Double-deckers using Mill Lane

West Hampstead Amenity and Transport, a local campaigning group, want to stop the Metroline bus company sending empty 139 buses along Mill Lane.

The 139 route finishes at West End Green. At the end of the day, the buses use Mill Lane to get to their garage in Cricklewood.

The campaigners say Mill Lane is too small for double-deckers. There's been damage to trees, unnecessary noise and pollution for residents, and traffic hold-ups - particularly at the end of Mill Lane where the buses have to turn right into Shoot-Up Hill.

You can support their campaign here.

Parking

A group of Camden residents seem to be behind an initiative to campaign for a more lax approach to parking in London.

The London Motorists' Action Group believes that councils are pursuing a draconian enforcement of parking controls which is out of proportion to their responsibility to keep traffic moving. Its website calls for fair enforcement of parking and other traffic regulations. The group is demanding an end to such practices as: the removal of vehicles and the issuing of fines for trivial contraventions; clamping where there is no traffic management benefit; and the imposition of controlled parking zones without proper regard to the interests of retailers and their customers.

One of the founders, Nick Mavrides, is said by the Ham & High to feel that the CPZ in Kentish Town pushed one of his sports shops out of business. He says:

"CPZs have changed the appearance of boroughs across London. All the shops that are left are coffee shops, estate agents and charity shops because there is no parking.

"Shopping locally keeps the community alive. Forcing people to drive miles out of town is completely against the idea of reducing traffic."

His decription of declining local communities certainly rings true of West Hampstead. But the problem predates the arrival of the residents' parking scheme. It's long been more convenient to drive to places like Brent Cross, where parking is untroublesome, than to take one's chances on the streets off West End Lane.

The decline of independent businesses in West Hampstead has also been accelerated by high property values. When retailers retire, they have difficulty selling their businesses as going concerns because the economics of the businesses can't sustain the prices the properties now command.

But parking policy does have a role to play in sustaining communities. I have often wondered why Camden doesn't operate a Kensington and Chelsea type parking zone, which would allow Camden residents to park anywhere in the borough. This would give people more of an incentive to support businesses across the borough, and make them feel more attached to the borough and the communities it comprises. It might also help them believe that their local council tries to represent their interests.

Another missing cat

Another cat is missing, this time from Ravenshaw Street. Again, we're looking for a black cat. But I'm assuming this is not the same cat that Guy is looking for - since the Ravenshaw one has a burberry colour collar and her owners have only recently moved to the street.

They're worried she may be hiding in someone's garden shed.

Again, if you can help, please email Northwest 6 and we'll pass on the gen.

Things to like about West Hampstead

You've read the blog posts:
Roni's Bagel Bakery
Plaques to ordinary folk

Now contribute your suggestions for things to like about West Hampstead.

I've set up a public group on Flickr.com. All you have to do is take a photo of your thing to like about West Hampstead, upload it to the Flickr group and - if you feel committed - email Northwest 6 with some explanatory words.

If you're not a member of Flickr nor Yahoo, you'll need to sign up.

I'll try to feature any contributions. Meanwhile, I'll continue to post some of my own totally subjective suggestions.

Have you seen this cat?

Guy - in Broomsleigh Street - emails Northwest 6 for help in tracing a missing cat:

Over the last few months a particularly friendly large black cat has more or less made herself at home with us. Each night on our return from work she would be waiting at the back door to be let in. We have never fed her and we were in the process of purchasing a collar on which we were going to write our phone number so that her owners, if in fact she had any, could contact us. We've become quite attached to her but didn't want to steal her away from her home, but given the amount of time she spent with us, we were dubious as to whether she had an owner at all. Unfortunately we weren't able to execute our collar and number plan. As of Tuesday last week she hasn't been around for us to put the collar on her. We are now a bit concerned that something has happened to her or she has returned to her home given the recent cold snap.

She is entirely black with no other markings and kind of squarks rather than meow's. She has a habit of sitting back on her hind legs when she's trying to get attention.

If you have any information to help put Guy's mind at rest, please email Northwest 6 or leave a comment here on the site.

Ice skating on Hampstead Heath

A little off our patch, but I was struck by this report - on the go-ahead for an ice-rink on Parliament Hill next month.

The rink - operated by a company called PWR - will be open from 10am to 10pm from 3rd December to 15th January.

But what about this?

After complaints from neighbours about music, PWR promised to play only Christmas classics such as Slade's Merry Xmas (Everyone).

Well, that must be reassuring for the neighbours.

Another thing to like about West Hampstead: we don't have to live with wall-to-wall Slade and Paul McCartney at Christmas. We must count our blessings.

Plaques to ordinary folk

Things to like about West Hampstead: second in an occasional and totally subjective series.


Plaque, Mill Lane
Originally uploaded by Grievous Angel.

Walk around most areas of London, and you come across blue plaques to distinguished people who lived in the buildings you pass. We don't have much of that in West Hampstead. But we do have plaques to the ordinary people who have lived in the areas, and whose lives have been significant to the people they knew.

Plaque, Ravenshaw Street
Originally uploaded by Grievous Angel.


Does anyone know the stories behind these plaques?

More things to like about West Hampstead:

Roni's Bagel Bakery