Kings Cross Local Environment

Murder at Egg on York Way - some justice

Last year a young man Sharif 'Pud' Zaiden was shot at Egg.  I wrote about it here.  The murderer, Sean Samuels has now been convicted and jailed for a minimum of 27 years.  The dispute was about the 'style of DJ-ing at a pirate radio station in West London'.    Apparently the victim rapped insults about his murderer over the air in rap 'jousting'.  Really tragic.  The Gazette has written the case up but they don't have it online.  The BBC has it here, some alternative coverage here. Still no news of the other tragic murder in Kings Cross at the Scala.

Graffiti destroyer for Regents Canal

The graffiti on the otherwise beautiful Regent's Canal towpath really lets the place down.  I know that many residents have reported it to the Council and British Waterways.  But the Waterways people can't keep on top of it along the length of the canal.  I was really pleased to get this promising reply from Islington Council - a nice demonstration of two public bodies working together, influenced by central government targets.  Imagine something a bit like a scaled down fire-fighting ship, but narrower and pulled by a horse, perhaps.

'I am writing with regards to the report of graffiti you made on 23/06/07 relating to the Regents Canal Towpath.  Unfortunately Islington Council is not authorised at this stage to remove graffiti from the towpath area as this is under the jurisdiction of British Waterways.  We have recently held a meeting with them about this situation as it is affecting the Government score that we are measured on.

A proposal has been made to form a partnership as they do not have the resources available to tackle this problem.  We are unable to access the majority of the graffiti from the highway and therefore are looking to use one of their barges and place some of our jetting equipment on board.  This will only then require the use of one of their staff to drive the barge as we will carry out the removal.  A longer term solution is also being looked at as they currently do not own any jetting equipment.  We are looking to assist in providing this on a permanent basis and in return having exclusive use of the barge two days a month.  In addition it  may be possible to train our staff to drive the barge.

We are currently providing method statements and risk assessments to British Waterways for approval taking into consideration the additional hazards working by water raises.  We are confident that these will be approved in the very near future and weather permitting, work will start shortly.

If you would like any further information on this or any other graffiti related matter then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind Regards,

Leon Meredith
Environmental Crime Manage'

Safer Neighbourhoods Panel - Community Safety Meeting

If there is one meeting about the local community safety that's worth attending, I believe this is it.  This local resident panel meets directly with the Community Support Police Team and is chaired by our Councillor Paul Convery.

The recent problems on Rufford Street and at the Bremerton Estate as featured here and in the news make your attendence even more important for this meeting.  Strong turnout, will show those invited guests (see below), that the neighbourhood is serious about the safety issues that continually plague us.

The next meeting will be on 21 June, from 7.00 pm to 8.30 pm. The venue is the Blessed Sacrament Church, Copenhagen Street N1

The guests that will be attending Thursday's SNP meeting are:

Inspector Frost who has the lead responsibility for the Safer Neighbourhood Teams in the South of Islington. He is attending on behalf of Chief Inspector Jane Johnson who we had originally asked to attend but has a conflicting appointment. Despite this, Councillor Convery shall be meeting with CI Johnson early on Tuesday morning.

Jennette Arnold, the London Assembly member representing Islington, Hackney & Waltham Forest. Jenette is one of the Mayor's nominees on the Metropolitan Police Authority which is the body to which the police service is answerable in London. She is one of the leading architects of the Safer Neighbourhood policing initiative in London and takes a very close interest in the service for the 3 Boorughs she represents. She is a former Islington Councillor and lives in the Borough so has a close knowledge of crime problems here.

The main topic we need to cover is how to get adequate police cover for Caledonian Ward? Central to this is:

a) getting more officers dedicated to our Safer Neighbourhood team

b) having rostering patterns that cover key times in the evening and weekends when trouble occurs

c) ensuring faster service from central response teams at other times

You can help by attending the meeting and showing your support for more police for our Ward.  Please try to attend - Thursday evening, 21 June, from 7.00 pm to 8.30 pm at the Blessed Sacrament Church on Copenhagen Street N1.

Under siege !

Rufford Street came under siege this evening.  For about 30 minutes a gang of 20-30 young people pelted the buildings with apples and stones.  Two windows were broken (click on picture to enlarge).  They tried variously to get into numbers 2,3 and 4.  I had a calm word with the kids afterwards who came up with some nonsense about a person disrespecting them over a mobile phone but they didn't seem to have a reason.  They knew they had done something wrong but there was no real sense that they shouldn't do it.  There was a real 'Lord of the Flies' mob mentality about it. A complete mystery to those of us who live here.  The kids were from about 8 to 12, boys and girls all white.  Some older (black) kids did manage to calm them down a bit.  We had to wait ages for the police. 

