Kings Cross Local Environment

Another one bites the dust on the KX gyratory

Just 20 minutes ago witnesses on the scene standing at the very end of York Way facing this collision in the middle of the orange box between Gray's Inn Rd, York Way and Pentonville Road, including a long-time resident from Argyle St said, "The silver car was coming from Euston Road going east. They didn't know what hit them, the guy is still in there, probably shocked. The police car came from nowhere going too fast, he didn't have a blue light on or nothing."

 Difficult to tell from the pictures, but whatever happened, it's yet another incident on the gyratory - a road system that needs to be scrapped right now. A hangover from the 70s that TfL won't let go. How many more incidents like this do we have face, witness or to come home to?

Wharfdale Road greenwall project - dates announced!

Early November 2010 is the date that new local charitable trust King's Cross Community Projects has firmly in its sights right now. That's the date they plan to make the final design decisions for the Wharfdale Road greenwall being designed by locally based RCA graduate sculptor Neil Ayling, Camden Garden Centre based Kew-trained plantsman Mike Jackson and award winning vertical landscape designer Marie Clarke.

Construction and installation will follow, to be completed by February 2010 with planting taking place between March and May (timetable according to individual plants preferences). Meanwhile, the trust continues the fundraising drive and is thinking about what kind of launch event they'd like to have in the summer - all ideas welcome!

The greenwall has been inspired by the King's Cross green corridor which includes London Wildlife Trust's Camley Street Natural Park, and by local environmental initiatives like John Ashwell's tree scheme in which over 150 trees have been planted in the north east section of King's Cross - John has attempted to extend the scheme into the Camden side of King's Cross, Thornhill Bridge Community Gardeners brilliant community gardens and Lisa Pontecorvo's wonderful Edward Square.

Locally based built asset consultancy E C Harris has adopted King's Cross Community Projects as one of three charities it will be supporting over the next year and beyond. At the launch of the E C Harris Community Challenge initiative yesterday the company's London HQ pledged a long term commitment to the local area aiming to make a sustainable, measurable difference. To date they have provided the project management team, quantity surveyor and buildings surveyor for the greenwall project, all at absolutely no cost.

 Alan Conisbee, locally based structural engineer, is providing his time and expertise for free, as are all the trustees of King's Cross Community Projects and Marie Clarke our vertical landscape designer. Wall owner Complete Offices and land owner Places for People are providing the space for the wall whilst locally based planning law expert Sarah Youren is donating her time at considerably reduced cost. LB Islington is the main funder with Billy Reilly, landlord of The Driver having been our very first financial supporter.

Artist Neil Ayling is busy researching the area, gathering inspiration for his highly innovative design. So far Neil is considering using powder coated aluminium on which maybe printed full colour images as the main structure. His theme maybe 'Battlebridge', using the idea of bridging our split community to inform the design which may play with use of perspective to create depth of field in what would otherwise be quite a flat art installation. Integral lighting may turn out to be a component, hidden behind aspects of the sculpture to really highlight its texture. A tank to store rain water run-off, an irrigation system, safety and security requirements, deep pockets of soil for plant roots and seasonal changes to the plants are all challenges we've set for Neil's imagination!

We'll continue to keep you updated on this site. We'll also be delivering a leaflet to everyone living locally in the coming months to ask you for your support. Meanwhile, any ideas for design or for the launch in summer 2011 are most welcome! Email us here.

Caledonian Ward Safer Neighbourhood Team in Action

Cannabis with a street value of around £15,000 was seized during a drugs raid by Caledonian Safer Neighbourhoods Team on Friday, 20 August 2010.

The address in Caledonian Road, N1, was searched under the Misuse of Drugs Act by Caledonian Safer Neighbourhoods team with assistance from the MPS Dog Support Unit in response to community concerns about drug dealing at the address.

Police drugs dog Diesel assisted officers in the search. A large amount of cannabis and £4,500 in cash was discovered.

A 20 year old man was arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply and has been bailed to return to police on 15 October.

Police Sergeant Michael Atkinson, from Caledonian SNT, said: "Drugs taking and dealing is one of our ward priorities. We take complaints from residents very seriously and will continue to work towards reducing this menace. I am pleased that we have been able to take these drugs off the streets of Islington."

Police Constable Adele Gibson from the Dogs Support Unit said: ”Our drugs detection dogs are specially trained to proactively assist search teams during raids and this is a good example of two teams working in partnership to tackle crime.”

