Kings Cross Local Environment

Anti social housing

A neighbour has sent in a vivid description of living for several years with anti social behaviour in social housing in Kings Cross.  I have anonymised the email.

This man has spoken out to his housing provider, the police and the Council by email with photos and is now receiving some help.  But he spent years complaining and having the courage to confront those behaving anti socially.

'A few years ago, some teenagers started a deliberate fire under the ground floor stairwell.  Luckily, I had just returned home from work to distinguish the fire before it made any serious damage.'

'The ground floor carpet, beside the lift, smells of urine from persons urinating there and a clear visible sign of this urine large stain is noticeable.  It looks filthy and disgusting.  I am disgusted when I have friends visiting me and pass that area.'

'Have lived here for over 6 years now.  Over the past year in particular, there has been a notable deterioration in quality of life for local residents living on this estate, caused mainly by gangs of teenagers being allowed to loiter suspiciously and threatening, in areas outside residential homes and external flat door entrances in order to intimidate residents, obtain entry into the flats, smoke weed and other illigal substances, drink alcohol, bring in their girlfriends and cause building damage.  Gangs of male and female teenagers are forcing their way into the blocks by simply kicking the external front door open with their feet to gain entrance.

'All this has left a worrying effect upon me personally, after having confronted the teenagers in having to ask them to leave when arriving home to enter my flat, is very stressful and fear a knife attack on me or something else that could cause me injury, harm or death.  I would feel more unsafe and uncomfortable allowing them to remain there when watching me enter and leave my flat.'

It is very sad that it has taken so long to get proper engagement from the housing provider and also that local young people are not engaged in more productive activity.  Local youth groups, almost all from the voluntary sector doing fantastic work are over loaded. 

Any other anti social tales from readers are welcome - we need to build an awareness in the leafy parts of Islington of what goes on in socialhousing here in Kings Cross.   Post them tales yourselves as comments (using a made up name) or mail them to me with any photos and i can anonymise them if you wish.

Tiber Gardens vandalism

Lisa Tang reports some mindless vandalism with a can of paint at Tiber Gardens, just North of Regents Canal.  The garden area here has a lovely Southerly aspect over the canal basin and has much potential for refurbishment, but it is a really hard space for residents to manage - secluded, with three entrances, one onto the canal.  The canal entrance has been closed for some time but htis hasn't done much to check vandalism.  Hopefully, with some money or goodwill from the developers of the huge new Guardian building Kings Place on York Way and the Council.  There are very few places to sit away from the traffic in Kings Cross (Edward Square is the only other i can think of) it is such a shame that this one isn't very hospitable.

Islington Council in farce on Rufford Street

The saga of the huge blue sea containers stacked two high on Rufford Street and Randells road drags on like a Whitehall Farce set in Islington Town Hall (see posts  with photos of just how big these things are here here and here).  The containers are for workmen doing work for the Council who put them here on instruction from Council officers.  They appeared in our area without any consultation in October.  In the latest iteration, Council officers have shown some remarkable incompetence.  Working with the Council, the owners have moved half of the containers but without working out where they should go - which other street they should blight.  And half are left behind on Rufford Street and Randell's Road to continue blocking traffic and pedestrians!  Nuts. 

Some very frustrated emails are being exchanged with the Council, ultimatley Cllr Lucy Watt is respsonsible.  I can't understand why a Lib Dem Council, with their emphasis on ultra local democracy could bring this blight to a challenging area without any consultation at all.  Why were they not put on a street in a less difficult area or in an industrial area ? Looks like we shall be stuck with them for another month.  I have emailed Cllr Watt to see if she can give us an explanation (click on the lin ot drop her a mail and join in).

UPDATE

I was losing the plot above when i wrote that this morning - slight improvement this evening - all the containers on Rufford Street have been removed - hurrah - now only two out of the original eight remain - round the corner on Randell's Road.......

How Important is Local Safety to You?

Do you want more police on the beat in our area?

If you’re interested in the improving the quality of life in King’s Cross, one of the most valuable meetings that you should consider attending is the Caledonian Ward Safer Neighbourhoods Panel that usually meets about once a month.

As the title would indicate, this meeting is about local residents working directly with the Safer Neighbourhood’s Police Team to discuss ways in which police resources can be best directed to problem areas in our Ward.  More importantly, as this meeting is chaired by our local Councillor Paul Convery, your views will be directly heard by your elected representative as well as the Safer Neighbourhoods Police Team!

One of the initiatives, now being pushed by Councillor Convery is a development of a pilot project to increase the size of our Safer Neighbourhood’s Police Team – from 6 to 9 members.  This would be a significant achievement as currently every ward only has six Team members.  Councillor Convery believes that as our Ward has now developed such a good working relationship with our Team, that our Ward could be considered for a pilot project that could eventually be rolled out to other Wards following our example.

