Kings Cross Local Environment

Islington's Most Wanted - do you know these men?

 This just in from the police:

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'Today, 17 November 2009, the Wanted Offenders Unit at Islington Police has released the names and photographs of six people they want to trace in connection with crimes on the Borough including a serious stabbing on a bus in Essex Road earlier this year.

Anyone with information as to the whereabouts of the six people should NOT approach them and should contact Islington Police immediately on 020 7421 0157 or, if they wish to remain anonymous, Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. All calls will be handled in the strictest confidence.

The Wanted Offenders Unit was introduced in January 2009 to re-examine unsolved cases, look for new lines of enquiry and re-visit the homes of named suspects. Detective Sergeant Chris Collinson who heads up the Unit said:

“We are appealing to Londoners to contact us if they know where these people are.

“Previously when we have circulated images in the media we have had good results - people who otherwise might have remained at large have been traced and either brought to justice OR eliminated from our enquiries.

“Anyone who knows the whereabouts of these individuals should contact us immediately. We are also giving the people in these photos the chance to come forward and eliminate themselves from our enquiries.”

Anthony Fallows 24/01/1975      GBH     Police want to speak with Fallows about the stabbing of a 29 year old man on a route 73 bus in Essex Road on 17 March 2009. Fallows has strong ties to Islington and may have since shaved his head.   

Fatih Ozen 01/05/1973      Possession of an 8” kitchen knife       Ozen was charged with this offence but failed to appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court on 31 July 2009.  

Colin Finn 05/08/1977      GBH     Finn was arrested in connection with a GBH outside a kebab shop in Holloway Road on 2 November 2008, but failed to answer bail at Islington Police Station in February this year.      

 Ciaran Taylor 18/04/1988      GBH     Police want to speak with Taylor in connection with a serious assault in Junction Road, N19 on 30 December 2007. This was an unprovoked attack in which the victim suffered a serious eye injury. Taylor has connections to both Islington and Camden. 

Fatah Legros 09/09/1988     Residential burglary    Police want to speak to Legros about a residential burglary which occurred in N4 in August 2009.       

James Mejeh 13/09/1971      Robbery Police want to speak to Mejeh in relation to robberies which occurred in the Borough of Islington in 2003. The only photograph police hold of Mejeh is 10 years old.   

Recent successes for the Wanted Offenders Unit include the arrest of a 19 year old man in Edmonton on 2 July 2009. He was wanted in connection with a stabbing in N19 earlier this year. He will stand trial for grievous bodily harm at Blackfriars Crown Court in 2010.

A woman previously convicted of importing drugs, who had been wanted for 23 years after escaping from prison, has been arrested. A member of the public provided the Wanted Offenders Unit with the false name she was living under. The woman, who had only served one year of a six year sentence, is now in prison serving the remainder of her term with an additional eight months for absconding.

A 52 year old man from Surrey has been arrested and charged with the robbery of an elderly woman in Islington at the start of the year. He was traced by the Wanted Offenders Unit to an address in Surrey and was arrested on 9 July 2009. He is due to stand trial at Blackfriars Crown Court on a date to be fixed. Also, a 29 year old man from N7 was arrested on 19 August 2009. He has been charged with burglary, theft and failing to surrender. The case is currently ongoing at Blackfriars Crown Court.

Anyone with information as to the whereabouts of the six people should NOT approach them and should contact Islington Police immediately on 020 7421 0157 or, if they wish to remain anonymous, Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. All calls will be handled in the strictest confidence.

Kings Cross gas holders - more gas

The omniscient Google informs me that there is a winner inthe Kings Cross gasholder design competition.  Building Design have a piece - excerpt follows:

'Bell Phillips & Kimble has beaten 80 other firms to win a competition to design a new use for one of the King’s Cross gasholders.

'The brief was to turn the decommissioned gasholder into an events space, and the firm has exploited the towering structure’s canal-side location to design a roof top water pool and amphitheatre below.

'It is hoped that full concept design work will begin on the project, which has a £2.5 million budget, in 2011.'

The strong conditionality at the end 'hoped', 'concept' 'begin' is to be expected given the current market for speculative development.  It is hard to see who would lend money to somone hoping to build an events space, with the construction risks of this unusual structure in central London right now.

Get your Sunday Crumpet in King's Cross!

Neil (one half of the Su Pollard Connection) and local boy Andrew Elvers of Balfe Street DJ together at Heaven on Friday nights. On the 22nd November, along with their pal Kevin (the other Su), who is resident at Carwash, they bring it all on home to King's Cross and for free!

For years now they've been talking about doing a night playing proper old skool gay disco - the kind you just don't hear anymore, yet it was so influential and fabulous!  They had a false start last year and then considered another venue this year but decided against. And then along came an offer of the Kings Cross Social Club. They felt this was right right and so are going for it.

Andrew says,

"We will be including the big cross over tracks too like Grace Jones, Weather Girls, Laura Branigan, Abba etc so it should still be accessible for those not total trainspotters like we are!"