Kings Cross - with hindsight.....

DfT's blatant ignoring of community campaigns against Network Rail's Platform Zero was pretty poor.  They didn't tell the Secretary of State about the campaign on his 20 May visit nor did they mention in his briefing Network Rail's appalling overspend on the Eastern Range and Platform Zero.  So i wrote to the DfT Permanent Secretary Robert Devereux - he is in charge of the officials there.  Mr Devereux, in the guarded terms of the civil service says:

'...With the benefit of hindsight, we could also have included specific briefing around the package of works relating to the Eastern Range and Platform Zero...'

If you put your Yes Minister goggles on, this is close to an apology.

The correspondence, with my email is below:

Dear Mr Perrin

Thank you for your email of 12 August regarding the Secretary of State’s visit to King’s Cross on 20 May to open Platform Zero.

As this was an early visit for the new Secretary of State, the briefing deliberately focussed on the overall programme at King’s Cross.

With the benefit of hindsight, we could also have included specific briefing around the package of works relating to the Eastern Range and Platform Zero; I can assure you that the Secretary of State is well seized of the need to drive down costs in the railway industry.

Yours sincerely,

 
Robert Devereux

24 August 2010

Perrin-Devereux 12 August 2010

hello robert

The Secretary of State visited Kings Cross on 20 May to open Platform Zero.  There have been long running, hard fought, disciplined community campaigns against the redevelopment, particuarly of Platform Zero.  I was involved in those campaigns.  The project and the related Eastern Range is also well over budget, according to information supplied by DfT under FOI. 

Your Department has kindly released the briefing for the SoS for his visit under FOI.  This reveals no mention of the above.  This is pretty poor by any standards - such briefing is one sided - but especially so with the new government's emphasis on cost control and the big society.

The issue is written up in detail here
 
http://www.kingscrossenvironment.com/2010/08/phillip-hammond-the-new-secretary-of-state-for-transport-was--whisked-to-kings-cross-in-his-first-few-days-in-the-job.html

I should be interested in your comments.

Yours


William Perrin

Street issues in Kings Cross and Islington

Neighbour Stuart Cottis reports yet more street sweeping problems in Rufford Street.  Fly tipping around the bins, a need for street sweeping after a car break in and missed recycling collections (archive photo).  It was problems in Rufford Street that got me into commmunity action about eight years ago - particularly fly tipping.  Rufford Street has suffered from being on the fringes of Islington - geographically and where services are concerned metaphorically. Stuart has reported the recent problems to Contact Islington.  Rufford Street has improved vastly over the years (I still own a flat there) due to a variety of factors: one of which has been residents like Stuart and our neighbours persistently reporting problems to the Council often via Contact Islington. 

Basic vigilance and activism to hold service providers to account are fundamental to an a decent neighbourhood.  As we enter an era of public service austerity/cuts it's even more important that we all speak up for our neighbourhood to make sure we continue to get the services we need.  Contact Islington despite its occasional faults makes it easier to report stuff and for the council to track what happens to the issues we phone in.  But as with any contact centre operation you can sometimes feel that your request has disappeared into a black hole.

A little transparency wouldn't hurt - both of what happens in Contact Islington and then of the performance of service providers.  Street cleaning, repairing and maintenance are nearly all services delivered through outsourced contracts.  The council buys services from large companies.  The contracts with these companies will have performance measures in them. So i am delighted that Contact Islington has begun to release basic performance data about what happens to our phone calls and emails. 

Admittedly i had to use FOI to get this information and it may not be readily digestible, but it's a start and i am grateful to officers for releasing it - we now have some monthly reports on street environment issues (tipping, waste, broken lamp posts etc), trees and road and pavement  repairs (links are to small spreadsheets to download).  I shall plough through these spreadsheets in the coming weeks to pull together as much as i can a coherent picture of trends etc - if anyone out there who is good with spreadsheets would like to help with that please drop me a line.

There's a lot more that can be done here - consistent release of what the targets are for resolution of issues (some sheets have them some don't), transparency on how these feed back into the contracts for service delivery (commercial confidentiality here would easily be over-ridden by the public interest) etc but it's a start.  It should easily be possible to connect in one simple view say a broken street light report, the time it takes to get it fixed, whether this is on target or not internally, where any slippage occurred, what company is responsible for street light maintenance and how much their contract is worth.   This should then aggregate into a report at year end on how well that company is doing and how they are paid or not under performance clauses in their contract - after all it's public money.