Naturally as with any initiative seeking expanded resources, this is an uphill battle and we must be able to demonstrate that the Ward residents not only support this initiative, but will continue to be active members of the panel that provides real direction to our Team.

We need your support for the initiative. Specifically, we encourage you to come to these meetings and to send emails encouraging the Met to consider Caledonian Ward for this unique initiative.

As government agencies are now developing their budgets for the coming year, time is of the essence and we want the Borough’s Police Commander to know that the residents of the Caledonian Ward want to see this initiative put in place.  A short email showing your support for Councillor Paul Convery’s initiative to expand our Safer Neighbourhoods Team would be very helpful.  His email address is [email protected]

And please, try to come to our next meeting.  To be added to the Panel’s mailing list for future meeting notifications, please send an email to Jennifer Christie, the Panel’s secretary, at [email protected]. Should you also wish to be added to the King’s Cross Community Mailing List, please send an email to me, mentioning where in the ward that you live - [email protected]

Noise pollution, Gifford and Pembroke Streets

The wretched St WIlliam's Yard development is going through an incredibly noisy phase of construction as the site is cleared and sheet piles are driven along the site boundary to enable the basement car park to be dug out.  The noise this Saturday morning was appalling - from before nine o'clock the most awful noise was being created that reverberated around this densely populated residential area.  I shot a video to get the noise across which should play if you click the window below (remember to turn your speakers on).  If that doesn't work for you click here.

MONDAY UPDATE - Cllr Paul Convery is on the case and has mailed the Council officials and the construction company as in the attached document. There is some handy information in there about vibration in construction  Download st_williams_yard_convery_mails_re_vibration.doc

Horrible crime at Coatbridge House

The pre-Xmas edition of the Gazette reports the grisly trial of Halil Ates for a savage attack in Coatbridge House on the Bemerton Estate.  In 2004 Ates beat, imprisoned and tortured a Polish guy to whom he had illegally sublet his sister's council flat in Coatbridge. Pawel Borycki had rented the flat no t knowing it had been illegally sublet.  When a housing officer turned up to ask routine questions the fiddle fell through.  Ates turned up with a gang of 20 people to evict Borycki for 'shopping ' him to the authorities.  Borycki's hands were bound and he was gagged with tape before being beatne with and iron bar and attacked with a knife.  Ates was found guilty of wounding with intent and false imprisonment.  Sentencing is on 16th Jan.

CCTV on the Bemerton Estate

A correspondence with David Renton who lives there has revealed a big argument raging on the Bemerton about whether to have CCTV and how to fund it.  The history in complex but basically the residents are being asked to pay for CCTV to help combat problems arising from bad design of the estate, local drug addicts housed there and a restless element amongst the local youth, some of whom are into quite serious crime.  The annual cost will be quite high for people who don't have much money. Leaseholders will be stung for more than tenants.

Memorably described in the Guardian as a 'vast high rise gulag' the Bemerton's problems stem from a generation of underfunding, poor design and weak management.  There has been huge improvement in the past three or four years as money has been poured into structural security modifications (simple things like locking doors) refurbishment and improved management.  It seems fundamentallty unjust to me that the residents of very prosperous Thornhill Square should get free CCTV from the Council on Bridgeman Road.  When at the same time residents only 50 yards away on one of London's poorest and more troubled estates should be asked to pay.

The who pays argument has also spread into a 'should we have CCTV, does it work, won't it affect my privacy' debate.  Carefully managed CCTV on main routes can be effective (as anyone who lives in South Kings Cross will testify).  And indeed a gang of kids threw a large lump of stone at my head unprovoked from about five yards away as i walked through the middle of the Bemerton this week so i would favour some sort of monitoring. 

Would be interesting to hear people's comments, particulalry if you live on the estate.

Pembroke parking problem

The building site at the old Marquis of Salisbury pub at 64 Pembroke Street staggers slowly on.  The guys who work there habitually drive their vans over the grass verge to park them behind the bollards on the old stub of Tilloch St (that used to run across here before the Bemerton Estate was built.  I am no forensic scientist but the pictures seem to make it very clear what is going on.  It makes a mess and encourages others to do things on this street (see here for past misdemeanours).  In the interests of open-ness here are the number plates of the vans parked there this Saturday morning.

Council remove licence from local shop selling alcohol to teens

The shop attached to the garage on the Cally Road was caught three times selling alcohol to under age kids all witnessed by undercover police.  The Council has now taken their alcohol licence away - quite right too.  The Gazette report is here.  Good work by the police and the council - that's what the new licensing laws are for.

Bye Bye Blue containers......?

Don't count the chickens but Cllr Convery has received an email suggesting that  United House will try to remove the containers before Xmas.   However, given this saga only believe it when it happens.  And, if you live on a nice roomy street in a poor area where council officials think no one will complain watch out for large blue visitors..............