LANCASTER GATE

We’re excited to confirm the council’s waste action squad will be joining us in Lancaster Gate on the 20th February to identify fly-tipping hot spots and subsequent action to deter this.

Hallfield Residents Association 

Cllr Ormsby attended the Hallfield Residents Association Committee meeting this month to discuss issues impacting the Estate. Major Works, the replacement of the notice boards, the Mercury Fund and much more were discussed. Cllr Ormsby took away several actions to update the group on next time.

Home Office Contingency Hotels – Unfold Visit 

Cllr Ormsby joined Karen Buck MP in visiting the Women’s Support Group run by Unfold for women seeking asylum living in Home Office Hotels in Lancaster Gate. They discussed the issues facing the women in the hotels and how the council can work to resolve some of them. Cllr Ormsby hopes to attend again to provide an update on the issue raised and is incredibly grateful for how welcoming and open the women in the group were. We are disappointed to see the Home Office and their contractors repeatedly letting down these vulnerable women.

Hallfield Lifts 

We have had reports of lift outages in both Winchester and Reading House this month. We have been chasing the repairs team to ensure residents are provided with timely information on repairs timelines and to ensure these repairs are prioritised.

Hallfield Estate, Senior Citizen Lunches

We are delighted that Age UK Westminster will be recommencing the Pickering Hall Lunch Club from 23rd February. We know this has been an important issue for residents, who were disappointed to see the lunch club, previously run by WAES (Westminster Adult Education Service), stop due to the pandemic. We are pleased to be supporting this with the ward budget. The Lunch Club will be held fortnightly, with the March dates being the 9th and 23rd.

Hallfield Roaming Security

We have continued to hear positive feedback after the introduction of the borough-wide roaming security trials across the estate, however acknowledge some of the reservations raised by local residents association groups. If you witness any anti-social behaviour please report this so we can ask the security team to monitor the area in question.

Hallfield Youth Club

We’re delighted to see the youth club provision expanded to include young people staying in the Home Office’s contingency hotels, as well as a special day out to Queensway Bowling Alley for regular club members.

Broadband Connectivity Issues 

Alongside the Bayswater team, we have been working with residents following a long-standing issue with broadband connectivity on Bark Place, Lombardy Place and Caroline Place.

IT Support Session with Paddington Partnership 

In collaboration with Paddington Partnership and volunteers from Vodafone, we held our first IT support session in Pickering Hall on the Hallfield Estate. The session was well attended with one attendee saying: “It was brilliant. I had a long consultation with my volunteer who was patient, helpful and very informative. He explained technical matters very clearly and gave me great advice. The performance of the phone has much improved following this session. Please, please make this drop-in a regular event.  It was an absolute boon to me and I’m sure would be to other local people when word gets round.”

Given the positive feedback we are keen to make this a regular provision. The next session is expected to be held in late March, and we will confirm dates in our next newsletter.

Inverness Terrace ASB

Cllr Ormsby met residents concerned about increased levels of anti-social behavior on Inverness Terrace near the bus stop. Signage has now been installed by the Met Police and the council is investigating if any culprits are currently being housed by Westminster Council.

Riven Court

We resolved on ongoing issue with were the block’s waste bins should be stored with the support of our City Inspector and Veolia contractors.

Westbourne Terrace/Chilworth Street – bin collections

We are pleased to announce that an additional evening collection each day has been added for the bins at the Westbourne Terrace and Chilworth Street junction. This is in addition to the previous schedule, which has had no changes, as the bins were still often reported to be full. We hope this additional daily collection, which started in the first week of February, will help alleviate this issue. We have also requested council officers to monitor the site, to ensure collections are being made to schedule.

Westbourne Terrace/Chilworth Street – CCTV to combat dangerous driving

We can confirm that CCTV has now been installed at the Westbourne Terrace and Chilworth Street junction, following repeated reports of dangerous, illegal u-turns being performed here. The possibility of further signage in the area is still also being considered, pending further monitoring to establish if cameras have increased compliance by motorists.

