Archive for January, 2008
29 January, 2008 at 1:11 pm
· Filed under Neighbourhood ·Tagged Islington, planning, Barnsbury
The controversial planning application for the old furniture factory site has finally won approval on appeal.
Barnsbury Square may not have the dramatic size of Thornhill Square or Gibson Square or striking design of Lonsdale Square; but it is the historic heart of Barnsbury, as Mountfort House is built on the site of the original moated manor house. Barnsbury Square is three-sided with Thornhill Road at one end, and Mountfort House as the centrepiece at the other. The other buildings in the Square are an interesting mix of old and new, but the are all set back or sideways on, so that Mountfort House has pride of place.
Now that’s going to change. Next to Mountfort House is a disused furniture factory, unobtrusive and set back from the road. The plans will replace that with three-storey glass building plus basement with a car lift, with a mix of flats and business units.
As a councillor in Barnsbury, I worked with the local residents’ association to see off similar proposals in the past. It was a privilege to campaign with them. Barnsbury Square Residents Association is well-organised, and passionate about their area. It’s wrong to characterise them as nimbies. Another development we worked together to defeat would have seen a private nursery school effectively take over the public gardens in the square. Conservation areas are our urban landscape, as precious as protected countryside. It’s not selfish to try and preserve them for the benefit of all to enjoy, now and in the future.
The fact that we won some battles on the way means the buildings now approved are less intrusive than the original ones; but it’s still a great disappointment that the war is now lost. For political reasons, Barnsbury’s Labour councillors focused on the lack of affordable housing in the development; a fair point, but not the major objection. The wrong design would still be the wrong design, whatever its use. I hope that this didn’t weaken the case against the development.
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27 January, 2008 at 1:32 pm
· Filed under Consumer ·Tagged Freedom Pass, Ken Livingstone, London boroughs, public transport
In a previous existence as Lib Dem leader on London’s Transport and Environment Committee, one of my happiest jobs was to agree renewing the Freedom Pass scheme each year.
The principle of the Freedom Pass is an excellent one. The over 60s (and some people with disabilities) get free public transport after 9am. It provides independence and mobility to millions of people; combats isolation and poverty among some of the poorest Londoners; encourages off-peak use of public transport; promotes activity and discourages car use. All good stuff.
Contraray to the spin put out by the current Mayor of London, and relayed by commentators like Darcus Howe, the Freedom Pass is organised and funded entirely by the London Boroughs, and not by the Mayor of London. Yes the Freedom Pass is a fantastic idea. But no thanks to Ken.
So his trumpeting of a new 24 hour Freedom Pass an empty promise; like Arsene recommending Beckham for the England squad, it may or may not be a good idea, but it’s not his to deliver.
Londoners are living longer. There are more buses on the road. All good stuff too. But with more journeys taken and rising fares, it means the cost of the Freedom Pass to the boroughs and therefore to Council Tax payers rises each year.
Pensioners should not be second-class citizens. Hospital appointments, catching holiday flights, family crises do not always wait til mid-morning. But there are questions Londoners of all ages should have the chance to ask.
The morning rush hour already sees the network at bursting point; schools and offices may finish at different times but they all start together. Not all over 60s are retired (Ken himself is 62); so you could get the office junior subsidising her bosses’ journey to work. Is it true that London court sittings are designed to allow the judges to arrive on their Freedom Passes? And is it what every pensioner wants? A fifty-something cyclist friend tells me he’d rather have the cash equivalent towards his bike when he turns 60.
Meanwhile, it’s the worst kind of gesture politics to announce an initiative that someone else would have to pay for, then accuse them of blocking it. All boroughs, even Labour ones, must be exasperated by Ken’s electioneering at their, and our, expense.
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23 January, 2008 at 11:01 pm
· Filed under Campaigns, Neighbourhood
Tonight I went out with Meral, new recruit Turhan and our Clerkenwell team to estates around Weston Rise. They are campaigning for action to tackle the dangerous junctions around Weston Rise, where cyclist Madeleine Wright was killed last year. The councillors have been lobbying TfL hard for action and got an officer out on site. Another cyclist was knocked off his bike in front of the visitor, so if that doesn’t convince TfL I’m not sure what will.
The petition got a warm response, and we recruited a new member/deliverer. Weston Rise used to be in the frontlne of the worst drugs and prostitution coming out of Kings Cross. As a result, it was one of the first to get full estate security with a concierge, and is now a well-run estate with a strong TMO. As access to every landing on the estate is fob-controlled, it’s a challenge, so recruiting another local deliverer was something to celebrate.
But where? This stretch of Pentonville Road is not one with much in the way of pubs and cafes. So we ended up in the new Surya bar on the corner of Cumming Street. It’s on the ground floor of a new hotel – the Surya Centre – backing onto the Priors estate. The hotel is small but much larger than the previous building and overshadows the estate behind. The residents of Cumming Street objected to the plans at the time, and as one of their councillors at the time, I spoke against the development at the planning committee, unsuccessfully. So I wasn’t particularly keen to have a drink there now.
It’s a very glossy cocktail bar. Everything is reflective – glass tables, granite, chrome etc. Large plasma screens showing the football. Extremely expensive drinks. And no punters. (There may be a connection). Or maybe we were just too early.
We sipped our fancy juices before leaving, by which time even the barman had vanished (he was outside having a fag). I have no idea who the target market for this bar is; too expensive for the neighbouring students and tenants; too far from Kings Cross and Angel for passing trade.
However there were posters for salsa dance classes which looked fun, and the juice cocktails were delicious if pricy. So we may make it back, but definitely without the clipboards next time.