The Council need to look urgently at increasing the capacity of the excellent youth workers in the area, who have no core funding from the Council and are constantly chasing their tails to raise money week by week.  If parents don't instil basic community values in their children then the community desperately needs to through outreach - policing of youth crime, though important is only palliative.

It has been five years since i last saw a gang this size up to no good (then they stuffed a car full of fireworks and set light to it in Rufford Street - a bit like the opening of Shameless).  The street is littered with large stones and apples.  I am only glad that we don't teach cricket any more - if they had better throwing arms they would have broken a dozen windows. 

Six beautiful mature trees felled on Pentonville Rd

Over the weekend six very large trees, each over 80yrs old, was felled outside of the new Nido development at the western end of Pentonville Rd. This has ruined the avenue of trees running up the hill and makes this ugly concrete thoroughfare even more harsh and uninviting.

I immediately contacted Jake Tibbetts of the tree service who went down to inspect the site. As far as he knows at present, the developers were only authorised to fell two trees, not six, and is therefore preparing to recommend Planning prosecute the developers to the full extent of the law if this is the case. Planning are doing a site inspection tomorrow when things should become clearer.

If the developers have breached their planning consent it is a tragic loss of beautiful trees, older than the vast majority of people living in the borough. If Islington council have allowed them consent to do this then the loss still stands. Either way I feel strongly that action is needed. Our trees and green spaces need stronger protection from developers and shoddy planning decisions. Their importance to the health and well-being of local residents needs to be respected and recognised and I personally never want to see something like this happen again.

When the facts become clearer at the end of tomorrow I will post an update and ideas for further action. Keep watching!
[by Sarah Ward, our Pentonville Road correspondent]

Vandalized Trees - An Update

This past weekend, I did a walk-about in the neighbourhood and counted the number of vandalised trees in the local area - there were 13 of them!  I sent a "report" to the Islington Tree Service and hopefully during the next planting season (Nov.), they will be replaced.  To see the extent of the problem, you can download the report and see their locations - Download Vandalized_trees_in_our_area.pdf (and if I missed any on your street, you should send a picture and the location to the Tree Service to make sure they have a full list).

The question we must come to grips with is - just what can we do about this?  One solution that was proposed was to request larger trees.  Well, this has already been done.  However, we are unfortunately limited by the size and depth of the "tree pits" that can be dug when planting due to the presence of underground services.  No other solutions were forthcoming!!!!!!  So what do we do - my answer is to try to be more observant and report the problem immediately to the Tree Service in the hope that they can find the culprits on CCTV.  When we did address this problem with the Tree Service staff, they did acknowledge that they have, on a number of occasions, been successful in determining who was responsible and making them pay!  I know personally, in one such situation, I snapped a photo of a construction vehicle knocking down one of the original trees on Crinan Street - the Tree Service went after them, and they did pay for a new tree!!!!  With regard to the CCTV cameras, it is important to report the problem as soon as it's spotted.

Short of more local "beat" policing during the late night hours when these problems most likely occur. there is little else we can do - so let's try this approach and see if we can get any results.

We need more than "Please leave a message..."

The cover of this week's Islington Tribune featured a story that highlights a serious flaw in our Safer Neighbourhoods Police Team's operation.  It focuses on some structual issues that have underminded the work of the Team members now out on our streets.  If you haven't read it, I've attached a copy  of the article which you can download: Download islington_trib__1_june_07.pdf. The matter was immediately brought to the attention of our local Councillor Paul Convery.  Paul had already seen it and was very concerned.  He's asked me to share his communication to the other members of the Safer Neighbourhood Panel which he Chairs, and to as many other local residents as possible for their comments as well.  His email is as follows:

Dear Neighbours:

Could I ask for some reactions please to the events of last week? These have been dramatically highlighted on the front page of both the Islington Gazette and Tribune (See attached from the Tribune). Both papers highlight the problem that our neighbourhood is not effectively policed on a full-time basis and the last bank holiday weekend was a dramatic illustration of this.

Anger amongst local traders and residents has reached boiling point following incidents in the last 10 days involving vandalism and aggressive behaviour all around the neighbourhood - and especially on the Bemerton Estate. Gloria Johnson is one of our panel members and she has highlighted the fact that, when the Safer Neighbourhood Team is not rostered, police coverage and response to incidents is plainly unsatisfactory. As the Tribune story emphasises, when the police team are not on duty, we are at the mercy of a centralised response system which does not seem to recognise that anti-social behaviour is a priority. At the very least, this episode underlines the point we have repeatedly made that this area requires more police officers who can be rostered in a pattern that ensures that holidays and weekends are covered and we have more visible policing for longer hours of each day.

You will see from the attached article the astonishing statement by Inspector Jane Johnson (responsible for Safer Neighbourhood policing in the Borough) that "we have no plans to apply for additional funding to increase weekend cover". Why not, I ask? For the last 18 months, the Caledonian Ward Safer Neighbourhood Panel has been asking for additional funding to provide more coverage, so I am staggered that nothing seems to have come of this.