Cleveland Square Gardens

Following months of discussions between the council and FM Conway, we can confirm that works to install a new gully will be required to stop the frequent rainwater ponding that has been occurring at the south gate of Cleveland Square Gardens. Works will commence on 30th March. The new connection will take around two weeks to install and complete. The team will monitor the site and ensure any heavy ponding in the interim will be quickly dealt with. Please be advised that a road closure is expected to occur around the south gate while the works are taking place.

Westbourne Terrace – Tree Pruning

We have received confirmation that the scheduled tree pruning for the street trees on Westbourne Terrace will occur on 18th March. This is regular maintenance that is required for safety reasons. The works will involve a road closure on that day, and council officers request that cars are not parked under the trees which require pruning on this day, as this may prevent the work being completed. Residents in the area should expect to receive more details ahead of 18th March, but do please reach out if you have any questions on this.

Housing Repairs 

On behalf of council tenants we have been following up on outstanding repairs to ensure they are addressed in a timely manner.

Five Guys, Queensway

Following the update in a previous newsletter, noting that we had lodged objections to the Five Guys licensing application on Queensway, we are pleased that the application has now been withdrawn. Our main concerns were around the hours of operation, and the sale of alcohol after 11pm, supporting objections submitted by SEBRA. We hope this will be welcome news for the concerned local residents, particularly in Princess Court and Queens Court.

BAYSWATER

We are once again chasing long-awaited repairs at both sites. The following is the most recent information we have on the works:

Porchester Leisure Centre: The enabling works are now completed pending some issues being resolved today.  The design is now completed and the contractor are pricing the works.

Paddington Library: The pre-start meeting was held for the enabling works before Christmas and the main works were due to commence today (16th Jan).  However, an asbestos survey has revealed that previously encapsulated asbestos has been disturbed and this has resulted in significant delay.  The asbestos removal is due next week. The council’s heritage officers requested planning and listed building consents for the installation of new air conditioning equipment to the building which is due to be installed in the lightwells.  Before this can be submitted, an acoustic survey needs to take place to measure the impact on nearby residents and this cannot happen until the asbestos has been removed.

Porchester Road, Porchester Square, Gloucester Terrace, Gloucester Gardens

Maggie and Max were out on the doors speaking to residents earlier this month and picked up a number of issues including:

• Leak from a neighboring property
• Highway repair issues on Gloucester Gardens
• Questions about the food waste rollout
• Railway noise at night
• Homeless people sleeping in communal bin storage areas
• Bike and parcel theft

We are seeking resolutions to these issues with council officers.

• We are also attempting to help resolve serious anti-social behaviour and potentially criminal issues with residents and visitors in a Peabody housing block.

Berrington House, Hereford Road

Maggie and Max met with residents and housing officers to discuss problems with the heating system in Berrington House. Officers suspect that recent alterations to individual properties in the building have been detrimental to the heating system which serves 23 homes in total. Since the meeting officers have provided a schedule of works which will see electric combi boilers and secondary glazing installed in two Westminster tenancy flats. In the meantime, residents have been promised a refund for the temporary space heaters residents are having to use to keep warm. The communal system will be cleaned and flushed to improve the operation of the system, which will hopefully improve heating for the leasehold properties experiencing issues.

Notting Hill East Neighbourhood Forum

James and Max met with members NHENF and Council officers to discuss the draft Neighbourhood Plan, including trees, roof terraces, extensions and mansards, front and back gardens, rear extensions, restoration of architectural detail at the front of buildings, sustainability especially energy efficiency in listed buildings. Council officers will support NHENF with progressing the draft neighbourhood plan, ensuring that there is sufficient consultation with the local community.

