Answers from Nancy Jirira, Liberal Democrat candidate for Fortune Green

Northwest 6 asked all candidates in the Fortune Green by-election to answer a questionnaire. 

We've heard already from Heather Downham, the Conservatives' candidate.  Now it's the turn of the Liberal Democrats' Nancy Jirira.

   

1.  What would you say is at stake in this council by-election?

One of the things I think is important is to maintain a hardworking team for Fortune Green with a strong, local community based voice.

2.  What has motivated you personally to put yourself forward for election?

I met popular former Councillor Jane Schopflin many years ago at the old Community Health Council. She enthused me with her passion for public services and fighting for the local community. I’d be really honoured to follow in her footsteps. I’ve long been involved in local community issues – but have only recently put my name next to a party label as this is the best way to get issues heard on the council.

3.  What impact would you say the change of control of Camden council has had in the two years since the last local elections?

I’ve noticed a real change since May 2006. To be honest, although Labour neglected the area, I never thought they’d be voted out across Camden after so many years. There has been a new approach to issues which were forgotten by the former Labour administration such as housing repairs, the parking regime, the streets seem cleaner and the council has generally become more responsive. Almost best of all – our West End Green toilets were reopened and they seem much cleaner and better looked after!

4.  What would you say are the two or three most pressing issues for people in Fortune Green?

Its been clear from going around talking to people that there are big concerns about the potential closure of local post offices such as Mill Lane and Cricklewood. The response to the campaign has been overwhelming with hundreds of signatures and lots of envelopes hand-posted every day through my door.

The management of traffic and parking is also important to local people – such as the Mill Lane traffic lights; and there are ongoing concerns about large or inappropriate developments that threaten the character of the area.

5.  What are your views on the following:

School provision for families who live in the ward?

I know many families from my daughter’s primary school had to make massive changes in their life in order to secure a place at a good secondary school. The stress and worry of that time really takes its toll. From my work as a school governor I know that the problem has been just as bad in recent years. Children at the five local primary schools have no guaranteed secondary place in a Camden school. So I’m pleased the council has finally noticed that families living here need more school places. I welcome the planned new secondary school for north Camden and the major investment proposed for Hampstead School.

The quality of play and recreational spaces for children in the ward?

Much of our area has always suffered from a lack of open space – for example, if you live at the top of Richborough Road there is literally nowhere local to take children to play!  West End Sidings and Templar House are both provided with Sure Start (as well as play areas) and I would like to see Fortune Green itself have its own Sure Start. Meanwhile, the play area on Fortune Green will be improved later this year.

The state of Fortune Green itself (the park not the ward)?

When the work on the Sager development is finished, work will be carried out to restore that side of the Green.   But more is needed. It is certainly better looked after than it was, say, ten years ago and looked very good at the time of last year’s Jester Festival. I was sad that the replanting with Japanese shrubs a year or so ago didn’t seem to last - many shrubs being dug up or trampled on. I welcome the newly formed 'Friends of Fortune Green' and I look forward to working with them.

The problem of dog mess in parks and on pavements - particularly the railway path between Broomsleigh Street and West End Lane?

The problem lies with dog owners – not with dogs. We need to encourage owners to become more aware of their responsibilities or the problem – with all its attendant health risks – will simply continue. With reference to the 'Black Path', the Spotlight team have asked the Council to make special efforts to keep it clean.

The way parking controls are administered by Camden council?

When I worked as a health visitor I got a huge number of parking tickets from parking wardens who missed the ‘heatlh emergency badge’ that I always carefully displayed. I paid hundreds (if not thousands!) in unfair charges.  I was particularly pleased that on-street clamping was abolished by the Lib Dem-led administration and that it’s now easier to find out about parking suspensions. I shall be keeping a watchful eye to make sure that the parking regime doesn’t slip back into its bad old ways.

 

The congestion, pollution and other difficulties caused by the installation of traffic lights at the junction of Mill Lane and Fortune Green Road?

