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Just announced in the King's Birthday Honours that our long-time neighbour, and CRASH member, Barry Humphries has been posthumously awarded his country's highest honour. His existing Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) has been upgraded to the order's highest rank, a Companion (AC). A final salute from the land of his birth.
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Following the standing down of Councillor Will Prince - to take up an offer of employment in the USA - a by-election was held on Thursday 1st June to find his replacement. Votes cast were:
Mr Gale, a 26-year-old social worker, was duly elected to serve as a councillor for the ward, maintaining the triumvirate of Labour councillors in South Hampstead. He joins his fellow ward councillors Nina De Ayala Parker and Izzy Lenga. On the evening of Thursday, 30th March, Camden Council's planning committee met to consider Landsec's application to develop its O2 Centre site between Finchley Road and West End Lane. The council's planning department were recommending approval of the scheme, subject to the usual legal agreements.
CRASH's Chair, Eric Bergsagel, spoke in opposition to the scheme, as did our ward councillors Will Prince and Nina De Ayala Parker. Our third ward councillor, Izzy Lenga was also in attendance supporting her colleagues. There was little in the way of opposition from the West Hampstead councillors. At the end of the evening the Chair of the committee called for a vote, with 7 councillors voting for approval of the application and 3 voting against. The three refusing to give consent were: Councillor Andrew Parkinson, Conservative, Frognal Councillor Will Prince, Labour, South Hampstead Councillor Tom Simon, Lib Dem, Belsize The scheme now goes to the Mayor of London for a decision, and there may also be grounds for an appeal to the Secretary of State. South Hampstead may have lost the first round in this boxing match, but the fight isn't over yet. Watch this space. CRASH has, over a considerable time, supported the residents of Swiss Cottage in their campaign to end Deliveroo's industrial kitchens (the so called 'dark kitchens') in what is a largely residential area. At a Planning Committee meeting held in April of last year Camden refused permission for the continued use of the kitchens. The residents' victory was short-lived, as within weeks Deliveroo announced that it intended to lodge an appeal with the Secretary of State. The first meeting in the appeal process was scheduled to take place next week, but today Camden has announced that Deliveroo has withdrawn its appeal, with operations ceasing by the end of May and all equipment being removed by the end of August. The campaign has been long and hard - and very expensive for all concerned - but, yet again, David has succeeded in slaying Goliath.
Camden Council's Flood Risk Management Strategy public consultation is now live. The Strategy looks at how Camden can work with its partners including communities to manage flood risk across the borough. The Strategy outlines this joint approach to flood risk until 2027.
Camden's Clean Air Action Plan is also open for consultation. Both consultations close on Sunday 9 October 2022. Deni Nygate from Camden's adult social care group has reached out to CRASH to make residents aware of the Shared Lives Camden initiative.
Shared Lives Camden offers people who require care and support the opportunity to live more independently in the community. Shared Lives Camden matches people who need care and support with an approved carer. The carer shares their family and community life and gives care and support to the person with care needs. In Shared Lives Camden, people live with their Shared Lives carer. Deni and her team are seeking the opportunity to meet the community and share information on what they offer. This poster summarises information on Shared Lives Camden and this link directs to the Shared Lives Camden homepage. Deni can be contacted at the details below for a chat or to arrange a date to meet. Deni Nygate Shared Lives Link Worker Adult Social Care London Borough of Camden Telephone: 020 7974 4149 Web: camden.gov.uk 5 Pancras Square London N1C 4AG A new Flood Risks webpage has been added to the CRASH website that provides information and guidance on flood risks. It includes a report commissioned by the South Hampstead Flood Action Group (SHFAG) from an independent flood protection specialist to make general recommendations as to how local property owners might protect themselves from future floods. It also provides directions to a Thames Water questionnaire for residents directly affected by the local flooding in July 2021.
Dear Members and Friends,
We are glad to say that the Consolidated Planning Objection has now been approved by all the members of the Confederation of Local Community Groups and was therefore submitted to Camden on 25 July 2022. In due course, it will be visible on the Camden Planning Website (http://camdocs.camden.gov.uk/HPRMWebDrawer/PlanRec?q=recContainer:%222022/0528/P%22) or at this url (http://www.southhampstead.info/uploads/1/3/7/5/137534388/o2_centre_-_representations_on_behalf_of_the_confederation_of_local_community_groups_final.pdf) on the CRASH website. In the opinion of the CRASH Committee, we now have three tasks ahead of us: (1) Most importantly, please can you now email Camden to support this consolidated objection - even if you have already sent them previous comments - in order for Camden to understand the strength of our objections overall. Recognising how busy people are, we also offer a brief email template below to make this as easy as possible - obviously please feel free to write whatever you prefer, or to add to the draft below if you wish. Please send to [email protected] and [email protected] "Dear Mr Fowler, ref: 2022/0528/P Having now received and reviewed a copy of the Planning Representations from the Confederation of Local Community Groups, please accept my own objections to this planning application which are fully represented by the Confederation's detailed objections which have already been filed. Regards " (2) Please share this email / news item with everyone you can think of and ask them to email Camden also: for example neighbours, family, friends, work colleagues, (wherever they live) and everyone else you can think of, and asking them to help the cascade by doing the same and sharing it onwards. Obviously, we are hoping that you will now share this with many people who may not already be familiar with the proposals, and we would not ask them to read the 7000+ pages of the proposal, nor even the 30 pages of the Objection - unless they wish to! However, if we simply draw their attention to the 2 photographs of the proposal which are shown on pages 19 & 20 of the objection (showing the absurdly damaging design from a social perspective, the excessive heights and density, and the way the buildings have been packed together at the expense of any reasonable provision of green space), and point out that the site is also surrounded by 4 Conservation Areas, and that the photo on page 21 shows the current skyline and how intrusive and damaging the new proposals will be, I imagine most people will understand the severity of the situation and how valuable their help will be, not only in protecting this neighbourhood, but also in helping to prevent another precedent for overdevelopment that other developers will be able to use throughout London and the rest of the country. (3) Now that we have agreed and finalised the objections to Camden, the Confederation will immediately be turning to plan out what further actions and strategies we can implement next. With very many thanks for all your help in this, Eric Bergsagel, CRASH Chair. The Annual General Meeting was held on the evening of Monday 13th June 2022. All the officers and committee members were re-elected to serve for the current year. Minutes of the meeting will be posted in due course.
The ability to object, support or just comment on Landsec's application to develop the O2 Centre site via the "comments" facility on Camden's planning portal has now been removed. However, residents are still able to make their views known to Camden by sending an email to David Fowler, the Council's senior planner overseeing Landsec's O2 application, at [email protected]
Or by post to: Mr David Fowler Planning Dept L B of Camden 5 Pancras Square London N1C 4AG Please remember to quote Landsec's application reference 2022/0528/P in your communication. |
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