Paddington Rec: Planning Application

The Council's Park Department has been in touch to say that they will be putting in a planning application shortly to add a Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) in one of the arcs of the running track.

MUGA are becoming increasingly popular in parks around the country - outdoor apparatus that anyone can use to keep fit.

The Parks Department first mooted this idea a little while ago to us as Councillors at our regular quarterly Rec meeting. We asked that, prior to any application going in, the Parks Department undertake a pre-consultation with all residents living nearby. As a result, all residents should have already been sent a letter with further information.

We'll post more details when we have them. In the meantime, if you would like to discuss the matter further, don't hesitate to get in touch: maidavale@maidavaleconservatives.com

Lee

Essendine Road: Undipping the dip ....

Success! A number of local residents in Essendine Road have often been concerned about resemblance of the pavement near Wymering Road to a lake after bouts of heavy rain.

After long discussions with the Council we have been successful in getting the paving stones re-laid to reduce the problem in the future. Work started this week!

If you have any concerns about the pavements near where you live, please do get in touch - maidavale@maidavaleconservatives.com

Alastair

Neighbourhood Watch: Does your street want one?

Westminster City Council and the local Maida Vale police team have been working closely with groups of local residents over the last few months to set up Neighbourhood Watches in our area.

Neighbourhood Watches, as you will know, have been around for years in an official form - and help both reduce crime and foster a sense of community in an area like ours, where meeting neighbours is often more difficult than you think!

In the last couple of weeks, the police and Council have worked with residents in Wheatfield House, Kilburn Park Road and Essendine Road to discuss the possibility of setting up a neighbourhood watch.

If you are interested in doing the same for your street, do get in touch to let us know.

Lee

Graffiti Watch

Over the last few weeks we've reported the following graffiti:

• on the phonebox on the corner of Biddulph Road and Elgin Avenue;
• on the postbox near the corner of Essendine Road and Morshead Road;
• on the phonebox on the corner of Sutherland Avenue and Castellain Road;
• on the stairwell of Tollgate House;
• on the phonebox close the entrance of the Rec on Randolph Avenue;
• on the Brent side of Kilburn Park Road;
• in the garden area on the corner of Randolph Avenue and Carlton Vale.

If you spot any graffiti, please do let us know (maidavale@maidavaleconservatives.com). Our new street guardians are also keeping a close watch on graffiti and anti-social behaviour - we'll continue to get rid of it as quickly as we can!

Lee

£100,000 Your Way: Greening Maida Vale

An update on Maida Vale's Community budget:

One of the priorities identified by local residents a few months ago was a desire to further green Maida Vale and to improve our local environment. We are pleased to report that the first part of the budget has now been allocated and will be supporting this aim.

From the end of July, hanging baskets will be appearing throughout Maida Vale to improve the look and feel of our streets and to improve biodiversity in our area. There will two plantings on a significant number of streets within Maida Vale. We've tried to space them out across the ward so all residents will be able to benefit.

The streets are: Carlton Vale (6 baskets), Elgin Avenue (33), Essendine Road (9), Kilburn Park Road, 27), Lanark Road (17), Randolph Avenue (20), Randolph Gardens (5) and Shirland Road (12).

Alastair, Jan and Lee

Thames: The slow wave goodbye

When Thames Water returned to Elgin Avenue earlier this Spring, as local Councillors we let out a collective groan at the prospect of further inconvenience to local residents and businesses. We also confess to being a trifle irritated - the information provided to us earlier in the year told us they were going back into Elgin Avenue, but not until a few months after when they eventually turned up. Not good form.

So, we're trying a new strategy with Thames. Instead of trying to understand opaque maps and diagrams that are provided (usually late), we have asked them directly what their plans are for every single road in Maida Vale. And we have good news!

The following roads have been completed - Lanark Road, Grantully Road, Morshead Road, Essendine Road, Widley Road, Wymering Road, Delaware Road, Lauderdale Road, Castellain Road, Shirland Road and Elgin Mews South. And the following roads are "not covered within current ... scope" - Andover Place, Carlton Vale, Kilburn Park Road, Oxford Road, Maple Mews and Elgin Mews North.