I have received countless complaints about this from local residents, particularly those with children and those attending Emmanuel school. This scheme, installed by the last labour Council and paid for largely by Transport for London, has been a disaster from the outset. I know the local councillors Flick Rea and Keith Moffitt have been trying to find ways to get it changed ever since. I promise to add my voice to this to secure changes.

 

The impending arrival of Tesco in West Hampstead?

Whilst some may welcome the proposed Tesco store, I am concerned for the future of our small local shops just when West End Lane shopping seemed to be at the beginning of a renaissance. I’m worried about the prospect of identikit high street chains filling West Hampstead. A councillor’s powers in respect of this proposal are limited. Tesco does not need permission for 'change of use', as it was already a retail shop, but the council can look into conditions to deal with the likely problems of parking, loading and unloading and traffic congestion that other areas in Camden have experienced. I will certainly use whatever influence I have to make the Council do all it can.

Answers from Heather Downham, Conservative candidate for Fortune Green

 

Answers have started arriving to the questionnaire sent by Northwest 6 to all candidates in the Fortune Green by-election.

First up, Heather Downham - who's standing for the Conservatives.

 

 1.  What would you say is at stake in this council by-election?

West Hampstead and Fortune Green have a very particular quality. They are very comfortable and relaxing areas in which to live. The future of our area is at stake, because of the ongoing battle to stop inappropriate planning applications succeeding, and thus devastating our green open spaces, play areas, and over-populating the area, with all the ensuing consequences, i.e. lack of places at schools, no policing, and an increase in crime. We must be vigilant.

2.  What has motivated you personally to put yourself forward for election?

As I said before, I want to preserve the character of our area, and I want the necessary changes to be good for all of us. I have lived here for over 25 years, and I want to fight to keep our amenities, i.e. the post offices, to preserve dust bin and recycling collections on at least a weekly basis, and to try and improve the parking problems. I have a wide experience of life, and know how to deal with a lot of day-to-day problems, i.e. noisy neighbours and rogue freeholders and developers and I should like to help others in the neighbourhood who are finding their own problems difficult to solve.

3.  What impact would you say the change of control of Camden council has had in the two years since the last local elections?

I think the change of control at Camden council is having a very positive impact.

i) Parking problems are now much better handled. No clamping, and more realistic notices of parking suspensions.

ii) Libraries open much longer.

iii) Plans for a new secondary school in Swiss Cottage, and improvement to Hampstead School.

iv) The free removal of graffiti, an excellent idea.

It seems to work having a Liberal/Conservative partnership – different ideas and thinking.

4.  What would you say are the two or three most pressing issues for people in Fortune Green?

i) Control of inappropriate planning applications.

ii) Crime is rising again in Fortune Green, so more police patrols, and if possible dog patrols in the cemetery.

iii) Fight to make sure post offices and the police station remain open.

5.  What are your views on the following:

School provision for families who live in the ward?

Two very good primaries – Emmanuel School and Beckford school – which get very good OFSTED results. Both very high teaching standards. In terms of secondary schools, Hampstead School is about to be improved by the council with new facilities for sport, science and drama, and I am sure it will continue to improve.

The quality of play and recreational spaces for children in the ward?

There is a shortage of play areas in the ward. Fortune Green is there, but in the west and north of the ward there is no park or play area – it is much needed.

The state of Fortune Green itself (the park not the ward)?

Fortune Green has lost a lot of its appeal since the Sager Building has gone up. It needs some refurbishing with new trees and maybe flower beds. In summer there is always a problem with football players interfering with peaceful people.

The problem of dog mess in parks and on pavements - particularly the railway path between Broomsleigh Street and West End Lane?

On the pavements most people now clean up after their dogs, or the street cleaners do a wonderful job of removing dog mess. It is still in the parks, you have to be careful, but maybe a few fines could stop the nuisance. I must have walked down the path from Broomsleigh Street to West End Lane on a good day as there was no obvious mess, but I am very aware of the problem and I want the council to use the new fixed penalty powers it now has available.

