Fear December 16, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden, Environment , 1 comment so farHow much does fear stop people doing the right thing for climate change? Our society now seems pervaded by fear - terrorism, crime, and the world about to end.
There is an excellent initiative going on in Camden, that will probably do more to save the planet than all the carbon-generating talkfests in exotic places held by central government. Led by Liberal Democrat councillor Alexis Rowell, and including councillors from other parties, particularly the Greens, the Camden Sustainability Taskforce is starting to make a real difference. Each quarter, it produces a report on a particular issue for the executive, and its recommendations are being accepted. The first report, on Energy and Energy Efficiency went to the Executive in May, and work is now underway on a number of its recommendations.
The task force’s meetings are open to the public, and are well worth attending. A series of talks by experts in the area being discussed is followed by a brainstorming session of ideas to include in the report. The latest meeting, on biodiversity, included the council’s Biodiversity Officer, a representative of the Peabody Trust discussing the challenges facing social landlords in increasing biodiversity on their land and a specialist in Green roofs.
The Peabody Trust speaker talked about how green space in housing estates is often seen as a liability, rather than an asset. A culture of fear - health and safety worries, along with muggers hiding behind bushes (but not cars) - pervades many social landlords, and is indeed very evident in the housing department of the council, and this makes it difficult to create imaginative outdoor spaces. Being asked to cut down trees because they spread disease (its called pollen), or children’s playing areas having to be sealed because dirt is, well, dirty. This isn’t just the fault of the landlord by a long way - its also the view of many residents. If you have been brought up in a place where green space is rare and not very inviting, its probably natural to dislike and fear it.
I go walking in the countryside on my own sometimes. Its a little risky perhaps, but we’re talking farms and small woodlands, not going bush in New Zealand. I’m never far from a pub, or out of mobile range for long. I once got lost, and it took a couple of hours to find myself again. Hardly the end of the world, though falling and breaking a leg might be a bit more of a problem if hardly life-threatening. So often, I’ve had someone tell me its dangerous, and suggest that I’m either extremely brave, or just foolish.
But this fear of the world around us is debilitating and dangerous. Whether its fear of losing out to China and India stopping major governments setting realistic emissions targets, fear of someone getting hurt by falling on a rock stopping wildlife gardens, or the notion that three teenagers constitutes an ASBO stopping our communities from talking to each other. This is the first thing we have to overcome if we’re to get anywhere beyond the low-energy lightbulb approach to saving the planet.
How do we get rid of the fear?
Crisis over Christmas to operate in Camden December 9, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden, Politics , add a commentIt’s good to hear that the Christmas spirit has prevailed, and Camden Council have changed their minds and are letting Crisis go ahead with their Crisis over Christmas centre on Euston Rd this year. I’m not sure what made the difference, but am very grateful to St Pancras and Somers Town Ward councillor Roger Robinson for raising it with the powers that be.
Sometimes shining a little light in these dark corners helps in very meaningful ways, and I’m very happy to be proved wrong in my opinion of those involved in this.
Somers Town needs housing, not a medical centre December 5, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden , 2 commentsVacant land behind the British Library will become a medical research centre, despite Government pledges to build social housing on government land, and the wishes of people in Somers Town. There’s a report from the BBC here (Site Found for Medical Centre), and you can see this blogger at the end.
Somers Town has lost about 30% of its social housing over the last 20 years, and has some of the worst health of any area in London. Over-crowding, and a lack of housing for those who need it are serious problems here.
This centre has been approved despite local needs, and despite the planning brief for the area stipulating that at least half of the site must be used for housing. The medical research centre project has already gone awry once, when they bought the site of the National Temperance Hospital on Hampsted Rd and then realised it wasn’t big enough. I’ve little faith in the planning process, but this will be fought.
No Room at Camden Council’s Inn December 1, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden, Politics , 2 commentsThe grandeur of the new St Panacras station sits side by side with one of the most deprived areas of London, Somers Town. Walk away from champagne and Eurostar, and its not hard to find people in very difficult circumstances. The drug dealers and hookers have mostly been moved on to other areas, but the vulnerable are still there if you look.
Every year, my friend Dom spends his Christmas working for Crisis Open Christmas, a charity which provides for the homeless and inadequately housed at Christmas time. It’s a rewarding and useful way to spend the week, giving him a lot of personal satisfaction while doing some good that’s much more in keeping with the Christmas spirit than the normal rounds of presents and parties.
Crisis operate these centres all around London, and this year, the Wellcome Trust offered a building on Euston Rd. That sounds ideal, given that a short walk around Eversholt St or St Pancras church will dispel any notions that homelessness has disappeared from Camden.
Why then, when Crisis asked Camden council for their support, did Camden turn them down? They weren’t asking much, because Crisis and it’s volunteers will do all the work, and even clean up afterwards and take people back to where they came from. But Camden Council are not prepared to support this.