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23 January, 2008 at 12:57 pm
· Filed under Campaigns ·Tagged crime, Emily Thornberry, Jacqui Smith, Labour, pay, police, politics
The first thing Prime Minister Blair achieved was to get more bobbies on the beat here in Islington – for a few hours. They left for Downing Street when the Blairs did. Now Prime Minister Brown is achieving record numbers of police on London’s streets; some 17,000 22,500 of them at the last count, demonstrating over pay.
Crime is Islington residents’ top concern, and I’ve found near-total support for the police getting their recommended pay rise in full. It does seem unfair that teachers, who can go on strike, get the recommended pay rise; but the police, who can’t, don’t. And what’s the point of having independent pay review bodies if their advice is ignored?
But then it gets tricky, because MPs too have been recommended a pay rise. That’s much less popular. There’s widespread distaste that MPs might be seen to vote up their own pay when other public servants are being asked to tighten their belts. Local Labour MP Emily Thornberry has said she won’t vote herself a higher pay rise, although she’s still complaining about the big pay cut she took to become an MP. At £60k a year plus expenses, a backbench MP still earns more than twice the average police officer’s pay.
It’s a bad sign for Gordon Brown when Government MPs are out of touch. Ms Thornberry’s description last year of a £572k house purchase as ‘cheap and cheerful’ went down badly. So did Home Secretary Jacqui Smith’s comments this week about not walking around areas like Hackney late at night. Where are those police when you need them?
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22 January, 2008 at 10:27 am
· Filed under Movies, media, music & culture ·Tagged art, recession
Heard this morning on the Today programme, discussing the Matisse on loan from Russia
Presenter: “And how much would a painting like that be worth today?”
Art expert: “Less than yesterday”.
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21 January, 2008 at 4:58 pm
· Filed under Language ·Tagged bureaucracy
One of my contacts sent me an email today containing the wonderful phrase ‘Our bureaucrazy over here needs a name to go with the … paperwork’. As his first language is Danish, it may be a mistake. I hope not! I love the concept of ‘bureaucrazy’ and can already think of 101 situations where it is definitely the mot juste.
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21 January, 2008 at 2:08 pm
· Filed under Going green, Neighbourhood ·Tagged Jacqui Smith, Labour, London, walking, websites
![walkit1]( "walkit1")
I’ve been trying out a great new website Walkit, which helps you plan your walking routes around London (thanks to David Hepworth for the tip).
The TfL journeyplanner is great for public transport routes, but its walking routes are, well, a bit pedestrian. With Walkit you have the option of a quiet route not just the most direct but rather boring one. Walkit also has the bonus of giving you a range of estimated times (depending on your speed), so you need never be late again. And it tells you how much CO2 you’ll save and how many calories you’ll burn up. I’ve checked some of my regular destinations on Walkit and it’s either come up with my favourite route or suggested a better one, so I’ll definitely be using the site in future.
Maybe it could even help the Home Secretary get out of her limo and walk round London after all.
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20 January, 2008 at 10:51 pm
· Filed under Campaigns, Going green ·Tagged Emily Thornberry, Labour, nuclear power, politics
Islington South’s Labour MP Emily Thornberry was on the radio tonight expressing some scepticism about nuclear power – to my surprise.
Why? Well, this time last year – on 17 January 2007 – Lib Dem MPs tabled a motion, “This House opposes the construction of a new generation of civil nuclear power plants.” Ms Thornberry voted against it.
If she has now come round to agreeing with the Liberal Democrat position, that’s welcome. But as we know from Post Office closures, what Emily says when it suits her, and how she actually votes, are two very different things.
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16 January, 2008 at 5:21 pm
· Filed under Liberal Democrats ·Tagged Bath, Don Foster, MPs, politics
A great website to track what MPs are up to is www.theyworkforyou.com. It gives you lots of search functions, including by topic. According to the site, “Popular searches today: Don Foster, portable antiquities”
Don, first elected as MP for Bath in 1992, may be a veteran. But I wouldn’t call him an antique.
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16 January, 2008 at 2:15 pm
· Filed under Campaigns, Consumer, Liberal Democrats ·Tagged finance, Labour, Northern Rock, tax, Treasury, Vince Cable
The Northern Rock saga drags on. It’s one of those stories which dropped from the headlines but is far from solved. Vince Cable and the Lib Dems have been alone in making the case for nationalising Northern Rock, not to run it permanently, but to limit taxpayer losses and get the bank in shape for a new owner. It would also be the best chance to support Northern Rock employees and charitable projects in the North East.
In November, the taxpayer subsidy was reckoned to be £900 each, a huge sum in the circumstances. I even did a photo posing with a giant £900 sign to make the point. Sadly my photo is already out of date.
The BBC reports that Northern Rock has been given about £26bn of Bank of England emergency loans, but with government guarantees to savers and other lenders, the total aid package underwritten by the taxpayer comes to more than double that. So the individual taxpayer bill is now at least £1500.
The Government may talk about tackling inflation but this is one price rise that’s out of control.
Worse still, we don’t exactly how much has been lent, if we’ll get it all back, and if the bank will pay interest. If only my bank manager took the same generous approach to my personal liquidity crises….
Back in December, Labour MPs voted through a motion which “notes the Chancellor’s assurance that he will keep the House fully informed of further developments with regard to Northern Rock.” But now all the Treasury will say is “the terms and conditions of the facilities are confidential.”
Nationalising Northern Rock is finally on the Government agenda, although probably too late to get back all the public money lost.
Am I wrong to see a message in today’s TV schedules: ‘Deal or No Deal’, ‘Mission Impossible’ and ‘Move over Darling’?
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