It's a bit tiresome to have to go through an FOI route to get this information - I wonder if the new administration can help save time and get all this information out into the public domain warts and all.

Kings Cross 'broadly on schedule against the budget' say Office of Rail Regulation

Back in July I got in touch with the Office of Rail Regulation who are responsible for detailed monitoring of Network Rail's expenditure on stations to ask them about the budget and out turn for Kings Cross.  I rang them and sent an email.  I was told that this request would be treated as an FOI request if necessary.  Then i heard nothing, even though an FOI request should be dealt with in 20 working days.

Yesterday I wrote about an apparent overspend following Network Rail's press notice mentioning 'Network Rail's £500m King's Cross redevelopment', higher than previous numbers. And I wrote to the Permanent Secretary at DfT.

Today I was delighted to receive an email from the ORR pointing to a range of documents which i reproduce in its entirety below.  The phrase that pays is:

'However...we can confirm the project remains broadly on schedule against the budget for Control Period 4  (2009-2014)'

So we can rest assured that our public money is in safe hands, even though there is a fair bit of leeway in the phrase 'broadly on schedule'.

ORR email follows (i have turned long web addresses into hyperlinks):

>>Thank you for your email of 5 July in which you requested information about the budget for the refurbishment of Kings Cross station.  I apologise for the delay in replying.

 We can confirm that we are monitoring this major refurbishment project on a regular basis using information provided by Network Rail.  As you are aware this is a long-term project and the construction contracts will not be concluded until after 2012.  Much of the information is therefore commercially sensitive and not in the public domain until after the contracts are complete. However we can provide the following and confirm the project remains broadly on schedule against the budget for Control Period 4  (2009-2014).

 1    For the current control period funding provided is a mixture of enhancement and renewals funds. Details of the funding for the current control period can be found in our PR08 Final Determination.  This is available on our website.  Chapters 5 and 9 include Kings Cross.

 2    Network Rail provided further details of how they intended to deliver the project in their delivery plan.  This is available on their website: see for example Appendix 22  Please note that these are total refurbishment costs.  In summary this indicates a planned spend of: .

 [note I reformatted the table - WP]

£m 2010 / 11 prices	09/10	10/11	11/12	12/13	13/14	total
Kings Cross refurbishment Project, capital expenditure	100	127	113	21	13	374

               

3    Further details are also provided here and an update was published by Network Rail on the 30 June, available at - see Chapter 9 (these updates are provided quarterly).

Please note that these documents use different cost bases.

King's Cross Station - community campaign whitewashed out by DfT and Network Rail

Phillip Hammond, the new Secretary of State for Transport was whisked to Kings Cross in his first few days in the job to ‘open’ the new Platform Zero on 20 May.  Platform Zero and the Eastern Range offices have become infamous in the area for gross overspending and have featured in the trade press. 

The briefing released by DfT and Network Rail apparently provided for the Secretary of State is a hymn of praise for the Kings Cross project and doesn’t mention at all Network Rail's overspending.  Even though arguably the greatest challenge for the new Transport Secretary and his officials is to bring Network Rails’ expenditure under control.

Also apparently whitewashed out is the long, principled and hard fought community campaign opposed to the way Network Rail chose to develop Platform Zero and their own offices – in particular the loss without replacement of a historic access route for pedestrians, prams, wheelchairs etc into the North of the station forcing a huge detour round the outside of the station. 

Tipped off by the construction trade press, 'Kings Cross job doubles its costs' a campaign by this website forced DfT to reveal that Network Rail had overspent by tens of millions on the rebuilding of their own offices and Platform Zero. I also notice that the Kings Cross budget, that used to be hazily stated as £400million has now risen to 'Network Rail's £500m King's Cross redevelopment'.  But I am told by DfT that we can't know the precise number lest it reduces Network Rail's leverage with its contractors.

I thought it was odd that the Secretary of State’s first rail ‘visit’ was to a project notorious for over spend – normally you would send a minister to something unambiguously good for their first trip out of the office. 

Local activists weren’t invited to the launch we were told there ‘wasn’t enough room’ - on a train platform over 100 metres long – although we were invited to all the Eurostar festivities despite a long running campaign and behaved ourselves.  Smelling a rat, I put in an FOI request for the Secretary of State’s briefing to see what was being said about the overspend on the development and the community campaign. Why would a new Secretary of State agree to his first rail bit of PR be endorsing and overspent project unpopular with the community?