King's Cross Social Club has brought what used to be the Golden Lion, on King's Cross Road, back to life after it's sad closure last year. Let's support this new local venue... after all, there is nothing that can bring us all together for good old traditional knees-up as successfully as a stonking great gay disco.

See you there on the 22nd, don't forget your glitter, loons and stilletoes and if you can't wait till then, click here for a boogie-at-home taster!

Kings Cross Square - bin there done that

Well done to Sean Murray who has fought a long battle with Camden to get some bins on the dismal forecourt of Kings Cross station.  Sean got some bins, that then vanished.  Now the bins are back, near the bus stops and hopefully will reduce the amount of litter that drifts around there.  Well done to anyone who chipped in with Camden to help Sean.

Transeuropean Tip on York Way

The prominent bit of land outside Transeuropean Autos has been a tip for years.  This website has been covering the problems there since 2006 (when photo was taken).  Since then Transeuropean Autos has won back some of the land and left a narrower, scruffier strip and move their awful stockade fencing closer to the pavement.  Who owns the land is questionable, leading to it being neglected.  Neighbour Stuart Cottis has raised it again with the council recently and Islington's Chris Demetriou is getting it cleared up.  Stuart has also done some good work recently sorting out the pedestrian route amongst the works on Goods Way that people are forced to use when going to St Pancras.

Stuart's email exchange with the council:

>Please could you arrange for the grass verge at the junction between Randell's Road and York Way (i.e. on the eastern side of York Way) to be cleared of litter and tidied up. It is, at present, a forest of weeds strewn with take-away boxes, soft drink cans etc.....It is an eyesore and is attracting more and more rubbish so I would be grateful if somebody could take action as soon as possible.
Many thanks
Stuart Cottis

>Thank you for your email..Due to the area being an eyesore we will arrange for a special one off clearance whilst we try and ascertain who owns the land in question. Our intention is for the landowners to maintain this land and we can use a range of enforcement tools to ensure that they do this.

Chris Demetriou

Age of Stupid - All Saints Church Saturday 14 November

Climate change begins at home - Martyn Saunders is screening Age of Stupid on Sat 14^th Nov 7:45pm, £5 (£2 concessions) at All Saints Church, Caledonian Road (next to the canal).

Much cheaper than the Odeon and less hassle than downloading it.

Exhibition - Ben Kinsella: Sketchbook Tuesday 17 November, Caledonian Road

CYP is a wonderful local charity that works with large numbers of local young people many of them from challenging backgrounds to give them things to do, hope and a pathway to a better life. They have a remarkable and haunting new exhibition.

If you wish to donate securely to CYP click this button.

'CYP Culture, 165 Caledonian Rd London N1 0SL

6pm-8pm Tuesday 17 November 2009  
     
“On the morning of Sunday 29 June 2008, a 16-year-old boy called Ben Kinsella was stabbed to death. He is another name to add to the long list of those killed by knives. No one suggests Ben Kinsella was anything other than totally blameless. This was not a war zone far away. This was Islington in London." - the words of Nicholas Hilliard QC at the murder trial of the three young men responsible for Ben’s senseless killing in April 2009. Ben was out celebrating the end of his GCSEs when he was murdered. He never got to find out that he had passed the exams with a string of A-grades, and an A* for his artwork, which would have been a springboard for his ambition to become a graphic designer.
 
“Seeing what Ben’s death has done to everybody around me has influenced me to want to make a change of culture and a change of thinking of young people. With art and design all round us, I am determined to use my passion and skills for design to make a difference.” - the words of local young person.
 
Copenhagen Youth Project (CYP) were asked by the Kinsella family to mount a show featuring the exceptional art work produced by Ben, who was a CYP member.  The show at CYP Culture, 165 Caledonian Rd, is part of our ongoing programme of exhibitions and social education for over 400 local young people a year, including those who are disadvantaged and vulnerable. The venue is used to deliver innovative, creative work, which examines and challenges the street culture that gives rise to knife crime, and to showcase young people’s work in partnership with other local projects. The programme is part-funded by the City Bridge Trust, Central St Martin’s School of Art and the Home Office, and needs further funds to build on and progress the work.
 
The “Ben Kinsella: Sketchbook” exhibition will be in the upstairs mezzanine and window space at CYP Culture, 165 Caledonian Rd, the downstairs space will be used as a retrospective and to show some projects that CYP’s creative social education programme has delivered recently.This includes a film made by CYP young people with the film company Only Connect, and an award winning architectural project, in partnership with ‘Design Matters’ as part of Central Saint Martin’s widening participation initiative.
 
The private view is on Tuesday 17 November 6pm- 8pm. A catalogue of Ben’s Kinsella’s art work will be available.
 
Donations to the CYP can be made by visiting the Contact page of the CYP’s website <www.cyproject.org> and clicking on Charity Choice.

For further information please get in touch with the CYP office:
Tel: 020 7607 6050 or 07852 262915
e-mail: [email protected]

Local Bicycles Electronicly Tagged for Free!