We need a seriously concerted campaign now to demand higher levels of policing. I observe (as neutrally as I can) that the Council and Met Police have offered to jointly fund 1 extra PCSO per ward "to concentrate on youth issues" which will be implemented sometime in the next year or so. I consider this to be an inadequate scale of response and a pretty pointless gesture too - as every single neighbourhood team in Islington is pretty well focussed 100% on youth-related problems.

I think we need to really up the stakes here. I have copied-in our GLA Assembly member Jennette Arnold who is a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority because I think we need suppotr at a rather higher political level if we are to break through the dead-hand bureacracy of the Met Police. Put simply, I think we need to be saying to Mayor Livingstone that neighbourhood policing is excellent and it needs to become the dominant model for 24 hour policing of the Borough. That may require less of some of some other type of policing and, personally, I can think of a few examples.

Stephan Schulte has contacted me and suggested that we insist that Inspector Jane Johnson attends our next Panel meeting on June 21st. This is a very good suggestion - I would like her to explain how she thinks a properly responsive neighbourhood level police service can get a grip on the kind of criminal behaviour that is menacing our neighbourhood.

Paul Convery

I would ask you all to post your comments on this Bulletin Board, so Paul can use them to support our case for more policing.  Please raise your voices on this matter.

Vandalised Trees - What's Being Done

This morning a meeting was held with folks from the Islington Tree Service (Jake Tibetts, James Gilchrist), and our Councillor Paul Convery to discuss what can be done to try to reduce the amount of vandalism that has resulted in as many of ten of our newly planted trees being destroyed in the last few months.

It was agreed that all the destroyed trees will be replaced during the next planting season which begins in November.  In addition, Councillor Convery will be seeking funds to have protective tree guards installed on those new trees that did not have them before (these guards cost as much as the trees themselves).

Also stressed to Councillor Convery was the importance of being able to gain access to the local CCTV network to try to determine the source of this vandalism.  Of course, this would also require the help of local residents to report any damage to the Tree Service folks as quickly as possible ([email protected]) to establish dates and times to investigate.  The Tree Service has been successful in tracking down several of the culprits and in a number of past incidents actually making them pay to repair the damage.

We accept that there seems to be little that we can do beyond the above measures, but if anyone has other ideas, please comment on this posting to let us know.

This is a very frustrating situation as we know that several folks in the community have spent a lot of time in getting these trees planted in the first place, and have maintained a watchful eye over them.  The least the rest of us can do is to be vigilant and report any incidents as quickly as possible to the Tree Service folks.

Please can we have our pavement back ?

Camden Council and the developers of the huge Guardian building going up on York Way stole  our pavement last year.  They hoarded it off for lorry deliveries and it makes walking up and down York Way a nightmare.  There  was no local consultation nor common sense.   People  have to cross at a badly designed  set of traffic lights .  Or, people being people they pick their way  gingerly down the outside of the hoardings in the traffic (which comes down the hill pretty quickly).  You can see this in the picture from last October when the hoardings were going up. The route from the South is especially complex.  The way the site is used has changed since then.  Cllr Convery has written to the developers to get the pavement reinstated:

'....I now realise that there's no reason at all to retain the hoarding. What's more, over the weekend I saw a slightly hair-raising incident as a mother with pushchair stepped out into the highway in order to carry-on up York Way. I was forcibly reminded that this really is a pretty selfish bit of land take in order to facilitate the development. The "alternative route" for anyone reaching the blocked pavement northbound is pretty unappealling ... it requires retracing one's steps back to the Wharfedale Road junction, crossing at the lights and proceeding up the west side of York Way and then crossing back ... to then be about 15 metres from the original block point. Surprise, surprise, few people do this.

It is clear that this hoarding extension is no longer required. The building is at a fairly advanced stage and there is scaffolding all along the York Way frontage which fills-up any space originally required for lorry delivery.'

Let's see what happens.

Bollards to you too

Bollards are very humdrum things but if they are removed or put in the wrong place all sorts of thing can go wrong.  We have had two bollard problems here in North Kings Cross.  The ten metre long pedestrian Tilloch Street off the Cally Road is a remnant of the old grid system.  It used to be abused heavily by fly tippers, skip dumpers and illegal parkers as the old bollards were wrecked.  Working with the Council i got some new bollards put in and some trees planted.  Then someone smashed the locks on the removable bollards and wrecked things again.  Cllr Convery has had one replaced with a fixed bollard and is trying to get somethign done about the other

On dead-end Huntingdon Street on the other side of the Cally running off into Barnsbury a street gate traffic barrier was replaced by some two bollards (i don't know why).  Fantastically the Council has not put the bollards close enough together.  A well-driven small car can get through the gap.  You couldn't make it up.