The way parking controls are administered by Camden council?

The administration of parking controls has improved. Now that clamping has been banned, it stops cars being targeted. Also, clarification of ‘a day’ – now 8.30-18.30 – has saved much trouble. Attendants now seem to be more reasonable in their attitude.

 

The congestion, pollution and other difficulties caused by the installation of traffic lights at the junction of Mill Lane and Fortune Green Road?

The traffic lights at the junction of Mill Lane and Fortune Green Road are a disaster. They cause pollution in the Emmanuel School playground, and affect the pedestrians waiting to cross the road, and waiting parents. The traffic jams are extraordinary. The traffic backs up down Mill Lane, you can waste an extra five minutes, the 139 bus gets stuck, the C11 gets stuck as well, and the 139 should not even be in Mill Lane. It also has created a ‘rat run’ down Hillfield Road, where traffic is moving much too fast for the area.

The lights are a menace; they do no good, and cause havoc going south and north along Fortune Green Road and West End Lane. But we must make sure there are safe crossings, so it’s not an easy question – I would want the council to look at this afresh together with local residents and see what all the options are.

 

The impending arrival of Tesco in West Hampstead?

Tesco is a difficult question and I know there are different views locally on this – and of course the council’s powers are limited as there is no planning ‘change of use’.  Although we want to keep West End Lane unique, with diverse shops, wine bars and speciality boutiques, bakers etc, there are a lot of young people living in the area, students and more elderly folk whom I think have suffered from the lack of affordable food. We have some wonderful delicatessens and specialist bakers, but the existing supermarkets are expensive, and do not have a huge range of goods. We have a lot of charity shops in the High Street, and the site Tesco will occupy is not very convenient. It is close to the station, but people in the north of the ward will still shop at their local corner shop. The sad thing is that the existing traders have left a gap in the market, which Tesco has been able to exploit. I wish this was not so, but it is unfortunately a fact.

Parking in Ravenshaw, Broomsleigh, Glastonbury and Dornfell Streets

Controlled zone
Originally uploaded by Grievous Angel.

You may have seen in the latest edition of Spotlight - the Liberal Democrats' local newsletter - that Camden will review the operation of the controlled parking zone in the four streets around Beckford School (Ravenshaw, Broomsleigh, Glastonbury and Dornfell Streets). The council will seek the opinions of residents.  There's also to be further consultation on the parking zone in the Greek roads north of Mill Lane (Achilles Road, Agamemnon Road, etc.)

One of the questions likely to be put to residents is whether the controlled hours in these streets should be extended to all day, as is already the case on Mill Lane and elsewhere in West Hampstead.

This development follows the completion of last year's consultation on parking controls across the borough.  A report on the results of the consultation was considered by councillors in November.  Referring to the streets south of Mill Lane, the report draws attention to campaigning activity undertaken in the neighbourhood at the time of the consultation:

"The consultation results show that opinion is divided about hours of control. A ‘survey’ was undertaken by some residents in this sub-area indicating an interest in longer hours, though this was not undertaken as a formal petition with signatures. Correspondence was received from residents in this area questioning the motives behind those undertaking the survey, who had misrepresented the Council’s own consultation, claiming that the Council was going to split the zone. Given concerns that the ‘survey’ may be biased the detailed findings are not included here."

Based on this information, and a petition from residents of the Greek roads seeking longer controlled hours, councillors decided that further consultation was appropriate in the CA-P(c) area which covers the Greek roads and some of the streets south of Mill Lane. (See earlier post for a map of the zone.)  The report says this further consultation will cost council tax payers £25,000.

The council will discuss the likely shape of the consultation with local groups before sending a questionnaire to homes in the area.  Councillor Flick Rea has told Northwest 6 that it will be several months before we receive the survey:

"It will not be until early summer at earliest.  A notice will be sent round by Camden - as before to set up a Steering Committee which will decide the terms of the consultation. Then every household will receive a consultation form.  The terms are likely to be the introduction of all day restrictions in common with most of the rest of West Hampstead."

