MAIDA VALE

Westminster Council is building a new 65 unit extra-care block for older residents on the site of the former Carlton Dene care home on Carlton Vale. There will also be a café open to the public and a new 22 home residential block. All the flats will be at genuinely affordable rents for families on the housing register.

The site has been cleared and work will soon be underway. Residents asked about possible impact on local flooding. The project team responded:
“The proposed development will incorporate a new surface water drainage system which will restrict any surface water from flowing unrestricted out of the site boundary and into large sub-surface attenuation tanks. The full drainage system will not immediately be visible when viewing plans or CGI’s of the development.

The introduction of this modern system and ensuring that the finished ground floor level is 150mm above surrounding ground levels where feasible is considered to be the best mitigation against increasing the flood risk off site. These measures have been incorporated into the plans for the development and will significantly mitigate the risk of flooding in the area.”
Building Safety – High Rise Residential

Westminster Council has started consulting on its building safety strategy which applies to all buildings over 7 storeys or 18m tall. In Maida Vale, this includes Edinburgh, Glasgow and Falkirk Houses on Lanark Road, and Oak Tree House on Shirland Road. Every resident should receive a letter and a visit from council staff. There is also a resident survey.
North Paddington Programme

Westminster has set up a new programme to increase investment in community projects in North Paddington such as asking local people what they would like from Harrow Road’s high street. The programme formally includes Westbourne, Harrow Road Queens Park and part of Maida Vale wards but, in practice, the boundaries are not fixed and everyone’s invited to take part. You can find out more details in our first resident newsletter (pdf).One Kilburn

Kilburn straddles Brent and Camden but there’s a small part in Westminster too. If you live in the north of Maida Vale, you might be interested in One Kilburn, a new project to bring together community groups in and around Kilburn.

Elgin Mews North

Westminster’s Smart Cities team is working with residents and Hyperoptic to provision fibre broadband to the mews. This is one of the few streets left in Westminster which doesn’t have superfast Internet access.
Carlton Tavern

There is a planning application to use the vacant upstairs as hotel rooms attached to the pub. Cllr Geoff Barraclough is supporting the application as it will increase the viability of the pub and provide a useful amenity for local people. However, he is objecting to the creation of a walkway to the rear door of the pub that will take space from the beer garden.
Cycle Hangars

Cycle hangars remain very popular. There are 120 street spaces currently provided in Maida Vale with 243 people on the waiting list. There are 108 spaces in Little Venice with 144 people on the waiting list.
Food Waste Recycling

The rollout of food waste recycling continues with the introduction of on-street bins. If you’re not covered by regular collections, you can put your waste in these new receptacles. We’ve installed the bins on Elgin Avenue at the junction with Widley Road, on Kilburn Park Road, opposite to St. Augustine’s CE High School and at Essendine Road at the junction with Widley Road.
Shirland Road

We asked the Highways team to fix the flashing wig-wag signals on Shirland Road, by the crossing to Essendine Road. They told us:

“These current flashing wig-wag signals (similar to those used at level crossings) are to be upgraded to newer models as part of the scheme works to Shirland Road and are expected to be installed in mid-December.Regrettably, the lights are still flashing and would require to be completely switched off, until installation of the new Wig-Wag signals.  Once the new Wig-Wag signals are installed, during the school terms, the lights will be on a timer for when pedestrians are walking to and from school.”

 Lauderdale Parade

After residents complained about the dry cleaning store using the pavement for storage, we asked Westminster’s planning enforcement team to investigate. They replied:
“It would appear that the laundry has been operating at this location since 2008.   It has been subject to a couple of noise and odour complaints since that time but nothing significant.  My colleague has undertaken a Land Registry search and it would appear that they do have a private forecourt.   As they only seem to be using the area for storage of items either for processing at the venue or for collection, the current usage would not appear to represent unlicensed street trading, nor would we be able to take any action in respect to their usage of the area under the Highways Act.”
Swift Boxes

A resident asked about putting swift boxes on listed buildings in the Maida Vale conservation area. The planning team told us you don’t need planning permission. Neither do you need listed building consent although they ask that any listed building owners notify them about a new box.

Tollgate House

After a number of false starts, we finally managed to arrange the long-delayed residents meeting with Westminster’s Housing team for 5 December. The new management team listened to residents’ complaints and agreed to revert with an action plan in the New Year.
Paddington Recreation Ground

We have made some requests for capital investment in Paddington Rec for the next financial year. These include repairs to the cricket nets and relaying the Village Green where debris surfacing from the former velodrome risks making the field unsafe for exercise.
We investigated complaints from residents about noisy overnight works in the car park of Paddington Rec. Westminster’s noise team told us that these had been authorised “for essential drain and sewer works.” We don’t see any reason why the work couldn’t be done in the daytime and have made this point.