I asked one of our local ward councillors about it. I know he’s concerned about housing in this area, and he’d heard nothing of it. A little further digging in the council, and I find myself in possession of an extraordinary and spinechilling document - a Council briefing paper prepared by the Acting Assistant Director (Needs and Access), Karen Swift.
It seems that Camden Council have a low opinion of Crisis, based on a fairly outdated understanding of the service they offer. These days, homelessness isn’t just about rough sleepers, but about those who have no secure housing, who move from sofa to friend’s floor, and those who, although offered a place in a hostel cannot take it up. Often these people have enormous mental health issues and aren’t easily brought into the system. Crisis is at least as aware of that as Camden Council. Crisis Open Christmas helps them to get the help they need, in a way that works with how they are, rather than through ‘targets’ and ‘tasking’ which may have little relevance to chaotic lives.
Don’t get me wrong. My experience of living in a council-owned flat and being involved with the District Management Committee for Housing in Somers Town has given me a high opinion of many of those involved in housing services in Camden, but the Council has got it wrong here.
Sadly, I suspect the nub of the reason for Camden Council’s rejection is in their statement that the Kings Cross area is ’sensitive’ due to recently reopened St Pancras, and that there is an unspecified but small rise in ’street activity’. Does this just mean that the Council is worried about all those unsightly homeless people who are out of Camden’s ‘control’ showing up near the posh new station?
It’s not clear where responsibility for this decision lies, but I can only ask the Council to change their mind. Every year, Crisis do excellent work with some of the most vulnerable in our society. If Christmas means anything, we must support them.
St Pancras Opens November 14, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden , add a commentFor all the years I’ve known this part of Camden, there’s been a huge eyesore of a building site in the south-east corner of Somers Town. Roads have been blocked and the most exquisite architecture in the area has been under varying degrees of cover and scaffolding. Finally, it has started opening and today the first bookable Eurostar left St Pancras.
Paris is now only 2hrs 15 minutes away and, more importantly for me, the walk to the station is 10 minutes shorter. Brill Place, signposted ‘formerly Phoenix Rd’, was unblockd last week for the first time in years, opening up a quick shortcut into St Pancras, and through to the side platforms of Kings Cross. Door to Gare du Nord in less than three hours, and no need to allow for tube delays.
This morning, those details were unimportant as the first train pulled away. The refurbished train hall is magnificient. Classic Victorian brickwork and steel girders are topped by the lightest transparent roof. The best of the Victorian era meets the best of ours in a place which will uplift and delight for years.
Hundreds of passengers, media people and sightseers thronged to see it leave, and admire it all. The announcer repeated that flash photography was not permitted on the platform. No chance.
Cycling protesters did a great job of getting in every shot and made their point about the sad lack of bicycle parking on the station well.
The statue of the kiss is as tacky as reported, but that of John Betjeman, poet saviour of the station is set to become a favourite. The old clock, with hands and brass numerals, presides over it all, reminding everyone in the champagne bar which runs the length of a platform not to miss their train.
The shops aren’t open yet, and the lack cycle parking is scandalous, but they’ve done very, very well here. The place is beautiful.
Swap stuff with your neighbours October 22, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden , 2 commentsIt’s probably not entirely legal, but when I’m feeling lazy and want to get rid of something big, I put it outside by the garage across the road which the council use for storing rubbish, with a note on it saying ‘Please take me’. Things always go quickly. I also use freecycle, and give books and clothes to charity stores.
And now Camden Council are getting into the act, organising a ‘swapshop‘ at the Somers Town Community Centre this weekend. Take your unwanted stuff along between 11.00 and 12.30, then pick up your new wanted stuff before 2pm. Sadly my biggest need at the moment is a dining chairs after one broke recently, and furniture isn’t accepted. They will have someone checking electrical goods, which charity shops refuse to take, so I think I’ll give away an old laptop if I have the time to reformat its disk.
These innovative ways of reducing waste and promoting community spirit need a little organisation, and its good to see the Council being prepared to help in this area.
Breeding Bins October 4, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden , add a commentDespite constant refusal to provide a doorstep recycling service in Somers Town, Camden Council seems intent on covering every spare outdoor space with ‘mini-recycling facilities’ - a few big black bins into which the tall and enthusiastic can throw their carefully separated and collected recyclables. The newest set mysteriously appeared earlier this week in the small paved, treed area between Brook and Cranleigh Houses in Cranleigh St.
It will be helpful for some, I suppose. Anyone who doesn’t feel like walking fifty metres to the overflowing Eversholt St bins, or a similar distance to the ones in Werrington St will be able to use them here. That might mean the Eversholt St bins won’t get quite so full, but is it likely to encourage anyone who doesn’t already recycle to do so? Certainly not the disabled lady downstairs, or the elderly one in the next set of flats who struggle to get their ordinary rubbish into the bin room, let alone halfway down the street and into a high bin, piece by piece. Putting a bottle bank within a few metres of bedrooms seems a little unfair as well.