The council may also undertake parking occupancy surveys in order to inform the final decision.

Are changes proposed for CA-P controlled parking zone?

Leaflets have been distributed to houses in Ravenshaw, Broomsleigh, Glastonbury and Dornfell Streets warning of changes to the local controlled parking zone which would severely restrict where residents of these streets could park in West Hampstead.

As far as I can tell, this is a significant misreading of the situation.

The leaflet is put out in the name of the "Support Our Play Streets Residents' Association" - an organisation of which I have never heard. It has raised the alarm apparently in response to a consultation which Camden council is currently conducting on controlled parking zones across the borough.

This consultation is seeking the public's views on issues such as the size of zones, when they operate and arrangements for motorcycles and electric vehicles. In fact, the explanatory notes on Camden's websites explicitly rule out "significant changes to the zone boundaries and hours/days operation in the short-term".

Confusion may have been caused by a map published as part of the consultation, which shows our zone - called CA-P - split into three sub-zones (click on map above). This reflects the current implementation of the CA-P - whereby parking restrictions are enforced at different times in different parts of the zone.

So while the controlled hours in Ravenshaw, Broomsleigh, Glastonbury and Dornfell Streets - part of CA-P (c) - are between 1000 and 1200 Monday to Friday, the controlled hours in West End Lane - part of CA-P (a) - are between 0830 and 1830 Monday to Friday. These hours affect when people who don't have a CA-P parking permit can park in the zone, but residents with a CA-P permit displayed on their vehicle can park anywhere in the zone at any time.

There is - at this stage - no proposal to change this arrangement. Were such a proposal to be forthcoming, Camden would be obliged to consult on it.

Camden's consultation document on controlled parking zones runs to 12 pages. You have until Friday 22 June to submit your views to the council.

Going native?

It's almost a year since Labour lost control of Camden council after decades in power. Part of the reason was residents' anger at the authoritarian nature of parking controls in the borough. The incoming Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition promised to take a more sensitive approach.

A year on, how are they doing?

A recent report in the Ham & High suggests parking controls are as extreme as ever. A resident of Fitzjohn's Avenue returned from a trip abroad to discover that the council had removed and crushed her car after suspending a parking bay while she was away.

Far from seeking to ensure that officials take a more sensitive approach, the Conservative councillor in charge of parking, Mike Greene, gives the impression of condoning such behaviour. As quoted by the Ham & High, he did not appear to regard crushing a car, which was displaying a valid permit, as an extreme and reasonable sanction seeking. Instead he sought to blame the owner of the car. He said residents should get a neighbour to check on their car whenever they are away - as if inner-city London was some halcyon idyll where people are intimately familiar with their neighbours and in the habit of leaving their car keys with them.

Closer to home, residents of Westbere Road recently found that they had been given about fourteen hours notice of a parking bay suspension. That is to say, notice was given at around 6pm the day before the suspension was to come into effect. By this time many people had retired to their homes for the evening and were unaware of the need to move their cars. Parking officials were out early the next morning ticketing vehicles and preparing to tow them away. One resident, who reached her car just in time, found the officials rude and abrasive and not at all concerned that insufficient notice of the suspension had been given.

A more sensitive approach to parking control? You have three years - until the next local elections - to make up your mind.

West Hampstead round-up

Apologies if you've missed the lack of postings on Northwest 6 since Christmas. The nasty cold virus that's been knocking around kept me away from the computer.

As it happens, there's not been much to report from our neck of the woods. But there have been some noteworthy developments in West Hampstead more generally.

Such as the story of the woman who lives in St. Cuthbert's Road, off Fordwych Road, who was told that residents' bays are not for parking in. According to the Ham & High:

Sarah Bailey from West Hampstead went away for a weekend and left her car in a bay outside her house.