Locked Gates Between The Playgrounds At Paddington Rec

We asked why the gate between the two childrens’ playgrounds had been locked. Council staff replied:

“As part of the resurfacing works and installation of new equipment, a decision was made to close the yellow gates for safeguarding purposes as there were 4 gates that children could get in or out of and Everyone Active were getting a lot of reports of lost children. Limiting the number of gates children can get in or out of the playground has greatly reduced this number. From a safeguarding point of view, especially regarding toddlers, it is better to have only the two gates in operation.”

However, the feedback we have had from parents about the locked gates is almost exclusively negative as most parents find it difficult to be in a situation where the children can go across the playgrounds on top of the ship but the parents have to leave one playground and re-enter another. We have asked council staff to have a re-think. If this issue affects you, please drop us a line about it.

Elgin Avenue

Thanks to everyone who responded to the consultation on the Elgin Avenue highways scheme. People were generally in favour of improved pedestrian crossings, extra cycle parking and greening but plans for the central reservation need a rethink. We’ll be back in touch when we have revisions from Westminster’s Highways team.
City Inspectors got a building contractor to remove this toilet from the pavement outside 274 Elgin Avenue. The contractor was also reminded of the need to apply for parking suspensions.

We reported this rubbish outside the old Day True store on Elgin Avenue. Westminster came and collected it the following day. If you see any flytipping, please let Westminster know via ReportIT.

Kilburn Park Road

We have asked for extra parking enforcement outside the Queen’s Arms pub in the evenings.
Randolph Avenue

A resident asked about parking enforcement for Randolph Avenue in cases where vehicles are partly outside the marked bay. Westminster’s parking team told us that Marshalls would only act if two wheels are clearly outside the parking bay. It’s worth adding that Randolph Avenue is unusual because double parking is permitted outside controlled hours. That has been council policy for years and you can read about it in the full Westminster parking regulations.

We chased Westminster’s tree team after resident complaints that two trees at the entrance to Paddington Rec need pruning. We’ve been told that the work will be done this Winter.
Milad Supermarket

We asked Westminster’s parking team about enforcement action outside Milad Supermarket on Maida Vale. Customers commonly park in the loading bay which often results in delivery drivers parking in dangerous locations. The parking team replied:
“We have had this area on service enhancement (SE) for September and October, over which time we have visited the area 170 times and issued 9 PCNs and given 164 warnings.”  

“Obviously this area has always been a challenge as it is very well frequented and clearly in demand by local and distant customers.  The main difficulty here is that as soon as the marshals arrive on scene the drivers return to their vehicles and drive off, only to return once they have gone. Obviously, we are unable to post a marshal here all day as we have other demands within WCC that we need to manage as well.  However, we will keep this area on our service enhancement program and get marshals to patrol here more frequently than they otherwise would.” 
e-Bikes

You may have noticed that Westminster has set up some dedicated on-street parking bays for e-bikes. This is a pilot programme in which riders should be fined by the operators if they leave bikes anywhere else but in the bays. This move does seem to have reduced random dumping of bikes on pavements in Maida Vale but it’s early days. However, if you see any badly parked bikes (like this fleet which appeared outside the tube station) please email the operators directly.• Lime: london-ops@li.me

• TIER: support@tier.app

• Forest: cs@humanforest.co.uk

• Voi: Voi Scooters – https://report.voi.com/

• Dott: ops.uk@ridedott.com

Leaves

We asked Westminster’s highways team about the plan to manage the hundreds of tonnes of fallen leaves this Autumn. Some residents asked why some streets were cleared faster than others. The Highways team responded:
“As part of the plan to tackle leaf fall we have employed an additional 11 staff and two extra collection vehicles over an 8-week period this Autumn. The scale of the challenge means that they also need to pair-up the regular street sweepers across most of north Westminster, including Sutherland Avenue, Maida Vale, Lanark Road, and other specific locations with large numbers of trees.Based on previous years’ experience, two people working together can accomplish more than double the output that they could working alone. Unfortunately, this does mean that on many streets the sweeping frequency temporarily drops during the leafing period. 

Additionally, Waste & Parks are working closely with Highways colleagues to address those gullies where there is a particular risk of localised flooding, while also continuing to monitor weather forecasts, daily, for spells of heavy rain.”
Lanark Road

Westminster’s road safety officer is working with St George’s School to help control parking which sometimes blocks the teacher’s access to its parking spaces. We’re also keen to make sure that teachers with longer vehicles don’t block the pavement.