The documents released under FOI - appear to be the entire briefing  supplied by DfT and Network Rail officials to the Secretary of State – DfT does not say that any documents were withheld under FOI exemptions.

Briefing on an event is intended to give a Minister the full picture warts and all so that they can decide whether to go or not and to inform them of any pitfalls – policy or reputational.  The briefing documents DfT have released omit to mention overspend and also omit the strong grass roots campaigns against the development.  This is particularly poor given the new government’s emphasis on spending control and the big society – citizens in control of their neighbourhood.

We know that DfT officials involved in station refurbishment programmes are painfully aware of the issues around Platform Zero and the Eastern Range - because they have agonised in pulling together FOI requests setting it out, which I appealed for internal review at senior level.  

My sources tell me that Network Rail still gets hot under the collar when the Kings Cross affair is mentioned – they certainly haven’t forgotten the fiasco that their lack of community engagement caused.

I don’t have a bone to pick with Philip Hammond but there is something strange in how his officials and Network Rail apparently don't mention in his briefing the severe financial overspend and community unhappiness about the Eastern Range and Platform Zero.  Instead they send him there to endorse the project.

So I am sending a copy of this article to Robert Devereux, the Permanent Secretary at DfT, who is in charge of the officials for his comments.  If anyone else involved in the project has any further documents or information I'd be happy to publish them here.

Calling all graphic designers!

The tube map is a world famous design icon, pleasing in itself yet incredibly easy to use. So, here's your mission graphic designers out there should you choose to accept: design an equally pleasing and easy to use map of King's Cross St Pancras tube station with its myriad entrances and exits and unsigned shortcuts.

Take one 3D map, combine with detailed information about entrances/exits and how best to board a train together with your own research into hidden shortcuts and produce an iconic and indispensable alternative map giving the shortest possible routes to the KX/StP tube nightmare! Here's an early attempt prior to the opening of the Northern Ticket Hall (perhaps overly ambitious, it attempts to cover all overland lines too), can you do better?

Your prize will be fame and sainthood conferred by the KX community and all KX StP tube users the world over... any takers out there???? Email us here.

Young people's body image - summer holiday photography and modelling project

Y-Touring at OneKX on Cromer Street (just off Judd Street) have let us know about this fascinating project running during the summer holidays that local young people can get invovled with.  For more information please contact Steve Byrne on 020 7520 3096 or email [email protected]

>>During the summer holidays Y Touring and One KX are offering a group of young people a fantastic creative opportunity.

If you or anyone you know is between 14 and 19 and interested in getting involved in a photography project exploring our perceptions of body image then this could be the perfect project to get involved in.
With Wellcome Collection and Bloomsbury Festival we are offering a number of free places on a project that will make us question the way we look at ourselves and how society makes us feel about our bodies. Participants will be given professional photographic training to create a visual response to the subject matter that will aim to open up honest discussion about how we feel about our bodies and increase body confidence.
The photographs collected will form an exhibition held at the Bloomsbury Festival in October 2010 with pieces being displayed all around the area in open public spaces and actually inside the Wellcome Collection
Training and preparatory workshops will begin on Friday August 20th 2010 and run for a full week 10:00 till 15:00. After the training period there will be weekly sessions and catch up meetings to suit people timetables. All equipment will be provided the only thing we need is interest, imagination and the willingness to engage with the subject matter.
For more information please contact Steve Byrne on 020 7520 3096 or email [email protected]
We are also looking for models of all shapes and sizes to take part in the project, so if you fall into the age bracket and fancy being the inspiration that sparks off the creative imagination then please get in touch.

Murals and Mosaics Walk

Ruth Miller from the London Mural Preservation Society (LMPS) will be leading a ‘North London Mural Walk’ exploring the murals and mosaics hidden away in the back streets of Kings Cross and Islington on Sunday August 15th.

LMPS’s mission is to collect and publicise the local oral history behind the people that created the murals and to explore ways of funding any necessary restoration and conservation work.

Meet-up for the walk, which is open to all, is at 1pm at the Lucas Arms, Grays Inn Road. The walk, which will be filmed for the group’s website, will be in two halves with a pub break in the middle. Anyone with stories or information about the local murals should contact [email protected]. There is also a Facebook group.

Thanks to Tobias Newland for sneding this in