 
Local Community Support Officer John Argyrou just wrote into the Community Bulletin Board to let local folks know that the Safer Neighbourhoods Team will be out again fitting electronic tags to resident's bicycles. This is the 3rd such event hosted by the Team.

These tags are being provided as part of a continuing initiative to lessen the liklyhood of bicycle theft and ensure that any bicycles that are stolen and are recovered can find their way back to their rightful owners.  The electronic tags are hidden in the frame of the bicycle and cannot be removed.  They have a unique code number which corresponds to information stored on a local database which is available to officers 24 hours a day. As part of the registration process, owners receive a "photo ID with their details and a photograph of the bicycle to certify ownership and to assist identification, if necessary.

The electronic tags are being supplied and fitted by the Local Safer Neighbourhoods Team in partnership with Islington Council.

The tagging will take place on Wednesday 11 November outside the Caledonian Swimming Pool (Caledonian Road at Twyford Street ) from17:00 to 19:00.

For further information please contact Caledonian Ward Safer Neighbourhood Team on (020) 7421-0271, or email them at: [email protected]

Kings Cross St Pancras 'northern ticket hall' to open 29 November?

Kings Cross St Pancras underground station suffers severe overcrowding almost every work day.  The staff have to close the gates as a primitive form of crowd control to prevent a dangerous situation underground.  Kings Cross St Pancras underground will suffer from massively increased throughput when the Kings Cross railways lands devleopment comes on stream and tens of thousands of communters come to kings cross every day to work there as well as transit.  It is a worry that the underground station might never cope.

For some years TfL and others have been labouring on Britain's most expensive hole - the £300m Northern Ticket Hall under Pancras Road.  This will bring people who get off the Thameslink and Midland Mainline directly into the tube station underground.  This Northern Ticket Hall should alleviate problems overground in St Pancras removing a lot of the foot traffic in the main concourse and perhaps in capacity of the whole tube station - although the problem might just transfer to holding people in the undergrund tunnels like a pack of commuting moles (BTW what is the collective noun for moles).  It seems the northern ticket hole is nearing completion according to First Capital Connect (see below).  This site will keep an eye on what happens overground - a brand new multi hundred million pound tube station should not be overcrowded.

FCC news release follows, thanks to London Reconnections for tipping me off:

'London Underground will open a new ticket hall at King’s Cross St Pancras station on 29 November 2009.

This ticket hall will provide new access between FCC services at King’s Cross and St Pancras International and the Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines at the Underground station.

For FCC passengers on both Thameslink and Great Northern route services, this will mean shorter and less congested routes to and from these Underground platforms, without lengthy walks through St Pancras International or King’s Cross stations.

Final works will be completed in 2010 and will provide step-free access to all London Underground lines served at the station.

Between FCC St Pancras International Thameslink route platforms and:

Piccadilly line: 5 mins 40 secs (currently 8 mins)

Victoria line : 7 mins (currently 8 mins)

Northern line: 5 mins 50 secs (currently 9 mins 30 secs)

Circle, Metropolitan & Hammersmith and City lines: 4 mins (route doesn’t change)

In addition, new entrances/exits at the other end of the Piccadilly, Northern and Victoria line platforms will make it easier and quicker (less congested) for passengers to access and leave these platforms.

Between FCC King’s Cross platforms 9, 10 & 11 and:

Piccadilly line: 4 mins 30 secs (currently 6 mins – or up to 11 mins if station entrance temporarily closed in the morning rush hour)

Victoria line: 6 mins (no change – but currently can be up to 11 mins if station entrance temporarily closed in the morning rush hour)

Northern line: 4 mins 40 secs (currently 7 mins – or up to 12 mins if station entrance temporarily closed in the morning rush hour)

Circle, Metropolitan & Hammersmith and City lines: 6 mins 30 secs (currently 7 mins 30 secs – or up to 12 mins 30 secs if station entrance temporarily closed in the morning rush hour)

In addition, new entrances/exits at the other end of the Piccadilly, Northern and Victoria line platforms will make it easier and quicker (less congested) for passengers to access and leave these platforms.

New paving outside KX Tesco - who paid?!

Some of you may have noticed the new stone paving outside of the Tesco's in Kings X on Caledonia St which has appeared recently. A welcome improvement to the broken and cracked slabs it replaced, but let's pause for thought...
The council replaced these expensive york stone slabs but should it have been the public purse that paid?
These slabs were broken by delivery lorries for Tesco and Premier Inn repeatedly dropping heavy pallets and cages onto the pavement. These lorries still deliver on this spot on a daily basis, so the damage is likely to occur. It took approximately 18 months for the last set of paving to be destroyed - I wonder how long this lot will last?

In an effort to find out more I have spoken to the manager of Tesco, who although helpful, had no idea whether Tesco had contributed to the cost of the new paving. My next stop will be Islington Council. It will probably take 50 phone calls to find the right person but I feel we need to know whether it was the residents of Islington who paid for the damage caused by Tesco and Premier Inn on this site... If they haven't contributed to the cost of repaving then I suggest we lobby them until they do!!!