sports hall, changing facilities and teaching areas. There will also be a roof-based outdoor play area.

As Councillors, we have always recognised the importance of improving the facilities of schools against the needs of local residents. For St. George's this was very important, given its close proximity to properties in Lanark Road, Dibdin House and Glasgow House. In particular, the plans included the increasing of the St. George's boundaries by several metres to incorporate some of the new facilities, using some of the park area to the north of Glasgow House and the current school caretaker's house. We have made sure that local residents in Glasgow House have been kept fully up-to-date by the redevelopment team and residents seem content that the changes are for good reason. There were no letters of objections to the planning committee last Tuesday.

We did provide written comments to the committee on the redevelopment plans. We emphasised the need for the redevelopment team to continue to work closely with Glasgow House residents to improve their facilities as a condition for the loss of some of their gardens and, in the short-term, because some of the temporary works facilities will be situated in their car park. In addition, we highlighted that we thought the design left something to be desired, particularly on the Carlton Vale side. We are pleased that the committee agreed with us on this and the design of the building facing Dibdin House will be looked at again.

We'll keep a close eye on the plans and works and keep you informed as they progress.

Congratulations to Martin, the head, and all the pupils and staff of St. George's. We look forward to an even better school once the redevelopment has been completed.

If you are a resident affected by any of these changes and would like to discuss them, please don't hesitate to get in touch (maidavale@maidavaleconservatives.com).

Lee

Our new surgery begins tomorrow ...

Tomorrow sees the launch of another regular surgery for local residents. The first Saturday of every month will now see us hold two surgeries -

• Cafe in Paddington Rec: between 10am and 11am
• The Old Office in Dibdin House: between noon and 1pm

Please do come along if you would like to discuss any issue or problem - we are here to help!

Alastair, Jan and Lee

Andover Place - planning appeal

Last year, we wrote about the planning application made by the Jewish Preparatory School (JPS) on Andover Place to increase its height from 2 to 4 storeys to include 8 new flats for school teachers (see here and here). Although the Council rejected the original application in June 2007, the JPS appealed (as is their right) in early January to the government's Planning Inspectorate to have the decision overturned and to allow them to begin to build.

We received the decision a few days ago and the Planning Inspectorate has decided that JPS should in fact be allowed to increase its height. As local Councillors, we are disappointed that the Planning Inspectorate has chosen to overrule the democratic decision of a local council.

Nonetheless, we have already spoken with Rabbi Levy with regards to the appeal and we hope to help in any way we can to support the fantastic work of the local school and to make sure that the forthcoming building work affects local residents in Kilburn High Road, Andover Place, Dibdin House and Torridon House as little as possible.

We now look forward to working with everyone involved.

Alastair