Junction of Westbourne Grove and Chepstow Road

We also discussed with NHENF their proposal for a new improved junction and crossing facilities at the five way junction, on which there has already been some discussion with officers. We have asked officers to work with RBKC on progressing a feasibility study for the junction.

New Cycle Hangars To Be Installed

Subject to site inspections and local consultation, by the end of March new secure cycle hangars will be installed on Moscow Road, Alexander Street, Chepstow Road. These hangars will supply 18 spaces for standard bicycles. In January there were 126 Bayswater residents on the waiting list for secure cycle storage near their home. We are hoping to accelerate the roll-out of secure cycle storage across the city once the new budget is approved in March.

The Colonnades

Max met with residents of The Colonnades about continuing issues with the service yard. A planning application for an access route to the resident bins is due to go to Planning Subcommittee meeting with officers on February 21st. Officers have recommended approval of the application, but there are a number of outstanding questions about the directness, accessibility and safety of the proposed route. Max has objected to the application and intends to speak against it at the Planning Subcommittee meeting on 21st February. Along with this, there are ongoing concerns about adherence to other elements of the existing permissions.

Talbot Road advanced stop line

A resident has been in touch to ask whether the Council can do anything to deter motorcyclists from entering the advanced stop line designed for cyclists, and using the advanced green light illegally. We have followed up with officers to explore whether camera enforcement is an option.

Sunderland Terrace

A resident wrote to us concerned about sweeping on Sunderland Terrace:

Over the last few months I have noticed that the streets are not being cleaned and I have not seen the road sweepers that used to work around here nearly everyday.  As a consequence our pavements are piling up with rubbish, which is bringing down the neighbourhood.

 Is the lack of road sweeping a change of policy by the new labour council or a result of technical difficulties.  Can you let me know please and also look into when the road sweeping will be reinstated.

We were pleased to received the following response from the Council team managing street sweeping:

I can confirm there have been no formal changes to the scheduled sweeping in Bayswater or on Sunderland Terrace. Sweepers can sometimes re-order their routes, on a local level, if one street requires sweeping at a different time to normal, which then impacts on the time residents are used to seeing them on their street. I’ve attached two photos taken on Monday morning, which show the street to be in good order, so I hope the situation identified in the resident’s email has already improved. That said, I have asked the local managers at Veolia to monitor this section over the coming weeks to ensure it remains in good condition with regards to litter and detritus.

Northumberland Place

In November Maggie, James and Max met with officers and highway designers to discuss options for revising the Northumberland Place Play Street proposal in response to resident feedback received during the most recent consultation. Designers are preparing two options with the intention of informally consulting before amendments and proceeding to a formal consultation. We’re keen that an option is presented to the community which retains two-way traffic.

Dog Fouling

We’ve been following up on reports of dog fouling with the WCC Animal Warden, who has worked with our City Inspectors to identify irresponsible owners who have failed to pick up after their dogs.

Policing

Sgt Sam Wilkinson, the police sergeant covering Bayswater, Lancaster Gate and Westbourne wards has recently left his position to take up a new role outside of Westminster. We thank Sgt Wilkinson for his work and will let you know once a new sergeant has been appointed by the Met.

Kildare Terrace

We have raised with council officers and parking wardens the issue of cars being parked outside the garage on Kildare Court (thus blocking the entrance/exit).

St Stephen’s Gardens

We have received a request for an additional cycle hangar to be placed on St Stephen’s Gardens.

Queensway Magnolia Trees

SEBRA Chair John Zamit flagged to us that the Christmas lights on the magnolia trees at the north end of Queensway hadn’t been removed by early February. These will be removed and stored so that the planned pruning of the trees can take place.

St Mary of the Angels – Unloc Academy

In early February Max spoke to Year 6 students from St Mary of the Angels about his role as a councillor, as part of their Unloc Enterprise Day. The programme is sponsored by Westminster Council. The students shared lots of great ideas about how to make Great Western Road a safer and more pleasant place to walk, scoot and cycle.