Which leaves just a few roads. For Elgin Avenue, all works should be completed by the end of July. For Randolph Avenue, further works should be done by mid-July 2008 (although this might also relate to the Little Venice side of the road). For Biddulph Road and Ashworth Road, the streets are complete but work still needs to be done on the connections to Elgin Avenue.

We have a few points to clarify with Thames but - finally - it looks as though Thames will soon leave our local area. It can't come a day too soon!

Lee

Essendine Residents Association AGM

Last Friday, we were very grateful to be invited to the annual general meeting of the Essendine Road Resident's Association.

As ever, local residents were very engaged with local issues and asked a number of challenging questions. Jan chaired the eeting (very ably!) whilst I gave a short report on Council and Maida Vale issues over the last year. We talked over Thames Water, Paddington Rec, car crime and street cleaning. We also had a follow-up discussion about recycling and we've agreed to go back to the recycling team with a couple of queries to follow up.

At the same time, we got a behind-the-scenes look at the new Children's Centre which recently opened in Essendine. The facilities are super and the headmaster, Mr. Battye, gave us a tour and a talk of the history of the school. Many thanks for his willingness to stay late on a Friday (straight after a very heavy week of Ofsted inspections!)

Thanks to everyone on Essendine Road for, as ever, making us so welcome.

Lee

REJOICE

According to the latest works schedule, THAMES WATER HAVE ONLY ONE ROAD LEFT TO INCONVENIENCE IN MAIDA VALE!

Soon we will be free!

Lee

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

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

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

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

Going Green in Maida Vale

As local Councillors, we're very keen to promote recycling as much as we can. That's why, when Wymering Road Residents Association approached us about starting a garden waste collection, we were delighted to help. We put them in touch with Council officers and the first collection from Wymering was last Wednesday. We're now talking with Essendine Mansions about doing the same.

Please do contact us if you'd like to discuss possible garden waste collections. It's the little things like these that really do make the difference.

Lee

Cleaning up

And the white goods award for this week goes to two roads (sadly) -

We have arranged to be cleared a fridge freezer from the junction of Carlton Vale and Randolph Avenue, and a second fridge freezer from the junction of Widley Road and Essendine Road.

Dumping - in all forms - is very anti-social, particularly when Westminster Council will pick up two bulky items for free. Westminster will pursue legal action against offenders.

Lee

PS We've also arranged the removal of a random wooden pallet from Grantully Road and the obligatory shopping trolley which has appeared on Lanark Road.

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.

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

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.

The Thames Problem: New Meeting Date

We've set up another meeting with Thames Water, Laing O'Rourke and Westminster Parking Services on Thursday 12 April to again discuss the replacement programme in Maida Vale.

We have seen three real results to date from our meeting. Two of these have been from Westminster Parking Services. In the last month or so there have been warm words from Thames, but not enough action. There remains major issues on most roads which they have worked on and, as a result, we still consider their approach unacceptable and unsustainable. We'll be telling them just that.

Please do get in touch if you have any comments you'd like us to consider and pass on. Please also do get in touch if we can assist if you have been inconvenienced or received a parking ticket you feel is unfair.

Alastair, Jan and Lee

The Thames Problem: Result #3

On Monday, at the request of all three of us, Westminster Council's Parking Board met to discuss the current parking issues in Maida Vale.

We're very grateful to the Cabinet Member for Parking for recognising that the current enforcement situation is not sustainable and needs changing. Following our lobbying, he has agreed to change two key elements of Westminster's parking policy, on a temporary basis, whilst the Thames works are underway.

From now on, unless there are compelling reasons/the suspension sign specifically says so, suspension signs will only be enforced during controlled hours. Combined with Westminster Parking's commitment to altering its suspension signs to clarify whether weekends are included or excluded, we hope this will help local residents to park more easily. Additionally, Parking Services will now only move vehicles in suspended bays if there is a direct request by Thames or its contractors.

We feel that these changes - which will be reviewed next month - are a start to reducing the problem in Maida Vale. However, no changes are perfect and we know that some residents may still have issues with parking going forward. As a result, we still think it very wise to exercise caution when parking and, if possible (much easier said that done, of course), avoid suspended areas when parking. And we would, of course, be delighted to hear from any resident given a parking ticket which they feel is unfair.

Alastair, Jan and Lee