On the Monday Ms Bailey, who is eight months' pregnant, returned to her car and found the bay had been suspended the day she left and she had been ticketed.

Ms Bailey appealed against the ticket on the grounds that three days' notice was insufficient.

But heartless parking chiefs turned down the appeal and council officer Pat Egan responded: "Residents' bays are not primarily intended for long-term parking and I believe that the advance warning given in this instance was sufficient."

Down at the other end of West Hampstead, a decision by Kingsgate School to serve halal meat has prompted an ugly row. The school took the decision to meet the needs of Muslim children, who make up around three quarters of its pupils. But if you want to serve halal, it is very difficult also to provide a non-halal meat alternative. So now some non-Muslim parents feel their needs are not being met. One of the parents protesting about the decision, Jacqueline Gomm, tells the Ham & High:

"I'm absolutely furious, I feel that I cannot let this happen. I sent my kids to this school because I don't want them to be affected by religion."

While a Muslim Liberal Democrat councillor, Faruque Ansari, says:

"There should not be any issue here. We should all be flexible and try to understand each other. It's just the same meat at the end of the day."

One of the curiosities about this story is that a number of other schools in Camden have switched to halal without prompting similar furore. At Kingsgate, parents feel they weren't consulted properly. According to the Camden New Journal, while 91 per cent those who responded to a questionnaire sent to parents said they wanted halal meat or didn't object, only a third of parents actually participated in the consultation. The ripples of this story have reached the national newspapers, with The Sun among those covering it.

Today's H&H reports that West End Lane is suffering a "retail exodus" as traders flee the combination of high rents and parking restrictions which are driving away customers. This story is prompted by the closure of Nicolas, the wine merchant, whose manager is quoted as saying:

"The rent has increased quite substantially over the last seven years but business has not increased so much. It is always with great sadness that we close. West Hampstead is a nice area, exactly the sort of area with a village feel that we like."

Not exactly an area in crisis then? But wait, the H&H says the closure of Nicolas comes hot on the heels of the departure of Audio T (the hi-fi shop), that funny leather and gifts shop near the library, and the newsagent whose premises were taken over by the friendly and popular David's Deli.

We could do with a few decent food shops. But there's life in West End Lane yet.

New council

The local election results are available on the Camden website. Liberal Democrats took all six seats in our two wards: Fortune Green and West Hampstead. Your new councillors are:

Fortune Green: Flick Rea, Jane Schopflin and Russell Eagling
West Hampstead: Keith Moffitt, John Bryant and Duncan Greenland

What is more, Keith Moffitt - who leads the Liberal Democrats in Camden - looks like he will also be the new council leader. For the first time in 35 years, Labour has lost over-all control of Camden. The Liberal Democrats emerge as the biggest party and are likely to be calling the shots - unless, as is theoretically possible but hard to imagine, the Conservatives go into coalition with Labour.

The contest in our neighbourhood didn't quite turn out to be the two-way fight between Labour and the Liberal Democrats that I had predicted. While Labour came second to the Lib Dems in West Hampstead, they were pushed into third place by the Conservatives in Fortune Green. The Greens, who stood candidates but did not campaign in the area, came fourth in both wards.

So what does the change of control at the town hall mean? While media analysis this morning has portrayed Labour's loss of Camden as a function of the party's national problems, it's worth remembering that there were local issues at work too. Camden has a reputation as one of the most authoritarian enforcers of parking controls and there were at least three campaigns running in the borough critical of Labour's handling of this issue. The Liberal Democrats, in a pre-election survey, picked up that people wanted a more sensitive, more listening council. They emphasised both these themes - together with cutting local bureaucracy and care for the local environment - in their answers to questions put by Northwest 6 at the start of the campaign. Another of their themes was the need for a new secondary school west of the Finchley Road.

More resident-friendly parking controls, a more listening council and sufficient school places for families living in West Hampstead. You know what the Lib Dems have promised. Now watch to see if the new largest party on the council can deliver without over-all control.

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.