It is time Camden looked again at recycling bags in this area. They could easily be hung on the railings on collection days, and seem to work well in Holburn where they have been used for at least a year now. Turning Somers Town into one big bin-site isn’t the answer.
Technorati Tags: recycling, somers town
Filming Somers Town September 27, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden , 2 commentsWhen Eurostar arrives at St Pancras on 14 November, it seems that Somers Town too will get its fifteen minutes of fame. Shane Meadows has ventured from his Nottingham stomping grounds to make a short film about two children living in Somers Town which will be screened on Channel 4 later this year.
Through this blog, I had an email yesterday from Jennifer Lee, a young director who is making a documentary about life in Somers Town to support the film. She and her partner are meeting people in the area and interviewing them about their views on the place and life here, and wanted to talk to me. I’m always happy to chat to just about anyone, so they came over with camera and now I’m a film star (or the star of the cutting room floor).
It will be interesting to see what affect the regeneration of Kings Cross has on Somers Town. All the redevelopment is happening on the other side of the railway, although I understand from Ms Lee that there is government money to refurbish some apartment blocks close to Euston Rd before the Olympics. So far, we’ve seen southern Charlton St scrubbed up, and and the Somers Town Coffee House turned into a gastro-pub, but little else. Flat prices in Bloomsbury have rocketed, particularly around the Brunswick Centre, but the rises seem more modest here.
Having a swanky new shopping / commercial / residential district on our doorstep will probably help make the area more attractive to flat-buyers and those wanting to live in the inner city, but while most of the housing stock is owned by the Council and Housing Associations I suspect this will always be an interesting area of small flats and mixed fortunes. And that’s no bad thing.
Technorati Tags: somers town, shane meadows
The buzz is over June 11, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden , add a commentAfter 10 days, at least half a dozen planned visits by electricians and the like (some of which definitely happened), the buzzing is gone, my front door locks and we have lights in the stairwell. All is well in Cranleigh House.
That is a truly pathetic performance on the part of Camden Council. I feel sorry for the poor people in their call centre who have to deal with it all, fronting for an utterly incompetent organisation. I’ve lodged a formal complaint, and have been told I’ll hear back by 2 July.
I would like them to fire the contractor, Ensign, who claimed to have fixed it at least twice when they hadn’t, and who didn’t turn up on Friday evening.
But now I understand what needs to happen to get something done with the Council repairs department. Terrier like persistance by as many people as you can galvanise, contacting as many people as you can find. Ringing them up every day, being polite but ranting a bit so they get the idea of just how frustrated you are, keeping careful notes of every promise made and broken, so that you can make a detailed case if you have to.
It shouldn’t have to be this hard, now should it?
Technorati Tags: camden council, repairs
A strange buzz around Camden Repairs. June 8, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden , add a commentNow normally, I’m quite happy to be the leaseholder of a council flat. This is a good area, the neighbours are quiet and friendly, and generally Camden are quite good.
But the repairs department are putting me through a nightmare of kafkaesque proportions at the moment, and I am slowly going insane.
After 10 days, hours on the phone to Camden repairs, our communal door is still not working. It buzzes constantly, as if someone in a flat was leaning on the unlock button on the door intercom.
It started about 10 days ago, and the next day, I rang Camden Repairs to be told that a neighbour had already rung, and It would be fixed the next day. It wasn’t, and we all endured the weekend with the loud buzzing noise.
On Monday, I spoke to Camden Repairs and was told that an engineer was going out that afternoon. By Wednesday, it still wasn’t fixed, and I spoke to someone else. I asked to speak to his supervisor, but they were all in a meeting. I was told it would be fixed the next day.
That was yet another fantasy in what was becoming an increasingly surreal situation. When I got home that night, the buzzing had stopped and the door was locked. But the intercom didn’t work at all, and there was no light in the stairwell. I guess either a fuse had blown or someone had managed to work out how to turn the lot off.
And so, this morning I rang again, and spoke to the extremely helpful call centre operator. Apparently another neighbour had rung to complain about the lack of lighting. Amazingly, they managed to get someone out to actually fix that, which, of course brought back the buzzing. This is not the result my neighbour (or any other sensible person ) wanted, but apparently the contractor decided to do precisely what he was told, and engaging an ounce of common sense was too much to ask for.
And then, at about 5pm, Ali told me that a contractor was on his way. I raced home from work, got there at about 5.45, but no sign of a contractor. My neighbours hadn’t seen one either. I doubt this contractor has turned up to any of his appointments for us, if he has, he certainly hasn’t done anything useful. Then I rang the emergency out of hours number, who say that they’ll send an electrician before 10pm tonight. I’ll believe it when I see it.
So now, I’ve done an ‘official’ complaint, and I’m about to email my patch manager and the Councillor in charge of Housing. Might even have to turn up at a District Management Committee meeting, where I’m supposed to represent my block. Tomorrow, I may post some photo’s of Camden’s fascinating electrical work. The distribution board is macrame.
Technorati Tags: ensign door specialists, camden repairs service, kafka
